St Dunstan
20 Φεβρουαρίου 2011
The icon of St Dunstan at Glastonbury was drawn by a monk at the monastery of the Caves in Kiev in 1991 as a sign of reconciliation between East and West. It is the first such image of the saint in, the place of his birth since before the Reformation, and was a gift of the mother monastery of the Russian Christianity to the place of its counterpart in England. It shows the saint as archbishop with pallium and gospel-book, but also as a contemplative receiving visions from Cod. It is drawn in Byzantine style of the tenth century.
Dunstan died in 988 which is also the year of the foundation of the church in Kievan Rus. The first half of his life was spent in and around Glastonbury, which he reformed into a Benedictine monastery and centre of culture and learning. In 960 he became Archbishop of Canterbury and presided over widespread reform in the English church, and the systematic revival of Benedictine monastic life. He was also an artist, musician and scholar in his own right. After his death he was venerated at Canterbury where he lies buried in the cathedral. Today he is commemorated in nearly one hundred schools and parishes around the world in the Anglican and Roman communions.
