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26/05/2015
03/05/2015
5C - Saint Dunstan
Saint
Dunstan – The patron saint of blacksmiths, who died 998CE, feast day is
celebrated on the 19th May.
The church that overlooks our forge is dedicated to him, so why not pay
us both a visit on that day.
One
of the colourful legends about our saint is thus: The Devil was annoyed at the healing
properties of a spring, at Tunbridge Wells in Kent, and poked his nose right
below the surface causing it to go red and taste of sulphur. St Dunstan pulled him out by the nose using a
set of blacksmiths tongs. Those tongs
can be seen at Mayfield Convent, a Roman Catholic boarding school in the
village of Mayfield in Sussex.
It
is said that he repeated the same trick at a forge when the devil disguised
himself as a beautiful young lady to tempt him.
However he would not look up from his work and then noticed the hooves
beneath the dress. St Dunstan then
grabbed the Devil by the nose with tongs again which caused the Devil to unfurl
his wings in order to fly away in pain.
Most
of the stories from the 10th Century are said to relate to his time
at Glastonbury Forge. It is said that
before being converted to Christianity, by St Alphege, his was a magician
involved in the occult and had been ejected from the Kings court.
One
last tale: St Dunstan is reputed to have
nailed horseshoes to the Devils hooves and refused to remove them until Old
Nick promised to stay away from Blacksmiths.
It is also said that the legend of a horseshoe being lucky comes from
this tale as the devil also promised not to enter a building with a horseshoe
nailed above the door.
St
Dustan is a real historic figure, he served as the Archbishop of Canterbury
between 960 – 988, as to the legends?
Who knows?
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