Our holy Father Benignus is not commemorated on Anglo-Saxon calendars,
and it is possible that in some details of his life he has been confused
with an Irish saint of a similar name. Nevertheless, there is fairly
strong evidence that there was a holy man of this name living near
Glastonbury.
According to our main source, William of Malmesbury, St. Benignus
was born in Ireland, and was converted to Christianity together with
his whole family by St. Patrick. Benignus became very attached to
St. Patrick and left home to follow him. In 442 Patrick founded a
monastery at Druimlias, and three years later made Benignus the abbot.
He remained there for 20 years, and was then made Bishop of Armagh,
dying in 468.
According to another of William's works, however, De Antiquitate Glastoniae,
Benignus did not die in Ireland but resigned his bishopric and came
to Somerset in about 460, establishing himself as a hermit at Meare
(Ferramere), about three miles from Glastonbury. "How much favour
he found with God is revealed by many signs and miracles; witness
the marks of his presence still at Meare, the broad expanse of water
granted at his prayers and the huge leafy tree that flourished from
his withered staff." He built a causeway from his hermitage to
the Old Church at Glastonbury, and since his servant Pincius had to
go a long way to get water he caused a spring to break out next to
his cell by his prayers. He died at Meare "after endless struggles",
and until about 1530 the church at Meare was called S. Bennynge. The
following inscription was on his tomb:
In this tomb Father Beonna's bones are placed,
Who was father of the monks in ancient times.
He was, in all probability, Patrick's servant for a long time.
So say the Hibernians, and they call him 'Beonna'.
It is usually thought that St. Benignus or Beonna was an Irish hermit
whom the Irish pilgrims to Glastonbury associated with St. Patrick.
However, some scholars believe that he was a Saxon, since "Beonna"
is a Saxon name. H.M Porter suggests that "Beon was an Irishman
and that the Irish schoolmasters [of St. Dunstan, in the early 10th
century] called him Beonna when talking about him to the local Saxons
and further confused matters by identifying him with Benen or Benignus
[of Armagh]."
In 901, St. Benignus' relics were translated to Glastonbury. According
to John of Glastonbury, they were taken by boat from Mere to Glastonbury,
but the boat had to berth some way from the monastery, so the relics
were then carried on foot to a spot about halfway between the landing
place and the monastery. There a sermon on the life of the saint was
delivered, together with the reasons for the translation. After the
sermon one of the bones of the saint was removed from the reliquary
and the sign of the cross was made with it over the crowd, whereupon
"such grace of Divine generosity flowed out upon the people that
those vexed with various illnesses and those who bore the dangers
of diverse infirmities, the blind, the mute, and the lame, were healed.
Many, whom the agony of their internal organs tortured, vomited forth
the death hidden within them." Then the relics were taken on
to the monastery, where a new church dedicated to the saint was built
at the place where they rested.
In 1027 King Hardacanute donated a shrine in which, in the time of
Abbot Thurstand (1100-1116) the relics of St. Benignus were placed.
In 1475 and again in 1487 reference was made to the saint's church,
and it is known that a church dedicated to St. Benignus stood to the
west of the monastery ruins until sometime in the last century, when
it was rededicated to St. Benedict.
(Sources: William of Malmesbury, The Early History of Glastonbury,
edited by John Scott, The Bodyell Press, Woodbridge, 1981, pp. 63,
157, 170-171; Lionel Smithett Lewis, Glastonbury - Her Saints, Wellingborough:
Thorsons, 1985, pp. 18-19; John Seal, The Dark Age Saints of Somerset,
Lampeter: Llanerch Enterprises, 1995, pp. 87-90; H.M. Porter, The
Celtic Church in Somerset, Bath, 1971, pp. 61-63)