Ælfheah (, " elf-high "; 954 – 19 April 1012 ), officially remembered by the name Alphege within some churches, and also called Elphege, Alfege, or Godwine, was an Anglo-Saxon Bishop of Winchester, later Archbishop of Canterbury.

Ælfheah was canonized as a saint in 1078.

Probably due to the influence of Dunstan, the Archbishop of Canterbury ( 959 – 988 ), Ælfheah was elected Bishop of Winchester in 984, and was consecrated on 19 October that year.

Ælfheah was taken prisoner and held captive for seven months.

Ælfheah refused to allow a ransom to be paid for his freedom, and as a result was killed on 19 April 1012 at Greenwich ( then in Kent, now part of London ), reputedly on the site of St Alfege's Church.

" Ælfheah was buried in St Paul's Cathedral.

He was persuaded of Ælfheah's sanctity, but Ælfheah and Augustine of Canterbury were the only pre-conquest Anglo-Saxon archbishops kept on Canterbury's calendar of saints.

A Life of Saint Ælfheah in prose and verse was written by a Canterbury monk named Osbern, at Lanfranc's request.

In 1929 a new church in Bath was dedicated to Saint Ælfheah, designed by Giles Gilbert Scott in homage to the ancient Roman church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin.

In the year 991 Æthelweard was associated with archbishop Sigeric in the conclusion of a peace with the victorious Danes from Maldon, and in 994 he was sent with Bishop Ælfheah of Winchester to make peace with Olaf Tryggvason at Andover.

He also presided over the translation of the relics of Ælfheah, his predecessor at Canterbury who was regarded as a martyr and saint.

Oda was a supporter of Dunstan's monastic reforms, and was a reforming agent in the church along with Cenwald the Bishop of Worcester and Ælfheah the Bishop of Winchester.

Ælfric no doubt gained some reputation as a scholar at Winchester, for when, in 987, the abbey of Cerne ( Cerne Abbas in Dorset ) was finished, he was sent by Bishop Ælfheah ( Alphege ), Æthelwold's successor, at the request of the chief benefactor of the abbey, the ealdorman Æthelmær the Stout, to teach the Benedictine monks there.

In 1006 Ælfheah succeeded Ælfric as Archbishop of Canterbury, taking Swithun's head with him as a relic for the new location.

* Ælfheah of Canterbury ( died 1012 ), martyred Saint and Archbishop of Canterbury

Victims of the method of execution, as mentioned in skaldic poetry and the Norse sagas, are believed to have included King Ælla of Northumbria, Halfdan son of King Haraldr Hárfagri of Norway, King Maelgualai of Munster, and possibly Archbishop Ælfheah of Canterbury.

** Ælfheah of Canterbury

So Olaf let himself be baptised by St. Ælfheah of Canterbury in 994.

# REDIRECT Ælfheah of Canterbury

# REDIRECT Ælfheah of Canterbury

# REDIRECT Ælfheah of Canterbury

Ælfheah furthered the cult of Dunstan and also encouraged learning.

Purportedly born in Weston on the outskirts of Bath, Ælfheah became a monk early in life.

Ælfheah may have played a part in the treaty negotiations, and it is certain that he confirmed Olaf in his new faith.

Ælfheah sent Ælfric of Eynsham to Cerne Abbey to take charge of its monastic school.

Aided by the treachery of Ælfmaer, whose life Ælfheah had once saved, the raiders succeeded in sacking the city.

A contemporary report tells that Thorkell the Tall attempted to save Ælfheah from the mob about to kill him by offering them everything he owned except for his ship, in exchange for Ælfheah's life ; Thorkell's presence is not mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, however.

Pope Gregory VII canonized Ælfheah in 1078, with a feast day of 19 April.

* 1012 – Martyrdom of Ælfheah in Greenwich, London.

But her prettiness was what he had noticed first, and all the other things had come afterward: cruelty, meanness, self-will.

There was an artificial lake just out of sight in the first stand of trees, fed by a half dozen springs that popped out of the ground above the hillside orchard.

The first part of the road was steep, but it leveled off after the second bend and curled gradually into the valley.

No one was behind it, but in the rear wall of the office I noticed, for the first time, a door which had been left partially open.

The herd was watered and then thrown onto a broad grass flat which was to be the first night's bedground.

Once again, Tom Horn was the first and most likely suspect, and he was brought in for questioning immediately.

For Matilda, it was the first she had known in many a night.

Even the knowledge that she was losing another boy, as a mother always does when a marriage is made, did not prevent her from having the first carefree, dreamless sleep that she had known since they dropped down the canyon and into Bear Valley, way, way back there when they were crossing those other mountains.

Stevens was grunting over the last empty pocket when Russ abruptly rose and lunged toward Carmer's hat, which had tumbled half-a-dozen feet away when he first fell.

The Indian's arm whipped sidewise -- there was a flash of amber and froth, the crash of the bottle shattering against the side of the first car.

It was her first smile.

At first, I thought he was out of his head, talking wildly like this.

Hell, I gave him the first decent job he ever had, six, seven -- how many years ago was it, Rob ''??

Miss Langford ( her first name was Evelyn ) was an attractive girl.

School began in August, the hottest part of the year, and for the first few days Miss Langford was very lenient with the children, letting them play a lot and the new ones sort of get acquainted with one another.

It was just as well that the ignorant Dandy enjoyed himself to the hilt that first evening, for the room was to become his prison cell.

`` Bastards '', he would say, `` all I did was put a beat to that Vivaldi stuff, and the first chair clobbered me ''!!

In 1961 the first important legislative victory of the Kennedy Administration came when the principle of national responsibility for local economic distress won out over a `` state's-responsibility '' proposal -- provision was made for payment for unemployment relief by nation-wide taxation rather than by a levy only on those states afflicted with manpower surplus.

The first systematic thinking about this Pandora's box within Pandora's boxes was done four years ago by Fred Ikle, a frail, meek-mannered Swiss-born sociologist.

The smell at first was more surprising than unpleasant.

His collaboration with Washington, begun when he was the general's aide during the Revolution, was resumed when he entered the first Cabinet as Secretary of the Treasury.