Life
Lyfing was born "Ælfstan" and took his ecclesiastical name from leof-carus (= "darling").
Lyfing was abbot of Chertsey Abbey from about 989. He became Bishop of Wells in 998 or 999, and in 1013 King Æthelred the Unready appointed him to the see of Canterbury. Lyfing was taken captive by Vikings and held prisoner for a time, but he was released in time to attend the Witenagemot in 1014, and he started repairs of the damage the Vikings had done to Canterbury Cathedral.
Lyfing was unable to go to Rome for his pallium during King Æthelred's reign, for every bishop that was consecrated during the remainder of the king's reign was consecrated by Archbishop Wulfstan of York. By 1018, however, he was named as archbishop, having returned to England from Rome with letters from Pope Benedict VIII. As Archbishop of Canterbury, Lyfing crowned two English kings: Ethelred's son Edmund Ironside in 1016 and Cnut the Great in 1017. He seems to have gone to Rome on behalf of Cnut at least once.
Lyfing died on 12 June 1020. He was buried in Canterbury Cathedral, near the altar of St. Martin. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle called him "a sagacious man, both before God and before the world".
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