ON SAINT ASAPH,
BISHOP IN NORTH WALES.
AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 7TH CENTURY
CommentaryAsaph the Bishop, in North Wales (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. H.
[1] The province of Flint of North Wales, lies near the Irish sea and the estuary of the river Dee, in it, at the confluence of the rivers Elwy and Clwyd, is an Episcopal See, by the Britons Llan-Elwy from the river, by the English and others called the city of St. Asaph, Disciple of St. Kentigern famous for the antiquity of its name. Hither St. Kentigern, Bishop of Glasgow (whose Acts we illustrated on the day January XIII) a fugitive from Scotland came, and a monastery being built at Elgu, constituted an Episcopal See. There were gathered in that monastery nine hundred and sixty-five Brethren, under regular discipline in great abstinence serving God … There was among them a certain one, by name Asaph, in lineage and appearance illustrious, from the very flower of puberty shining with virtues and miracles, who studied to follow the life of his Master in all sanctity and abstinence continually. And when St. Kentigern after his wonted manner had said the Psalter naked in the waters, seized by too great a stiffness of cold, he ordered the boy Asaph to bring him fire, by which he might be warmed. Who hastening to the oven, and not having that in which he might carry the coals, took the living coals into his bosom; and no sign of burning appearing in his garment, and successor, before the Saint he cast them down. Whom the man of God holding dear in the future, the care of the monastery to him delegated, and in the Episcopate as successor instituted. Thus far from chapter five of the Life of St. Kentigern, who is handed down in the following chapter to have been recalled into Scotland, when by an Angelic admonition the holy Asaph he constituted his successor. And these are the things which concerning St. Asaph can be known.
[2] Michael Alford, in the Annals of the Anglo-Saxon Church, places the beginnings of St. Asaph at the year 543, he flourished at the beginning of the 7th century. thinks him consecrated Bishop in the year 560, and dead in the year 596; but relying on the bare authority of the Anglican Martyrology, collected by John Wilson in this century. Adam King hands down that Asaph died in the year 608. Dempster in the History of the Scots page 22 imputes to Baronius, that he judged him to have died in the year 615; but this in him we have not found. But although the Life of St. Kentigern alleged above does not greatly please, yet that we should follow before it nothing either more ancient or more certain is at hand. Since therefore, according to this and the Lessons of the Breviary of Aberdeen presently to be related, the Saint returning from Rome from the discourse of St. Gregory the Pope, and so after the year 590, before he should return into Cambria to his Bishopric, instituted the Abbot of the aforesaid monastery and Bishop of North Wales the holy Asaph; nor does any reason appear, why he who in the monastery of Elgu, built about the year 540, was educated as a boy, could not have prolonged his life many years after the Pontificate of St. Gregory; we seem to be about to do more advisedly, if with no precise year determined, we ascribe St. Asaph to the seventh century of the Christian era.
[3] His memory on this day in his proper additions to Usuard John Molanus inscribed in these words: In Scotland of Asaph the Bishop, his name inscribed in the Martyrology. from whose name now is called the Bishopric of St. Asaph. In the first edition of the year 1568 he had said nothing of him: but these are the words of the second edition prepared in the year 1583. This edition Baronius did not see, yet recognizing the Roman Martyrology, that of St. Asaph and St. Walpurga in the Anglican church there is treated together, he asserts himself to have perceived in the annotations; and so he prescribed it to be read on this May 1: In England of SS. Asaph the Bishop and Walpurga the Virgin. Of St. Walburga we treated on February XXV, and of her translation made on May 1 and inscribed in the Martyrologies; but because no vestige anywhere of that simultaneous cult in England we could
find, we confess even now. We do not meanwhile disapprove, that other later writers having followed the authority of the Roman Martyrology, ascribed Asaph to this day; because to them not only do the additions of Molanus to Usuard which I said agree; but also the Breviary of Aberdeen printed in the year 1509, while it sets forth a Life distributed into three Lessons under this rubric; Let it always be deferred until after the feast of the Finding of the holy Cross, except in a church dedicated to him: by this very thing sufficiently intimating, that on this day the Saint is venerated on his own proper birthday. The Lessons of that Breviary are these.
[4] The Lessons of the Breviary of Aberdeen, Kentigern the most reverend Bishop, by the most holy Gregory the Pope at Rome, easily the chief city of all cities, duly and legitimately consecrated, returning to Scotland, a most cherishable and likewise reverend man Asaph by name, from his tender cradles educated, Christ and His most illustrious holy men to follow and above all to embrace strove; yet to his most excellent preceptor and most dear to God Kentigern, the aforenoted Bishop of Glasgow, in doctrine, rule of living, and manners before the rest to be followed he accommodated his mind. For that man Asaph from his youthful age consecrated to God, by the integrity of his boyhood and mind, leaving parents, patrimonial things, and the rest of his goods whatsoever, to the poor, in which the miracle of fire, his bosom unharmed by the burning. widows, the debilitated, the blind and the lame the same his goods largely, piously, and benignly ministering bestowed. But on a certain night, while deep cold vehemently pressed, and from the airy sky too great a congealing upon these lower things sharply enough had brooded; by the admonition of the most reverend Kentigern his preceptor, and by a paternal command as upon a son, Blessed Asaph to the little house of a certain rustic, for the sake of carrying fire, is sent, that thence his Master Kentigern, and the same's servants who were with him, he might warm. But when he asked for fire, this rustic, untamed enough and imprudent, said to Blessed Asaph: Unless in the cloth of thy chlamys thou carry the fire to thy Master, little or nothing thence wilt thou carry back. But the divine Asaph answered: In my pallium and chlamys I will receive fire the Lord helping, that to Blessed Kentigern my preceptor I may more quickly return, who hitherto awaits me cold. But the rustic presently a multitude of burning coals into the bosom of Blessed Asaph with a certain onset sharply put; which to the divine Kentigern he brought, to whom Blessed Kentigern said: my son, the coals which thou carriest in thy pallium cast on the pavement. Where after no sign of burning appeared in the pallium; St. Kentigern seeing the sanctity of the said man, and that he was endowed with the highest grace of God, and acceptable to the Clergy and all the people, to the summit of the Episcopate by the grace of the Holy Spirit for his merits caused him to be promoted divinely: and the monastery, which the same Kentigern long before ruled in Wales, to Blessed Asaph he committed: in which with all clemency and sanctity of life, and other illustrious miracles shown through the same, he passed his last days, and there was buried.
[5] some things fastened upon him. Camerarius writes, that St. Asaph with St. Kentigern came from Scotland into Wales, which is not read elsewhere: Dempster in the place cited before attributes to the same some books composed, namely the Ordinances of his Church and the Life of St. Kentigern his Master. Which we published from Capgrave, Alford and others attribute to John of Tynemouth, who flourished in the XIV century. But to Dempster, accustomed to feigning the contents of books, we can believe nothing; until a graver author is produced, who affirms that he himself saw and read them. And so here we lift the hand from the tablet.