Benet of St Albans

Benet of St Albans was a medieval English monk and biographer of Thomas Becket.

Benet was a monk at the Benedictine monastery of St Albans Abbey during the abbacy of Simon (1167-1183). About 1184, Benet composed a hagiography of Becket in French verse, basing it partly on the now-lost work of Robert of Cricklade.^[1] This set of verses is one of the secondary sources for Becket's life.^[2]

The verses have been edited and published by F. Michel in 1844.^[1] In turn, Benet's work was used as a source for the 14th-century Icelandic saga about Becket titled Thómas saga Erkibyskups.^[3]

Citations

1. Barlow Thomas Becket p. 7
2. Barlow Thomas Becket p. 6
3. Staunton Lives of Thomas Becket p. 11

References

• Barlow, Frank (1986). Thomas Becket. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-07175-1.
• Staunton, Michael (2001). "Introduction". The Lives of Thomas Becket: Selected Sources Translated and annotated by Michael Staunton. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. pp. 1–39. ISBN 0-7190-5455-9.