Walstan

Walston (recorded as Walstan in some sources) was an Anglo-Saxon prince, known for the miracles which occurred during and after his life after he became a farm worker. He is a patron saint of farm animals and agricultural workers, who once visited his shrine at the church at Bawburgh, in the English county of Norfolk. Two sources for his life exist: the De Sancto Walstano Confessore in the Nova Legenda Angliæ, printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1516, and known as the English Life; and a later Latin manuscript copied in 1658 from a now lost medieval triptych, now in the Lambeth Palace library in London.

Walstan is associated with Norfolk, but the Latin Life gives his birthplace as Blythburgh in Suffolk and not Bawburgh, as stated in the English Life. Described as the son of Benedict and Blida, he is said to have "received a pious education". At the age of 12 he determined to devote his life to one of prayer, and became a farm worker for a man at Taverham, near Norwich. After being told of his forthcoming death, he made his confession, stopped working and instructed that his two bulls were to pull his body in a cart wherever God willed. After his death on 30 May 1016, his hearse left Taverham and passed through Costessey before reaching Bawburgh, where he was buried; along the route springs miraculously appeared. A small chapel dedicated to Walstan was built at Bawburgh.

He is represented by a crown and sceptre with a scythe in his hand and cattle near him. St Walstan's Day is still celebrated each year in Bawburgh, when a special service takes place on the nearest Sunday to 30 May, his day in the calendar of saints.

Hagiographical and medieval sources

Walstan is supposed to have been born in 975. He is associated with the English county of Norfolk, but uncertainty surrounds his actual identity and any details of his life. Information that he existed comes from two sources, the earliest of which is in the , written by the English historian John Capgrave, and known as the Latin Life. Capgrave's was printed by Wynkyne de Worde in 1516; Walstan was included as one of 15 new saints in a compilation that did not form part of the main text. The source for de Worde's information is unknown.

Walstan's story was also described in a manuscript now known as the Lambeth Life (or English Life), which was copied on 29 September 1658 by a scribe from a now lost medieval triptych from Bawburgh church in Norfolk. and his shrine and the wells associated with him were visited by local farmers and farm laborers throughout the Middle Ages. In 1309 the revenues generated at Bawburgh by pilgrims could provide an income for six priests and the church vicar, in addition to providing the finances needed to rebuild the chancel. In later decades the shrine became ruinous; it was rebuilt in the 15th century. After the dissolution of the monasteries, the church once again fell into disrepair. During the 19th century, the village church regained its prosperity when miracles were associated with the water obtained from the well. In 1913 the Eastern Daily Press named it the "Lourdes of Norfolk". The well at Bawburgh can still be seen.

At Costessey, the second place where Walstan's hearse rested, the well there had dried up by 1750. In April 1978 it was recorded as being a deep circular pit about across, with lumps of flint wall at the base, and filled with fallen trees. By January 2015 the depression was still visible, and a plan was proposed to fence off the site of the well and place a plaque there. The site of the well, now located on the grounds of a golf course, has been marked with a sign.

Walstan is represented in religious art by a crown and sceptre (his generic emblems)—at least five figures from medieval rood screens depict him in this way—and with a scythe in his hand and cattle near him (his specific emblems). Churches dedicated to Walstan dating from before the English Reformation are found in Norfolk. Uniquely outside England, a church in Rongai, Kenya, is dedicated to Walstan.

The historian Kellie Robertson has said that during the Middle Ages, Walstan was a "good example of a localized cult exemplifying the vibrancy of lay popular piety" and "an exemplar of filial love, charity, devotion to work, and obedience to the Church. His absence from medieval liturgical calendars is thought to be a reflection of the local nature of the cult that appeared after his death. Robertson connects Walstan's popularity in the mid 15th century with the popular unrest in East Anglia during this period, caused by restrictive laws on agricultural workers in the aftermath of the Black Death that swept across the country in 1349. That he only appears as a saint in the 16th century—and in a revision of an earlier version of Sanctilogium angliae—implies he was relatively unimportant at the time it was first compiled, and his cult revived in the mid 15th century.

St Walstan's Day is celebrated each year in Bawburgh, when a special Patronal Service takes place on the nearest Sunday to 30 May, his feast date. St. Walstan's Day occurred on 28 December in some 17th and 18th century saints' calendars.