April 19: Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury and Martyr, 1012

The Collect of the Day

Alphege

Lord Jesus Christ, who willingly walked the way of the cross: Strengthen your church through the example and prayers of your servant Alphege to hold fast to the path of discipleship; for with the Father and Holy Spirit you live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Alphege

Lord Jesus Christ, who didst willingly walk the way of the cross: Strengthen thy church through the example and prayers of thy servant Alphege to hold fast to the path of discipleship; for with the Father and the Holy Ghost thou livest and reignest, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Colossians 1:24–29
Psalm 34:1–8
Luke 12:35–40

Born in 954, Alphege (or Aelfheah) gave his witness in the troubled time of the second wave of Scandinavian invasion and settlement in England. After serving as a monk at Deerhurst, and then as Abbot of Bath, he became, in 984, through Archbishop Dunstan’s influence, Bishop of Winchester. He was instrumental in bringing the Norse King Olaf Tryggvason, only recently baptized, to King Aethelred in 994 to make his peace and to be confirmed at Andover.

Transferred to Canterbury in 1005, Alphege was captured by the Danes in 1011. He refused to allow a personal ransom to be collected from his already over-burdened people. Seven months later he was brutally murdered, despite the Viking commander Thorkell’s effort to save him by offering all his possessions except his ship for the Archbishop’s life.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle relates that the Danes were “much stirred against the bishop, because he would not promise them any fee, and forbade that any man should give anything for him. They were also much drunken…and took the bishop, and led him to their hustings, on the eve of the Saturday after Easter…and then they shamefully killed him. They overwhelmed him with bones and horns of oxen; and one of them smote him with an axe-iron on the head; so that he sunk downwards with the blow. And his holy blood fell on the earth, whilst his sacred soul was sent to the realm of God.”

Lessons and Psalm

First Lesson

Psalm

¹I will bless the Lord at all times; *his praise shall ever be in my mouth.

²I will glory in the Lord; *let the humble hear and rejoice.

³Proclaim with me the greatness of the Lord; *let us exalt his Name together.

⁴I sought the Lord, and he answered me *and delivered me out of all my terror.

⁵Look upon him and be radiant, *and let not your faces be ashamed.

⁶I called in my affliction and the Lord heard me *and saved me from all my troubles.

⁷The angel of the Lord encompasses those who fear him, *and he will deliver them.

⁸Taste and see that the Lord is good; *happy are they who trust in him!

Gospel

²⁴I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. ²⁵I became its servant according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, ²⁶the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints. ²⁷To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. ²⁸It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. ²⁹For this I toil and struggle with all the energy that he powerfully inspires within me.