Thomas Fuller, in his History of the Worthies of England (1662), did not see any great virtue in St Dunstan. In a religiously intolerant age, Fuller merely noted his posts, Abbot of Glastonbury, Bishop of London and of Worcester, Archbishop of Canterbury, and “last for his promoting monkery reputed a saint”.
Fuller was seemingly not interested either in Dunstan’s success as a religious reformer or his influence as a secular adviser, even though he was preeminent in both areas in his comparatively long life, which included a golden age for England.
Dunstan’s earliest miracle preceded his birth, according to Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend. His mother was in church for Candlemas when all the candles went out, but hers relit miraculously and was used to relight everyone else’s, “wherefore all the people gave laud and thankings unto our Lord God for this great miracle”.
Dunstan’s father Heorstan was an important Somerset nobleman whose land shared a border with that of Glastonbury Abbey, which is where he sent Dunstan to be educated. He was linked to the Royal Court via a number of family relationships, but was too studious for his boisterous fellow nobles, and seems to have been bullied until he left for the calm of his kinsman, Ælfheah, Bishop of Winchester’s household.
The Bishop tried to encourage him in his vocation, hoping that he would become a monk, but Dunstan resisted until a serious illness persuaded him to change his mind. This led Dunstan back to Glastonbury, where he took religious life seriously. He built himself a cell, five feet by two and a half feet, for his oratory and also as a workshop. He became a skilled smith and is now the patron saint of blacksmiths and goldsmiths.
This was the site of his most famous miracle, when he caught hold of the devil with a pair of fire tongs. As the Golden Legend says, “never after the devil had lust to tempt him”.
