Aelgyfa
Acta Sanctorum, May 18
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://actasanctorum.org/may/day-18/aelgyfa.html
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ON S. AELGYFA, OR ELGIVA

QUEEN OF ENGLAND.

ABOUT DCCCCXXI

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

The cult from the Fasti: her husband Edmund, sons Edwy & Edgar Kings. Buried
Algifa or Elgiva, Queen of England (St.)

BY THE AUTHOR G. H.

[1] In the very ancient monastery of Jumièges, five
leagues from Rouen distant, there is an old Missal
about the year one thousand written, & by the gift
of Robert Archbishop of Canterbury about
the year one thousand fifty received: from which they
in the same place in the year MDCLXII excerpting the notice of some Saints, [The cult 18 May,]
on this XVIII of May we found celebrated the feast
of Aelgyfa the Queen. On which day also is inscribed the Translation
of Elgiva the Queen in a MS. Martyrology of Utrecht of the Church
collegiate of S. Mary, which contains very many of the English kingdom
Saints, written for the said church in the year MCXXXVIII.
Thirdly we observed the name of the same S. Elgiva
the Queen on this XVIII of May inscribed in a certain MS. Martyrology
of Christina Queen of Sweden: & even for that reason on this
day her we preferred to bring forward, especially because in the learned MS.
Utrecht one nowhere her Birthday is reported, so that perhaps on this
same day is celebrated her deposition & translation of the body.
In the English Martyrology, [among the more recent ones 5 May,] under the year VIII of this century
published & under the year XL republished, she is referred to the day V of May:
which followed Alford in the Annals of the English Church &
the Index of the Saints of England, Ferrarius in the general Catalog, &
Arthur du Monstier in the Sacred Gynaeceum. But Edward
Maihew in the English Trophies in the year MDCXXV printed
her celebrates on the day XXX of June, [& 30 June.] & by his example again
the said Arthur: among whom no reason is given, why on those
days they preferred her to bring forward.

[2] The place of burial of S. Aelgyfa, or Elgiva, was Septonia
commonly Shaftesbury in the County of Dorset,
of which William of Malmesbury book 2 On the Deeds of the Pontiffs
of the English § on the Monasteries of the diocese of Sherborne
&c. these things writes: [Buried at Shaftesbury] Shaftesbury is a village now, formerly
a city, a place situated on a precipice of mountains. An indication of antiquity
gives a stone in the Chapter of the nuns inscribed,
& from the ruins of a most ancient wall thither translated,
IN THE YEAR OF THE LORD'S INCARNATION DCCCLXXX ALFRED
THE KING MADE THIS CITY, OF HIS REIGN THE VIII. There
Elgifa the wife of Edmund, who was the great-grandson of this Alfred,
a monastery of nuns made, & in the same place
the spoils of flesh after death laid down: a woman to good
works always intent, with piety & sweetness
endowed, so that even the guilty, whom a sad sentence of Judges
openly had condemned, she herself secretly redeemed. A precious
garment, [renowned for virtues] which to some women is a pander of dissolving
modesty, to her was the furniture of munificence, so that
however dear a garment, the poor being seen, at once she would bestow.
The beauty of body & the workmanship of hands
in her envy also would commend, since nothing to reprehend
it could … And living indeed of virtues she did
the works, but after death shone the miracles, just as
in verse once I sang.

For having suffered for some years the molestation of diseases,
A purged & refined soul to God she gave.
Life's deed therefore being completed, her blessed spoils
With infinite signs the clement Deity illustrated,
The needy of sight & of hearing, if they adore the tomb, [& with miracles.]
Restored to health prove the Saint's merit.
A right step bears home, who came lame-footed;
The mind-captured returns sound, rich in good sense.

[3] These things there Malmesbury; by whom the mentioned Edmund,
the husband of S. Aelgyfa, to his brother Aethelstan on XXVII
October of the year DCCCCXL having died succeeded: & to him S. Aelgyfa
bore two sons afterwards Kings, Edwy & Edgar: of
whose last one's nativity in the year DCCCCXLIII these things writes
Florence of Worcester: [married to King Edmund, she bore 2 sons Kings,] To the magnificent King Edmund
when with his Queen Alfgiva her son she had borne
Edgar, the holy Abbot Dunstan heard as if
on high the voices of those singing psalms & saying, Peace
to the Church of the English, of the boy now sprung & of our
Dunstan in the time. Which the same things have the Durham one,
the Westminster one, Malmesbury, & other later ones, &
are confirmed by Osbern in the Life of S. Dunstan to be given on XIX
May, chapter IV. But the said King Edmund having died on XXVI
May in the year DCCCCXLVI, S. Aelgyfa remained a widow under
Eadred King the brother of Edmund: who in the year DCCCCLV having died,
the Atheling Edwy, says Worcester, namely of King
Edmund & the holy Alfgiva the Queen son, the monarchy
of the empire took up, & in the same year at Kingston
by Odo the Archbishop of Canterbury was consecrated
King. The same things have the Durham one, the Westminster one,
Hoveden: & the Queen Alfgiva in the same manner
holy they address. But this her son Edwy, [Edwy, by whom she suffered much;]
sufficiently impious & to obscene pleasures given & to his mother
rebellious to have been, writes Osbert in the Life of S. Dunstan in
Surius XIX May chapter 20. Edwin, he says, his mother,
the foundress & ennobler of the whole English kingdom, the consoler of Churches,
& the sustainer of the oppressed
& the needy; Edgiva I mean the Queen, immensely
afflicted. Indeed a little before the same with the title of all goodness
distinguished he had called. But the said King
Edwy or Edwin not long survived, in the year DCCCCLIX from
life snatched, about whom Baronius on the said year num. 7
these things writes: The wretched Edwin, more by the impulse of a wanton harlot,
than by his own will had sinned, not altogether
bad, born of a holy Queen: by whose prayers it was brought about,
that also penitent of his crimes from this life
he departed.

[4] Edwy was succeeded by Edgar his brother, a most illustrious King,
then sixteen years old: [& Edgar most pious,] to whom what afterwards divinely was shown,
thus in style commends Malmesbury book 2 On
the Deeds of the Kings of the English chapter 8. He had come into a forest fertile of hunting,
& as happens often, his companions to pursue
the beasts being dispersed through byways, alone he had remained.
And so by continuation of the course to the egress of the wood
arriving, he stopped awaiting his comrades. Nor delay,
sleep weighing his nodding eyes, on foot he is made, that
the labor of the past day to temper the pleasure of a moderate rest
might. He lay therefore under a wild apple-tree stretched, [to whom an offered vision about the future state of the kingdom after him] where
the hanging branches round about had made a leafy chamber.
Weariness indeed persuading, a stream beneath
flowing with babbling bubbles invited slumber; then a female dog, whose care it is to follow the tracks of beasts, pregnant
& lying near his feet, the sleeper terrified.
For while the mother was silent, the puppies enclosed in the womb,
manifold & sonorous barkings rendered, by a certain
joy of their own prison incited. By this prodigy
astonished, while to the top of the tree his eyes he directed,
he saw apples, one & another fallen into the river:
by whose collision with the watery bubbles among themselves curling,
an articulate voice resounded: Wel is thee, that is,
well is to you. Nor much after, the waves' rollings
acting, a little pitcher upon the water appeared, &
after the little pitcher a pitcher overflowing with water: for the other empty
was. And although by the frequent impulse of the gurge the greater
the lesser urged, namely that its waters into it
it should infuse; never yet could it obtain, but
the empty little pitcher withdrew, & again as if with a proud
gesture the victor the pitcher attacked. Home therefore
returned, as says the Psalmist, with heat he was exercised, &
he swept his spirit. [Psal. 76, 7] But his mother met him,
that he should serene his brow & mind, that for her it would be a study
to call upon God, who could the riddles by His inspiration
lay open. By which admonition he beat back his sadness,
& loosed into leisures his cares, conscious of his mother's sanctity,
to whom God was wont many things to reveal. She was
by name Elfgifa, to good works intent… She
therefore in her inmost marrow imbibing the prophecy, on the next
morning to her son said: The barking of the puppies, which while the mother
rested they gave, [she herself explains,] signifies that after your death,
those resting, who now live & flourish,
not yet born scoundrels against the Church of God will bark.
Truly that one apple followed another,
so that from the collision of the second into the first there seemed
a voice to have sounded, Wel is thee, intimates, that from you, who
now are a tree overshadowing all England, two will proceed
sons: the favorers of the second will extinguish the first.
Then the inciters of the diverse party will say to both boys,
Wel is thee, that the dead one will reign in heaven, the living
in the age. But now that the greater pitcher the lesser
could not fill, this designates, that the Northern
nations, which are more numerous than the English,
England after your death will attack: & although
by frequent coming of their compatriots their ruins they will fill;
never this corner of the world will they be able to fill,
but rather our English, when most conquered
they will seem, will expel them, & it will be under its own & God's
arbitration until the time prefixed by Christ.
Amen.

[5] The truth of this prophecy the later lesson will lay open.
There ought therefore to be considered the indubitable sanctity of parent & offspring,
[praised for eximious sanctity] that the one saw the riddle waking
without obstacle, & the other solved the problem from
a far-stretched oracle of prophecy, & to the sanctity
of morals communicated the spiritedness of severity, so that
no man of whatever dignity to elude the laws
with impunity she permitted. These things Malmesbury. Succeeded
to King Edgar S. Edward his son, by the first apple
designated: who, the stepmother instigating, being slain, as on XVIII
March at his Acts we said, succeeded Ethelred, his brother
& the other son of Edgar by the second apple indicated:
who still reigning, England under the Danes groaned: & in the place
of Edmund his son, who the kingdom being divided scarcely a year reigned,
succeeded the Danish Kings, Canute & his son Hardacanute,
& after these S. Edward the Confessor, from the ancient
English begotten. All which by S. Elgifa are reported
foretold.

[6] In the Glastonbury Annals there is a charter of Edgar
the King, published by Henry Spelman among the English Councils
page 485, given in the year DCCCCLXXI, Indiction XIV, &
in the first place subscribes Edgar the King, then Elgiva of the same
King the mother with joy consents. [the body of the dead one is revealed in the year 973.] Nor long survived
this holy Queen, in the same perhaps or following year having died.
Whose body, Westminster being witness, in the year
DCCCCLXXIII was divinely revealed in the place, which Septonia
is called.
