Science Fair Project Encyclopedia Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne
Saint Aldhelm (c.639 - May 25, 709), Abbot of Malmesbury, Bishop
of Sherborne, Latin poet and English scholar, was born before
the middle of the 7th century. He is said to have been the son
of Kenten, who was of the royal house of Wessex. He was
certainly not, as Aldhelm's early biographer Faritius asserts,
the brother of King Ine. Aldhelm received his first education in
the school of an Irish scholar and monk, Maildulf (also Maeldubh
or Meldun) (died c. 675), who had settled in the British
stronghold of Bladon (or Bladow ) on the site of the town called
Mailduberi, Maldubesburg, Meldunesburg, etc., and finally
Malmesbury, after him. In 668, Pope Vitalian sent Theodore of
Tarsus to be Archbishop of Canterbury. At the same time the
African scholar Hadrian, became abbot of St Augustine's at
Canterbury. Aldhelm was one of his disciples, for he addresses
him as the 'venerable preceptor of my rude childhood.' He must,
nevertheless, have been thirty yea