Wednesday 19th May 2021. A reflection on St Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury and Restorer of Monastic Life, 988 Today marks the lesser festival of St Dunstan. Who, you may ask, as indeed I did? It appears that after his canonization in 1029 he became the most famous saint in England for nearly two centuries. He was also remembered as the Archbishop of Canterbury and for his links with Glastonbury where he first became a monk living in his own hermit like cell next to the abbey there. People made pilgrimages to this place for hundreds of years afterwards. So how is it that Dunstan has now receded into relative obscurity only to be rediscovered by the likes of me armed with “Saints on Earth” and Wikipedia! He was born in 909 in Somerset and is recorded as being “happier in books than in hunting and sport” which I can identify with, but there the comparison ends. Today he might have been called a bit of a nerd or geek except that he was “as proficient in music as in metalwork”. As a blacksmith, the legend grew that he once “shoed the hooves of the devil” and refused to remove the iron work until the devil promised not to visit anywhere that displayed a horseshoe over the doorway. I will leave you to decide on the credence of the origin of that superstition! Dunstan, “a rather serious youth” and I suspect adult too, received an excellent education and went on to be able to “shape letters beautifully and read and write with great proficiency” He quickly became part of the royal court of England and the ensuing political skulduggery and intrigue that marred the royal line at that time. Despite being an important minister of state for several Kings he fell in and out of favour with royalty. I particularly like that Dunstan was exiled by King Eadwig for rebuking him for “over exuberance at his Coronation Feast”! Probably Dunstan’s most enduring and important work took place when he was in relative obscurity, when he was out of the spotlight if you like. He humbly and quietly got on with re-establishing monastic communities and with codification and improvements in administration, helped various monastic orders to grow and become parts of the surrounding community once more. His reforms of the relationship of Church and State still form the foundation of how that works today. He also designed the ceremony for kingly coronation which again are still used now. It is rumoured that he even made one of the first royal crowns by hand himself! Even after he retired as Archbishop of Canterbury, Dunstan spent his time quietly getting on with teaching at the Cathedral school where he raised standards of education and reduced the reliance on corporal punishment too! This all made me think about how fickle fame and public recognition is. We have seen recently how people in royalty and showbusiness, who seem successful in the spotlight, are revealed to have feet of clay in their life in the shadows. Unlike Dunstan whose lasting achievements were made, out of the limelight in the humble obscurity of the shadows. Arguably these remain his most glorious and lasting legacy to God. He is someone who truly used his God given gifts through the power of the Holy Spirit to bring good, support and change to the world. In my view St Dunstan managed to be part of this world, whilst still not truly belonging to it, which is at the heart of Jesus’s prayer in our passage from John’s Gospel (17:11-19). Also, like St Paul in our passage from Acts today (20: 28-38) Dunstan used his hands and his skills to support himself, the community around him and the most needy and vulnerable. He, again like Paul, shepherded his flock and kept the wolves of the secular world at bay, particularly from the rich and powerful of his day. Much of Dunstan’s reforming zeal and his changes to administration in the church and monasteries were carried out quietly, behind the scenes and the recognition that he later received has once more slipped away, demoting him to his “lesser festival” today. We are reminded that God knows our hearts and minds and our every move. Through that we shall be accountable not just for what we achieve in the public eye, but even more so, for how we live and lead our lives in Jesus Christ, when we are out of the spotlight and public recognition. Frank.