Episcopal Career
As Bishop of Winchester from 984, Alphege was active in building and enlarging the city's churches and was credited with the construction of a very large cathedral organ, reported to require more than twenty operators. He fostered the local cults of Saints Swithun and Aethelwold, presiding over the translation of Aethelwold's relics in 996.
Raised to Canterbury in 1006, he introduced new liturgical practices, is associated with the recognition of Wulfsige as a saint around 1012, and sent the homilist Aelfric of Eynsham to lead the monastic school at Cerne Abbey. His journey to Rome in 1007 for the pallium and his patronage of Adelard of Ghent's Life of Dunstan mark his concern for the standing and learning of his see.
Capture and Martyrdom
When Danish raiders sacked Canterbury in September 1011, Alphege was seized and held captive for some seven months. He is said to have refused to allow a ransom to be paid for his release, declining to burden his people with the heavy sums his captors demanded.
He was killed at Greenwich on 19 April 1012. A contemporary account relates that the Danish leader Thorkell the Tall attempted to ransom him, offering everything he owned except his ship, and that a Christian convert named Thrum dealt the final blow as an act of mercy. Because of the manner of his death, he is often depicted in art holding stones.
Relics and Shrines
Alphege was first buried at Old St Paul's Cathedral in London. In 1023 King Cnut translated his remains to Canterbury Cathedral with great ceremony; a tradition held that a finger relic was given to Westminster Abbey. After the Canterbury fire of 1174, his remains were placed, together with those of Dunstan, around the high altar.
Cult and Legacy
After the Norman Conquest, Archbishop Lanfranc questioned the sanctity of several Canterbury saints but accepted Alphege's; he and Augustine of Canterbury remained the only two pre-Conquest archbishops kept on Canterbury's calendar. Anselm of Canterbury defended his sainthood and rebuilt his neglected shrine in the early twelfth century.
Thomas Becket is said to have commended his life into Alphege's care shortly before his own martyrdom in 1170. As a saint who died before the East–West schism, Alphege is numbered among the Western saints venerated as Orthodox; Wikipedia notes his veneration in the Eastern Orthodox Church, though the formal canonisation on record is the 1078 act of Pope Gregory VII rather than a separate Orthodox glorification.
