posted 09-28-1999 09:44 AM            

Saint Dunstan was born 909 AD at Astonbury Abbey; he became Abbot of Glastonbury, and died Archbishop of Canterbury in AD 988. He was Patron of goldsmiths, jewelers and blacksmiths. Dunstan regularized monastic procedures and codified the present Coronation Rite. He was extremely talented, played the harp, was an embroider, a painter, and gold/silver smith as well as working with other metals. He is reported to have had several encounters with the Devil. Most remembered is:

Saint Dunstan was busy making a golden chalice. When disguised as a beautiful woman, the Devil with a view to leading him astray, paid him a visit. However, St. Dunstan spotted the cloven hooves beneath the dress. Whereupon St. Dunstan picked from the fire a pair of burning hot iron tongs and suddenly seized the fiend by the nose. And so held The Devil, while he roared and cried til the night was far spent and thereby foiling Satan's evil intentions.

Saint Dunstan's emblem is still that of a pair of pincers. A treatise on alchemy entitled 'On the Philosopher's Stone' is attributed to him. May 19 is Saint Dunstan feast-day.