__NOTOC__ {{Infobox Christian leader | type = Bishop | name = Beornstan | title = Bishop of Winchester | religion = Christian | appointed =May 931 | term_end =1 November 934 | predecessor = Frithestan | successor = Ælfheah I | consecration = May 931 | death_date = 1 November 934 | feast_day = 4 November | venerated = Catholic Church | canonized_date = Pre-Congregation }}

'''Beornstan''' (or '''Byrnstan''') was an English Bishop of Winchester. He was consecrated in May 931. He died on 1 November 934.<ref name=Handbook223>Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 223</ref> After his death, he was revered as a saint.

At the start of the reign of King Æthelstan in 924, Beornstan was a member of his household, one of his mass priests, who were probably responsible for looking after his relics. Early in Æthelstan's reign, Beornstan witnessed his manumission of a slave called Ealdred. Æthelstan followed a policy of appointing members of his own circle to vacant bishoprics in Wessex. Winchester was a centre of opposition to the king under its bishop, Frithestan, and when he resigned in 931 Æthelstan took the chance to appoint Beornstan to the position. He frequently attested the king's charters, though in a lower position than his successor, Ælfheah.<ref>Foot ''Æthelstan'', pp. 65, 69, 90, 97-98, 189-90</ref>

Beornstan died at Old Minster, Winchester, where he was probably buried. He was remembered for his humility, but his cult as a saint was said to have been due to the support of a later bishop of Winchester, Æthelwold, to whom he is supposed to have angrily complained that in heaven he was honoured equally with Birinus and Swithun, but he was neglected in Winchester. His cult never became popular.<ref>Yorke "Byrnstan" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''</ref>

==Citations== {{reflist}}

==References==

* {{cite book | last = Foot | first = Sarah | author-link= Sarah Foot | title=Æthelstan: the first king of England|publisher=Yale University Press| year = 2011 |ISBN= 978-0-300-12535-1}} * {{cite book |author1=Fryde, E. B. |author2=Greenway, D. E. |author3=Porter, S. |author4=Roy, I. |title=Handbook of British Chronology|edition=Third revised |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |year=1996 |isbn=0-521-56350-X }} * {{cite encyclopedia |first=Barbara|last = Yorke| publisher = Oxford University Press | encyclopedia= Oxford Dictionary of National Biography | title= Byrnstan (St Byrnstan) (d. 934), bishop of Winchester| year = 2004 | url = http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/4277?docPos=1| access-date=13 October 2012 |doi= 10.1093/ref:odnb/4277 | url-access= subscription }} {{ODNBsub}}

==External links== * {{PASE|67975|Beornstan 5}}

{{s-start}} {{s-rel| Christian titles }} {{s-bef | before=Frithestan }} {{s-ttl | title=Bishop of Winchester | years= 931–934 }} {{s-aft | after=Ælfheah I}} {{s-end}}

{{Bishops of Winchester}} {{Anglo-Saxon saints}} {{Portalbar|Saints}} {{authority control}}

{{Use British English|date=August 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2017}}

{{short description|10th-century Bishop of Winchester}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Byrnstan}} Category:934 deaths Category:10th-century Christian saints Category:Bishops of Winchester Category:West Saxon saints Category:Year of birth unknown Category:10th-century English bishops