Alphege was Archbishop of Canterbury who was captured during the Viking sack of Canterbury in 1011 and murdered by his captors the following year when he refused to allow himself to be ransomed with money that belonged to the Church and its poor. His decision—that a bishop's duty to his flock outweighed his own survival, but that he could not purchase his life with resources entrusted to him for others—made him a model of pastoral integrity. Thomas Becket, facing his own martyrdom a century and a half later, invoked Alphege's example.

Traditionally, Alphege was venerated as a martyr-confessor whose steadfastness under captivity exemplified apostolic courage. According to Osbern of Canterbury, miracles of healing occurred at his tomb almost immediately after his martyrdom. When his body was translated from London to Canterbury in 1023 by Archbishop Æthelnoth, it was reportedly found to be incorrupt—a sign interpreted as confirmation of his sanctity, though the details of the translation account may be hagiographic embellishment.

A later tradition held that Alphege appeared in vision to Lanfranc, the post-Conquest Archbishop of Canterbury, urging the restoration of his shrine. The cult of Alphege was especially strong in Canterbury and Winchester, the two sees he had served. Uniquely among archbishops of Canterbury, Alphege was invoked as an intercessor by later martyred bishops, most notably by Thomas Becket, who reportedly prayed at Alphege's tomb before his own martyrdom in 1170 and saw his predecessor as a model of episcopal courage.

Alphege (Ælfheah) was born around 954 and entered monastic life as a young man, eventually becoming an anchorite at Bath known for his extreme asceticism and spiritual discipline. He was appointed Bishop of Winchester in 984 and served with distinction, building a reputation as a disciplinarian and reformer of monastic practice before being elevated to Archbishop of Canterbury in 1006, succeeding Ælfric.

His tenure as archbishop coincided with the most devastating phase of the Viking raids on England. In September 1011, a Danish army commanded by Sweyn Forkbeard besieged and captured Canterbury, taking Alphege prisoner along with many of his clergy and citizens. The Danes demanded a ransom of three thousand pounds of silver—an enormous sum that Alphege refused to pay, insisting that the wealth of the Church belonged to the poor and could not be used to purchase one man's freedom, even his own. This decision reflected a theological conviction that the Church's resources were sacred and inviolable.

• Martyr
• Bishop