According to Grimbald’s ‘Vita Prima’ St Alfred the Great (849-899) King of Wessex (and effectively all of England) met Grimbald before his reign, at St Bertin’s Monastery whilst St Alfred was travelling to Rome. He was greatly impressed by our Saint and after his Coronation, in around 892, King Alfred, with the agreement and advice of St Eldred, the Archbishop of Canterbury, sent messengers to St Bertin’s to invite Grimbald to visit England.
Invited for his piety, devotion and scholarship, Grimbald was one of several learned men who had been invited to the English Court to assist the King in his educational pursuits and was among the most prominent.
In fact, in the Introduction of his translation of St Gregory the Great’s Pastoral Care, King Alfred mentions the assistance he had received from St Grimbald in the work and especially in translation of the Latin.
St Alfred is represented as the Founder of Oxford University together with our Saint and other learned and saintly men. It is believed that Grimbald was appointed as the first Professor of Divinity.
Grimbald refused King Alfred’s offer of the appointment to the See of Canterbury but after Alfred’s death, he accepted the appointment as the Abbot, to the yet unbuilt Monastery, Newminster, in Winchester by King Alfred’s son and successor as King, Edward the Elder.
After two decades in England, Grimbald became ill. He attended Holy Mass and sought the consolation of the reception of the Blessed Eucharist. He then spent several days in prayer and contemplation, gathered the Monks of the community to his cell for one last time of unity and died. It was 8 July 901. He was immediately venerated as a Saint and confessor and many Churches were dedicated to him. The Grimbald Gospels in the British Library are named after him.
