View source for Wigstan

{{Short description|9th-century Mercian royal and saint}}
{{Redirect|Wistan|the villages in Iran|Wistan, Iran (disambiguation){{!}}Vistan}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox saint
| honorific_prefix  = [[Saint]] 
| name = Wigstan (Wystan, Wistan)
| birth_date =
| death_date = {{circa|839/840}}
| feast_day = 1 June
| honored_in = [[Roman Catholic Church]]<br>[[Anglican Communion]]<br>[[Eastern Orthodox Church]]
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| titles = [[Christian Martyrs|Martyr]]
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|major_shrine=[[Evesham Abbey]] ([[Dissolution of the Monasteries|destroyed]])
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'''Wigstan''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|w|iː|s|t|ɑː|n}}, {{IPA|ang|ˈwiːjˌstɑːn}}; died c. 840 AD), also known as Saint '''Wystan''', was the son of [[Wigmund of Mercia]] and Ælfflæd, daughter of King [[Ceolwulf I of Mercia]].

==History==
[[File:Saxon crypt at Repton - geograph.org.uk - 1089547.jpg|thumb|right|The crypt in [[St Wystan's Church, Repton]],  [[Derbyshire]], where Wigstan was originally buried]]

Like many Mercians of the period very little is known about Wigstan. He was the son of [[Wigmund of Mercia|Wigmund]] and [[Ælfflæd of Mercia (II)|Ælfflæd]], both the offspring of Mercian kings, [[Wiglaf of Mercia|Wiglaf]] and [[Ceolwulf I of Mercia|Ceolwulf I]] respectively. Wigmund, according to the [[Croyland Chronicle]], died of [[dysentery]] before his father King Wiglaf, making Wigstan heir to the kingdom of [[Mercia]]. However, when Wiglaf died c.839, Wigstan declined the kingship preferring religious life and monastic orders instead. [[Beorhtwulf of Mercia|Beorhtwulf]], possibly Wigstan's great-uncle, became king instead. [[William of Malmesbury]] claims that Beorhtwulf's son, Beorhtfrith, wished to marry Wigstan's widowed mother, Ælfflæd, but Wigstan forbade the union as they were too closely related.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=-1HS5gCZ1w4C&dq=Saint+Tyfei&pg=PA81 Wasyliw, Patricia Healy. ''Martyrdom, Murder, and Magic: Child Saints and Their Cults in Medieval Europe'', Peter Lang, 2008, p. 78]{{ISBN|9780820427645}}</ref> As revenge Beorhtfrith went to visit the young King ostensibly in peace but, when the two greeted each other, he struck Wigstan on the head with the shaft of his dagger and his servant ran him through with his sword.

{{Blockquote|Beorhtfrith, son of Beorhtwulf, king of Mercia, unjustly put to death his cousin, St Wigstan on the Kalends of June [1st June], being the eve of Pentecost. He was grandson of two of the kings of Mercia; his father, Wigmund, being the son of King Wiglaf, and his mother, Ælfflæd, the daughter of King Ceolwulf. His corpse was carried to a monastery which was famous in that age, called [[Repton]], and buried in the tomb of his grandfather, King Wiglaf. Miracles from heaven were not wanting in testimony of his martyrdom; for a column of light shot up to heaven from the spot where the innocent saint was murdered, and remained visible to the inhabitants of that place for 30 days.|''[[Florence of Worcester]]''<ref name=pilgrimage/>}}

==Veneration==
[[File:Saint Wistan - in life, in death - in glass ... - geograph.org.uk - 1140636.jpg|thumb|Saint Wistan, Holy Trinity Church, Wistanstow]]

The site of Wigstan's martyrdom has been variously claimed to be [[Wistanstow]], [[Shropshire]],<ref>St. Wistan, Prince of Mercia, Martyr, in Butler's ''Lives of Saints''</ref> and [[Wistow, Leicestershire]], with [[Wigston]] being the nearest town which happens to be derived from his name. 

Wigston was one of the places where the body of St Wigstan remained overnight on the way to Repton for burial. A small shrine was set up to honour him, which became the site of an annual pilgrimage on the saint's feast day. It was replaced by a chapel in 1086, which, in turn was replaced by a church, now closed.<ref name=pilgrimage>[https://www.oadby-wigston.gov.uk/files/documents/st_wistans_pilgrimage_walk/St%20Wistans%20Pilgrimage%20Walk%20booklet.pdf St Wistan’s Pilgrimage Walk]</ref>

Wigstan became a famous saint and Repton became a centre of [[pilgrimage]] as a result, which led [[Cnut the Great]] to move Wigstan's relics to [[Evesham]], where the {{lang|la|Vita Sancti Wistani}} was written by [[Dominic of Evesham]], a medieval prior there.<ref name=vale>[http://www.valeofevesham.net/#/timeline/4536196845 "Timeline", Vale of Evesham Historical Society]</ref><ref name=Writings298>Jennings "Writings" ''English Historical Review'' p. 298</ref>

The saint's relics were relocated to the Abbey at Evesham.<ref>On St. Wigstan see ‘The Medieval Hagiography of Saint Ecgwine’, p.79 & p.83. This notes that Abbot Ælfweard occupied himself with increasing Evesham’s prestige, and instigated the translation of Saint Wigstan to Evesham, and ''Evesham Abbey and the Parish Churches: A Guide'', p.8. [[Edward John Rudge|E.J. Rudge]], p.13 notes that Ælfweard entreated King Canute to present the abbey church with the relics of Wystan. George May (1834), p.47 refers to St Wulstan. Also see ''The Victoria History of the County of Worcester'', p.387 and ‘The Mitred Abbey of St. Mary, Evesham’, p.12.</ref> His ''vita'' (meaning "life", a history recording reputed acts of sanctity) has been attributed to the Benedictine chronicler [[Dominic of Evesham]], an early 12th-century Prior at Evesham. The edifice of the abbey (including the tomb of the four saints and many monastic buildings) were demolished during the [[Dissolution of the Monasteries]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/worcs/vol2/pp112-127 |title=A History of the County of Worcester, Volume 2 |date=1971 |publisher=University of London |editor-last1=Willis-Bund |editor-first1=J. W. |editor-link1=John William Willis-Bund |series=[[Victoria County History]] |pages=112–127 |chapter=Houses of Benedictine monks: Abbey of Evesham |editor-last2=Page |editor-first2=William |editor-link2=William Page (historian) |via=British History Online}}</ref>

Noted Edwardian artist [[M. E. Aldrich Rope|Margaret E.A. Rope]] was commissioned for the windows in the parish church of [[Wistanstow]] in Shropshire dedicated depicting SS Wistan and Anne.
[[File:St Wistan's Church at Wistow - geograph.org.uk - 6115396.jpg|thumb|St Wistan's Church, Wistow]]

==St Wistan’s Way==
St Wistan’s Way is a four-mile pilgrimage starting at the medieval church of St. Wistan's in Wistow and proceeding over the Grand Union Canal to Wigston.<ref name=pilgrimage/><ref>[https://www.britishpilgrimage.org/portfolio/st-wystans-way "St Wystan’s Way: Wistow to Wigston", British Pilgrimage Trust]</ref>
 
==See also==
* [[Repton#Parish church|Anglo-Saxon crypt tomb]] at Repton, Derbyshire
* British poet [[W. H. Auden]] was named in honor of Saint Wystan,<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpblaBb93fo video clip of W. H. Auden reading a poem, bearing his full name], accessed 20 September 2020</ref> A family connection with both Repton School and Wistanstow church in Shropshire is noted by Auden's biographer [[Humphrey Carpenter]].<ref>https://liberalengland.blogspot.com/2007/03/martyrdom-of-st-wystan.html '''Liberal England''' blog</ref>
* Mick Sharp's book ''The Way and the Light: An Illustrated Guide to the Saints and Holy Places of Britain'' makes the case for Wistow as the likely location of St Wistan's martyrdom, attested to in the legend of the miraculous appearance of human hair on the anniversary of his death, 1 June.

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite journal |author=Jennings, J. C. |title=The Writings of Prior Dominic of Evesham |journal=[[The English Historical Review]] |date=April 1962 |volume=77 |issue=303 |pages=298–304 |doi=10.1093/ehr/LXXVII.CCCIII.298}}
* Walker, Ian, ''Mercia and the Making of England.''
* [[Barbara Yorke|Yorke, Barbara]], ''Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England.'' London: Seaby, 1990. {{ISBN|1-85264-027-8}}
* Zaluckij, Sarah, ''Mercia: the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England.'' Logaston: Logaston Press, 2001. {{ISBN|1-873827-62-8}}

==External links==
* {{PASE|199783|Wigstan 8}}

{{Anglo-Saxon saints}}
{{Kings of Mercia}}

{{authority control}}

[[Category:840 deaths]]
[[Category:Mercian monarchs]]
[[Category:Mercian saints]]
[[Category:Burials at St. Wystan's Church, Repton]]
[[Category:9th-century Christian saints]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic royal saints]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Burials at Evesham Abbey]]