Early English Saints and Tenth Century Wessex: The Evidence of The Metrical Calendar Of Hampson

Precious few witnesses for the veneration of saints south of the Humber survive from before the middle of the tenth century.Indeed, out of the twentyseven English liturgical calendars which survive from before the year 1100, four are Northumbrian in origin, and twenty-two postdate the middle of the tenth century.This leaves merely one calendar-present in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Junius 27, ff.2v-7v (also known as the 'Junius Psalter')-as a witness for Wessex in the early tenth century. 1 The high-grade 'Junius Psalter' was probably written in the 920s, 2 during the reign of Edward the Elder (899-924), and is primarily renowned for containing a continuous Old English gloss to the Psalms, the second oldest of its kind. 3 Origins in both Winchester and Canterbury have been suggested, with the former generally favoured by scholars. 4 The calendar, however, cannot be described as anything but sparse, containing almost entirely universally revered saints among its one hundred and twenty-six entries.The only Insular entries found in the calendar are obits for Alfred the Great (d.899) and his wife Ealhswith (d.902), and the saints Augustine of Canterbury (d.604), Patrick, and Gildas.The calendar also contains a noteworthy group of Frankish saints, associated with the region around the monastery of Saint-Bertin. 5Therefore, Edmund Bishop