Saint Wilfrid
Archevêque
d'York (+ 709)
Depuis les invasions anglo-saxonnes, l'Eglise était divisée comme le pays. D'un côté les Bretons ou celtes de vieille chrétienté qui refusaient l'envahisseur. De l'autre les Angles et les Saxons. L'Eglise celte refusait l'archevêque anglais de Cantorbery et vivait pratiquement autonome. L'Eglise anglo-saxonne fondée par saint Augustin, cent ans auparavant, était soumise au siège romain. Ce fut grâce à saint Wilfrid et à quelques autres que ces chrétientés fusionnèrent au VIIème siècle et que l'unité religieuse régna dans le pays. Mais la vie de Wilfrid fut très mouvementée. Moine de Lindisfarn, le jeune garçon poursuivit ses études à Cantorbery. Un saint moine, Benoît Biscop, le prit alors comme accompagnateur pour aller à Rome. Et ce voyage fut, pour saint Wilfrid, le début de toute une série. Lorsque les voyageurs passèrent par Lyon, l'évêque de ce diocèse, Delphin, le retint auprès de lui une année entière. A Rome, il se familiarisa avec la pratique de la liturgie et, en rentrant en Angleterre, il se fit l'apôtre de la liturgie romaine. Il fonda le monastère de Ripon en Angleterre. Devenu évêque d'York, il fit entrer au couvent la femme du roi Egfrid qui ne le lui pardonna pas et l'empêcha de rester dans son diocèse. Saint Wilfrid connut ainsi l'emprisonnement puis, par deux fois, l'exil dont il profita pour évangéliser le Sussex, la Hollande et même l'Austrasie où il faillit devenir évêque de Strasbourg. Il put enfin retourner dans son pays et y passer à peu près tranquillement les quatre dernières années de sa vie. Un historien anglais écrit de lui: "Il a fait tant de bien qu'on lui pardonne aisément ses imperfections et ses foucades."
Pendant quarante-cinq ans d'épiscopat, il travailla avec ardeur, et non sans
peine. Contraint plusieurs fois de céder à d'autres son siège d'York, il se
retira soit parmi les moines de Ripon, dont il avait été abbé, soit parmi ceux
de Hexham, une de ses fondations. Il mourut à Oundle, une autre de ses
fondations, et fut inhumé à Ripon. (24 avril au martyrologe romain)
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/2006/Saint-Wilfrid.html
Saint Wilfrid
Évêque d'York
(634-709)
Un fait extraordinaire
signale la naissance de saint Wilfrid; la maison de ses parents semble
enveloppée dans un incendie; les voisins, effrayés, accourent pour éteindre le
feu, mais ils s'aperçoivent avec admiration que le feu s'élance vers le ciel
sans rien consumer. C'est ainsi que brûlera le flambeau du zèle de Wilfrid dans
la sainte Église de Dieu.
Tout jeune encore, il
résolut de se donner au Seigneur. Après un court séjour dans un couvent,
s'apercevant que certains usages, contraires à ceux de Rome, s'étaient glissés
dans les cérémonies, il se décida à visiter le tombeau des saints Apôtres, afin
de bien discerner la vérité au centre même de la lumière. Wilfrid fut un des
premiers Anglo-Saxons qui eurent le bonheur de faire le voyage de Rome, alors si
long et si pénible. Bientôt le pieux pèlerin aura beaucoup d'imitateurs, et ce
pèlerinage sera en grand honneur en Angleterre, grâce à son exemple.
A Rome, son premier soin
est de visiter les tombeaux vénérés et de prier, dans les sanctuaires les plus sacrés,
pour la conversion entière de sa patrie. Sa prière est exaucée, car il
remplacera lui-même dignement le grand moine et pontife, nommé, qui, à la voix
de saint Grégoire le Grand, avait porté aux Anglo-Saxons les prémices de la
foi. Après un séjour de quelques années dans les Gaules, Wilfrid rentre enfin
dans sa patrie, où son dévouement aux usages de Rome lui attire des ennemis et
des admirateurs. Il n'a que trente ans, quand le pieux roi Alfred lui fait
accepter l'évêché d'York.
Sous sa houlette, l'Évangile
prend, dans ce pays, un développement merveilleux: les monastères se
multiplient, de magnifiques cathédrales s'élèvent sur le sol anglo-saxon; le
saint évêque préside lui-même à la construction de ces édifices grandioses qui
ravissent d'admiration des populations à demi barbares, chez lesquelles l'on ne
connaissait encore que les édifices de bois.
L'évêque civilisateur ne
se bornait pas à l'organisation matérielle: il réformait les moeurs de son
troupeau et faisait régner, avec Jésus-Christ, la paix, la justice et la
charité. Un jour qu'il donnait la confirmation, une pauvre femme le supplia de
ressusciter son enfant mort; Wilfrid, ému de ses larmes, bénit l'enfant et lui
rendit la vie.
Incapable de céder à la
peur et de manquer à sa conscience, le vaillant pontife est déposé et exilé
plusieurs fois; on lui rend enfin justice, et il achève sa carrière en paix.
Abbé L. Jaud, Vie
des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950
SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/saint_wilfrid.html
Saint Wilfrid
Saint Wilfrid eut
une existence fort mouvementée, au VIIe siècle. Il naquit en Angleterre en 634.
S'étant fait moine, le jeune Wilfrid va poursuivre sa formation religieuse et
intellectuelle à Lyon, puis à Rome. De retour dans sa patrie, il prend l'habit
bénédictin à Lindisfarne et deviendra l'Abbé du monastère de Rippon. Bientôt,
il sera élu évêque d'York, recevant la consécration épiscopale lors d'un
passage en France, à Compiègne.
L'évêque Wilfrid était
aussi un grand missionnaire. Il ira porter l'Évangile jusqu'en Frise, en
Hollande. Doté d'un tempérament passionné et fougueux, il se faisait autant
d'adversaires que d'amis ! Beaucoup de ses misères lui vinrent du roi de
l'époque : en effet, sans le prévenir, il avait conduit la reine son épouse au
couvent ! On comprend la fureur royale !
Le grand mérite de saint
Wilfrid fut d'être véritablement oecuménique. Il fut le fidèle artisan de
l'unification de l'Église en Angleterre. Il y avait alors deux Églises
chrétiennes séparées : l'une autonome et Celte, dirigée d'ailleurs par un autre
saint évêque qui se nommait Chad, et l'autre Anglo-saxonne, reliée à Rome.
Grâce à la réconciliation des deux évêques, ces Églises vont fusionner et
resteront unies jusqu'au schisme du roi Henri VIII.
On n'a pas attendu le XXe
siècle pour faire l'Europe ! Au VIIe siècle, saint Wilfrid fut un véritable
Européen. De par ses études, ses missions et aussi l'exil qu'il subit à
plusieurs reprises, on le trouve à Lyon, à Rome, en Hollande et en Angleterre,
fondant des monastères dans l'observance de la règle de saint Benoît. Réfugié
en Austrasie, à l'époque le nord-est de la France, il faillit devenir évêque de
Strasbourg ! C'est en Angleterre qu'il termina sa vie missionnaire itinérante,
en 709.
Le nom de Wilfrid, auquel
se relie celui d'Alfred, signifie selon l'étymologie germanique
"volonté" et "paix".
Rédacteur : Frère Bernard
Pineau, OP
SOURCE : http://www.lejourduseigneur.com/Web-TV/Saints/Wilfrid-Wilfried
Wilfrid
(right), with saints Cuthbert (centre) and Aidan (left), depicted in a stained-glass
window in the church of St John Lee near Acomb in Northumberland; Hexham
Abbey is nearby.
Also
known as
Wilfrid of Hexham
Wilfrid of Ripon
Vilfrido…
Wilfrith…
Apostle of Sussex
12 October on
some calendars
Profile
Son of a Northumbrian
thegn. His mother died when
Wilfrid was a boy,
and he never got along with his step-mother. At age 14, partly to escape the
miserable family life, he was sent to the court of
Oswy, King of Northumbria (part
of modern England).
He studied at
the monastery of Lindisfarne, England for
three years, then accompanied Saint Benedict
Biscop to Rome, Italy where
he studied under archdeacon Boniface.
He stayed in Lyon, France for
three years to study the monastic life,
and became a monk,
but left during persecutions of
the local Christians.
He was appointed abbot of
the monastery at Ripon, England for
five years, and placed it under the Benedictine Rule. Priest.
He was instrumental in
bringing Roman liturgical practice and rules to the region, working
influentially at the Synod of Whitby in 664. Bishop Colman
and several of his monks,
opposing the new practice, withdrew to the north. Wilfrid was chosen as the
new bishop and travelled to France for
ordination, considering the dissenting northern bishops to
be schismatics.
He returned to England in 666,
nearly dying at
the hands of hostile pagans when
his ship wrecked on the coast of Sussex. However, he had taken so long to come
back that Saint Chad had
been chosen to replace him. Wilfrid retired to the monastery at Ripon and evagelized in
Mercia and Kent. In 669 Archbishop Theodore
of Canterbury explained
to Saint Chad that
Wilfrid should have the see; Chad withdrew,
and Wilfrid resumed the bishopric.
During his tenure Wilfrid
worked to enfoce Roman ritual, founded Benedictine monasteries,
and rebuilt the minster of York, all while living a simple and holy life
himself. He became embroiled in political discord when he encouraged Queen Etheldrida
to move to a convent when
she no longer wished to live with her husband, King Ecgfrid.
When Archbishop Theodore
subdivided Wilfrid’s diocese to
reduce his influence, Wilfrid appealed to Rome. Pope Agatho ruled
in Wilfrid’s favour, and the three intruding bishops were
removed. However, when Wilfrid returned to England King Ecgfrid
accused him of buying the decision, imprisoned him
at Bambrough, then exiled him
to Sussex.
Wilfrid worked as a missionary in
heathen Sussex. He reconciled with Archbishop Theodore,
who had also been working in Sussex, in 686,
and when Aldfrid became king of Northumbria,
Theodore insured Wilfrid’s return from exile.
He served as bishop of Hexham,
and then of York again.
However, when he tried to consolidate the dioceses again,
the king and
Theodore opposed him, and Wilfrid was forced to appeal again to Rome in 704.
Through a series of meetings, synods and rulings, Wilfrid became bishop of Hexham and Ripon,
but not York.
In the end Wilfrid accepted, deciding that the result of this turmoil was that
everyone involved had agreed to the authority and primacy of the Pope and
the Vatican, the principle he had fought for all along.
Born
634 in Northumbria, England
709 at
Oundle, Northhamptonshire, England
in England
Middlesbrough, diocese of
Additional
Information
Book
of Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
Catholic
Encyclopedia, by Arthur S Barnes
Lives
of the Saints, by Father Alban
Butler
Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
Short
Lives of the Saints, by Eleanor Cecilia Donnelly
books
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
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and Their Attributes, by Helen Roeder
other
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Biographies, by James Keifer
Little
Pictorial Lives of the Saints
images
audio
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Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
fonti
in italiano
MLA
Citation
“Saint Wilfrid of
York“. CatholicSaints.Info. 24 February 2024. Web. 12 October 2024.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saint-wilfrid-of-york/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-wilfrid-of-york/
Lambert
Barnard (1485 - 1567), created Chichester Cathedral's Tudor paintings by
command of Robert Sherborne Bishop of Chichester in 1519. They are believed to
be the largest surviving paintings of their kind, the two huge painted panels
(14ft x 32ft) are on display in the transepts of the Cathedral, from which this
copy, an engraving by T.King Drawing Master Chichester October 1807, was taken.
It shows Wifrid receiving a charter from King Caedwella
(Walafridus) (Saint) Bishop (October 12)
(8th
century) A monk of
Lindisfarne and one of the most celebrated Bishops of
the Anglo-Saxon Church.
Consecrated Archbishop of York,
he sacrificed himself utterly for the good of his flock. He was more than
once banished from
his country, and frequently visited Rome.
Even while journeying, he preached with
zeal and success. Hence, he is venerated as one of the Apostles of Holland,
as also of Sussex and of the Isle of Wight. He entered into his rest, April 24,
A.D. 709.
MLA
Citation
Monks of Ramsgate.
“Wilfrid”. Book of Saints, 1921. CatholicSaints.Info.
13 October 2016. Web. 12 October 2024.
<https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-wilfrid/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-wilfrid/
The
first north chancel window of St Michael and All Angels Church, Southwick, West
Sussex. It was produced by the Kempe studio in 1896.
New Catholic
Dictionary – Saint Wilfrid
Confessor (634–709), Archbishop of York,
born Ripon, England; died Oundle,
Northamptonshire. He was educated at
the court of King Oswy,
and at Lindisfarne, Canterbury, and finally in Rome.
Elected Abbot of
Ripon, 658,
he introduced the Roman rules and practise. As Archbishop of York,
he founded many monasteries of
the Benedictine
Order, and was forced to appeal twice to Rome to prevent the subdivision of
his diocese by Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury. During his exile he worked
in Sussex and Wessex. He was later reinstated in Northumbria, made Bishop of
Hexham, and reoccupied his see at York. Until his death he fought diligently
for the rights of the Holy See. Relics at Canterbury. Feast, 12
October.
MLA
Citation
“Saint Wilfrid”. New Catholic Dictionary. CatholicSaints.Info.
11 November 2019. Web. 12 October 2024. <https://catholicsaints.info/new-catholic-dictionary-saint-wilfrid/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/new-catholic-dictionary-saint-wilfrid/
Statue of Wilfrid, The doorway to St William's College
.jpg)
Statue
of Wilfrid, The doorway to St William's College
St. Wilfrid
Feastday: October 12
Birth: 633
Death: 710
Born in Northumberland in
634, St.
Wilfrid was educated at Lindesfarne and then spent some time in
Lyons and Rome. Returning to England, he was elected abbot of
Ripon in 658 and introduced the Roman rules and practices in opposition to the
celtic ways of northern England. In 664, he was the architect of the definitive
victory of the Roman party at the Conference of Whitby. He was appointed Bishop of
York and after some difficulty finally took possession of his See in 669. He
labored zealously and founded many monasteries of the Benedictine Order, but he
was obliged to appeal to Rome in
order to prevent the subdivision of his diocese by
St. Theodore, Archbishop of
Canterbury. While waiting for the case to be decided, he was forced to go into
exile, and worked hard and long to evangelize the heathen south Saxons until
his recall in 686. In 691, he had to retire again to the Midlands until Rome once
again vindicated him. In 703, he resigned his post and retired to his monastery
at Ripon where he spent his remaining time in prayer and penitential
practices, until his death in 709. St. Wilfrid was
an outstanding personage of his day, extremely capable and possessed of
unbounded courage, remaining firm in his convictions despite running afoul of
civil and ecclesiastical authorities. He helped bring the discipline of the
English Church into line with that of Rome. He was also a dedicated pastor and
a zealous and skilled missionary; his brief time spent
in Friesland in 678-679 was the starting point for the great English mission to
the Germanic peoples of continental Europe. His feast day is October
12th.
SOURCE : https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=593
Detail
of the first south chancel window of St Mary's Church, Thakeham, West Sussex.
St. Wilfrid
Bishop of York,
son of a Northumbrian thegn, born in 634; died
at Oundle in Northamptonshire, 709. He was unhappy at home,
through the unkindness of a stepmother, and in his fourteenth year he was sent
away to the Court of King Oswy, King of Northumbria. Here he
attracted the attention of Queen Eanfleda and by her, at his own
request, he was sent to the Monastery
of Lindisfarne. After three years spent here he was sent for, again through
the kindness of the queen, to Rome,
in the company of St.
Benedict Biscop. At Rome he
was the pupil of Boniface, the pope's archdeacon.
On his way home he stayed for three years at Lyons,
where he received the tonsure from Annemundas,
the bishop of
that place. Annemundas wanted him to remain at Lyons altogether,
and marry his niece and become his heir, but Wilfrid was determined
that he would be a priest.
Soon after persecution arose
at Lyons,
and Annemundas perished in it. The same fate nearly came to
Wilfrid, but when it was shown that he was a Saxon he was allowed to
depart, and came back to England.
In England he
received the newly founded monastery at
Ripon as the gift of Alchfrid, Oswy's son and heir,
and here he established the full Benedictine
Rule. The Columbite monks,
who had been settled previously at Ripon, withdrew to the North. It was not
until he had been for five years Abbot of Ripon,
that Wilfrid became a priest.
His main work at Ripon was the introduction of Roman rules and the
putting forward of a Roman practice with regard to the point at issue
between the Holy
See and the Scottish monks in
Northumbria; to settle these questions the
synod of Whitby was held in 664. Chiefly owing
to Wilfrid's advocacy of the claims of the Holy
See the votes of the majority were given to that side,
and Colman and his monks,
bitterly disappointed, withdrew from Northumbria. Wilfrid, in consequence of
the favours he had then obtained, was elected bishop in Colman's place,
and, refusing to receive consecration from
the northern bishops,
whom he regarded as schismatics, went over to France to
be consecrated at Compiègne.
He delayed some time in France,
whether by his own fault or not is not quite clear, and on his return in 666
was driven from his course by a storm and shipwrecked on the coast of Sussex,
where the heathen inhabitants
repelled him and almost killed him. He succeeded in landing, however,
in Kent not far from Sandwich. Thence he made his way to
Northumbria, only to find that, owing to his long absence, his see had
been filled up, and that a St. Chad was bishop in
his place. He retired to his old monastery at
Ripon, and from thence went southwards and worked in Mercia, especially
at Lichfield,
and also in Kent.
In 669 Archbishop Theodore
of Canterbury visited Northumbria, where he
found Chad working as bishop.
He pointed out to him the defects of his position and, at his
instigation, St. Chad withdrew and Wilfrid once more became Bishop of York.
During his tenure of the see,
he acted with great vigour and energy, completing the work of
enforcing the Roman obedience against the Scottish monks.
He founded a great many monasteries of
the Benedictine
Order, especially at Henlam and at Ripon, and completely rebuilt the
minster at York. In all that he did he acted with great
magnificence, although his own life was always simple and restrained.
So long as Oswy lived all went well, but
with Ecgfrid, Oswy's son and successor, Wilfrid was very
unpopular, because of his action in connection with Ecgfrid's
bride Etheldrida, who by Wilfrid's advice would not live with
her husband but retired into a monastery.
It was just at this juncture that Theodore, possibly exceeding
his powers as Archbishop of Canterbury,
proceeded to subdivide the great diocese over which Wilfrid ruled,
and to make suffragan bishops of Lindisfarne, Hexham,
and Witherne. Wilfrid, whether or not he approved of the principle of
subdivision, refused to allow Theodore's right to make it,
and appealed to the central authority at Rome,
whither he at once went. Theodore replied by consecrating three bishops in Wilfrid's own church at York and
dividing his whole bishopric between
them.
An attempt was made by his enemies to prevent Wilfrid from reaching Rome,
but by a singular coincidence Winfrid, Bishop of Lichfield,
happened to be going to Rome at
the same time, and the singularity of the name led to his being stopped while
Wilfrid got through safely. At Rome a council was
called by Pope Agatho to decide the case, and Wilfrid appeared before
it in person, while Theodore was represented. The case was decided
in Wilfrid's favour, and the intruding bishops were
removed. Wilfrid was to return to York,
and since subdivision of his diocese was
needed, he was to appoint others as his coadjutors. He came back to Northumbria
with this decision, but the king, though not disputing
the right of Rome to
settle the question, said that Wilfrid had brought the decision and put him
in prison at
Bambrough. After a time this imprisonment was converted to
exile, and he was driven from the kingdom of Northumbria. He went
south to Sussex where the heathen inhabitants
had so inhospitably received him fifteen years before, and preached as a
missionary at Selsey.
In 686 a reconciliation took place between Theodore and Wilfrid, who
had then been working in Sussex for five years. Through Theodore's good offices
Wilfrid was received back in Northumbria, where Aldfrid was now king.
He became Bishop of Hexham at
once, and before long, when York again fell vacant, he took
possession there once more. For some years all went well, but at the end of
that time great difficulties arose with the king because Wilfrid utterly
refused to recognize what had been done by Theodore but annulled
by Rome in
the matter of the subdivision of his diocese,
and he once more left York and appealed to Rome.
He reached Rome for
the third and last time in 704.
The proceedings at Rome were
very lengthy, but after some months Wilfrid was again
victorious. Archbishop Brihtwald was to hold a synod and
see justice done.
Wilfrid started again for England but
on his way was taken ill at Meaux and nearly died. He recovered,
however, and came back to England,
where he was reconciled to Brihtwald. A synod was held, and it
was decided to give back to Wilfrid, Hexham and Ripon,
but not York, a settlement which, though unsatisfactory, he decided to
accept, as the principle of Roman authority had been vindicated.
Beyond all others of his time, St. Wilfrid stands out as the great
defender of the rights of
the Holy
See. For that principle he fought all through his life, first
against Colman and the Scottish monks from Iona,
and then against Theodore and his successor in the See
of Canterbury; and much of his life was spent in exile for this reason. But
to him above all others is due the establishment of the authority of the Roman
See in England,
and for that reason he will always have a very high place
among English saints.
Eddius, the biographer of St. Wilfrid, was brought by
that saint from Canterbury when
he returned to York in 669. His special work was to be in connection
with the music of the church of York, and he was to teach
the Roman method of chant. He was an inmate of the monastery of Ripon in
709, when St. Wilfrid spent his last days there, and he undertook the work
of writing the life of the saint at
the request of Acca, St. Wilfrid's successor in the See
of Hexham. The best edition of the work is in Raines, "Historians
of the Church of York" (Rolls Series).
Barnes,
Arthur. "St. Wilfrid." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol.
15. New York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1912. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15621c.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Paul Knutsen.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D.,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2023 by Kevin Knight.
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15621c.htm
Wilfrid (Walfridus,
Willferder) of York, OSB B (RM)
Born in Ripon,
Northumbria, 634; died at Oundle, in 709. Son of a thane, Saint Wilfrid joined
the court of King Oswy of Northumbria when he was 13, and became a favorite of
Queen Saint Eanfleda, who sent him to Lindisfarne for his education. There he
become a monk during the Celtic régime. He studied in Canterbury under Saint
Honorius and became an adherent of Roman liturgical practices.
Then he left England for
Rome in 653-654 in the company of Saint Benet Biscop. After a year at Lyons,
where he refused an offer to marry Bishop Saint Annemund's niece, he arrived in
Rome, where he studied under Boniface, Pope Saint Martin's secretary. Wilfrid's
studies here convinced him that his own Christian formation, rich in
traditional learning and spirituality, was in some respects bereft of some
important religious wealth.
He then spent three years
at Lyons, where he received the tonsure, Roman instead of Celtic style, but
escaped with his life when Annemund was murdered by Ebroin at Châlon-sur-Saône,
because he was a foreigner.
He returned to England in
about 660, he was appointed abbot of Ripon monastery where he introduced the
Roman observance, and was asked by King Alcfrid of Deira to instruct his people
in the Roman rite. When the monks at Ripon decided to return to their native
Melrose rather than abandon their Celtic customs, Wilfrid was appointed abbot.
He introduced the Roman usage and the rule of Saint Benedict to the monastery,
was ordained, and was a leader in replacing Celtic practices with Roman in
northern England.
The Synod of Whitby was
convened at Saint Hilda's monastery at Saint Streaneschalch (Whitby) to
determine the practices of the Church in England. A primary question was the
dating of Easter, which had troubled many humble Christians in Britain because
the Celtic and Roman churches differed in how the date was determined. King
Oswy opened the synod by saying that all who serve the one God ought to observe
one rule of life.
Bishop Saint Colman of
Lindisfarne argued in favor of the Celtic way. He pointed out that they derived
their method of calculating the date of Easter from Saint John. Saint Wilfrid
countered: "Far be it from me to charge Saint John with foolishness."
Then he added that the Roman method derived from Saint Peter.
When he concluded, King Oswy
said, "I tell you, Peter is the guardian of the gates of heaven. Our Lord
gave him the keys of the kingdom. I shall not contradict him. In everything I
shall do my best to obey his commands. Otherwise, when I reach the gates of the
kingdom of heaven, he who holds the keys may not agree to open up for me."
When the Roman party
triumphed at the council held in 664, largely through his efforts, Alcfrid
named him bishop of York, but since Wilfrid regarded the northern bishops who
had refused to accept the decrees of Whitby as schismatic, he went to
Compiègne, France, to be ordained.
Delayed until 666 in his
return, he found that Saint Chad had been appointed bishop of York by King Oswy
of Northumbria; rather than contest the election of Chad, Wilfrid returned to
Ripon. But in 669 the new archbishop of Canterbury, Saint Theodore, ruled
Chad's election irregular, removed him, and restored Wilfrid as bishop of York.
He made a visitation of his entire diocese, restored his cathedral, and
instituted Roman liturgical chant in all his churches.
Oswy was succeeded by
King Egfrid, whom Wilfrid had alienated by encouraging Egfrid's wife, Saint
Etheldreda, in refusing the king's marital rights and becoming a nun at
Coldingham. At Egfrid's insistence, the metropolitan Theodore in 678 divided
the see of York into four dioceses despite the objections of Wilfrid, who was
deposed.
Wilfrid went to Rome to
appeal the decision in 677--the first known appeal of an English bishop to
Rome. He spent the winter in Friesland making converts, and when he arrived in
Rome in 679 he was restored to his see by Pope Saint Agatho.
When Wilfrid returned to
England in 680, Egfrid refused to accept the pope's order and imprisoned
Wilfrid for nine months. When freed he went to Sussex. From Selsey he
energetically evangelized the heathen South Saxons, converted practically all
the inhabitants, and built a monastery at Selsey on land donated by King
Ethelwalh.
On the death of Egfrid in
battle in 685, Wilfrid met with Theodore, who asked his forgiveness for his
actions in deposing him and ordaining the bishops of the newly formed dioceses
in Wilfrid's cathedral at York.
In 686 Egfrid's
successor, King Aldfrid, at Theodore's request, recalled Wilfrid and restored
him to Ripon, but the peace lasted only five years. Aldfrid quarreled with
Wilfrid and exiled him in 691. Wilfrid went to Mercia, where at the request of
King Ethelred he administered the vacant see of Litchfield.
In 703 Theodore's
successor, Saint Berhtwald, at Aldfrid's instigation, called a synod that
ordered Wilfrid to resign his bishopric and retire to Ripon. When he still
refused to accept the division of his see, he again went to Rome, where Pope
John VI upheld him and ordered Berhtwald to call a synod clearing Wilfrid. Only
when Aldfrid died in 705, repenting of his actions against Wilfrid, was a
compromise worked out by which Wilfrid was appointed bishop of Hexham while
Saint John of Beverly remained as bishop of York.
Wilfrid died at Saint
Andrew's Monastery in Oundle, Northamptonshire, while on a visitation of
monasteries he had founded in Mercia.
Saint Wilfrid was an
outstanding figure of his time, a very able and courageous man, holding
tenaciously to his convictions in spite of consequent embroilments with civil
and ecclesiastical authorities. He was the first Englishman to carry a lawsuit
to the Roman courts and was successful in helping to bring the discipline of
the English church more into line with that of Rome and the continent. His
vicissitudes and misfortunes have somewhat obscured his abilities as a
missionary, not only among the South Saxons but also for a brief period in
Friesland in 678-79; his preaching there may be taken as the starting point of
the great English mission to the Germanic peoples on the European mainland
(Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Colgrave, Delaney, Duckett, Encyclopedia,
Webb).
In art, Wilfrid is
presented as a bishop either (1) baptizing; (2) preaching; (3) landing from a
ship and received by the king; or (4) engaged in theological disputation with
his crozier near him and a lectern before him. Venerated at Ripon, Sompting
(Sussex), and Frisia (Roeder).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/1012.shtml
St. Wilfred, Bishop of
York, Confessor
From his life written by
Eddi Stephani, precentor of the church of Canterbury, in the same age, prior to
Bede, ap. Mabill. Act. Ben. t. 3, p. 170; t. 5, p. 676. Bede, Hist. l. 3, c.
25, &c. Also Fredegodus, by order of St. Odo of Canterbury, and Eadmer,
secretary to St. Anselm, wrote his life. Among the moderns, Mr. Peck has
compiled his life at large in his history of Stamford, l. 2. See also Johnson’s
Collection of English Canons, and Mr. Smith’s App. in Bedam, n. 18, 19. His
life in the English-Saxon language, MSS. Bibl. Cotton. Julius, A. X.
A.D. 709
ST. WILFRID, in
English-Saxon Willferder, to whose zealous labours several churches both in our
island and abroad were indebted for their conversion to Christ, was born in the
kingdom of Northumberland, towards the year 634. At fourteen years of age he
was sent to the monastery of Lindisfarne that he might be trained up in the
study of the sacred sciences, in which he discovered an application,
penetration, and maturity of judgment beyond his years. A desire of greater
improvement than he could attain to in that house, where he perceived the
discipline that was practised to be imperfect, put him upon a project of
travelling into France and Italy. He made some stay at Canterbury, where he
studied the Roman discipline, and learned the psalter according to the Roman
version, instead of that of St. Jerom, which he had used before. In 653,
according to Mr. Smith, St. Bennet Biscop, his countryman, passed through Kent
on his first journey to Rome; and St. Wilfrid, who had set out with the same
design, crossed the seas with him, but with an intention to visit the most
famous monasteries in his way, the better to instruct himself in the rules of
Christian perfection. At Lyons they were detained a whole year by St.
Delphinus, surnamed Annemund, archbishop of that city, who conceived so great
an affection for Wilfrid that he offered him his niece in marriage, and
promised to procure him a considerable employment; but the saint continued
steadfast in the resolution he had taken to devote himself to God, and
proceeded on his journey the year following. At Rome he devoutly visited every
day the tombs of the martyrs, and contracted a friendship with Boniface, the
archdeacon, who was a very pious and a very learned man; he was secretary to
the holy pope St. Martin, and took as much delight in instructing young Wilfrid
as if he had been his own child. He carefully explained to him the four
gospels, and the right calculation of Easter against the erroneous practice of
the Britons and Irish; likewise the other rules of ecclesiastical discipline.
At length he presented him to the pope, who gave him his blessing by the
imposition of his hands, and prayer. After this, Wilfrid left Rome, from whence
he brought relics, and returned to Lyons to the archbishop, whom he reverenced
as his father. He staid three years at Lyons, and received the ecclesiastical
tonsure from St. Delphinius, who desired to make him his heir; but was put to
death at Challons upon the Saone, by the order of Ebroin, in 658. He is
honoured at Lyons as a martyr on the 29th of September, being commonly called
St. Chaumont. Wilfrid accompanied him to the place of execution, and would have
been glad to have died for him or with him. After he had interred his spiritual
father, he returned into England loaded with relics.
Alcfrid, natural son of
Oswi, who at that time reigned over the Deiri, (his father contenting himself
with Bernicia,) being informed that Wilfrid had been instructed in the
discipline of the Roman Church, sent for him, and received him as an angel from
heaven. After he had discoursed with him concerning several customs of that
church, he conjured him to continue with him, to instruct him and his people in
ecclesiastical discipline. This St. Wilfrid consented to, and the prince
entered into an intimate friendship with him, and gave him land at Rippon to
found a monastery upon, which our saint governed and richly endowed. Assisted by
the munificence of the king, he distributed very considerable sums in alms, was
exceedingly beloved and respected on account of his virtues, and was even
looked upon as a prophet. Agilbert, bishop of the West-Saxons, coming to pay a
visit to King Oswi and his son, Aclfrid entreated him to ordain Wilfrid priest,
that he might remain always near his person. Agilbert said, that a person of
such merit ought to be promoted to a bishopric; and ordained him priest in 663,
in the monastery of Rippon. The Northumbrians had relapsed into idolatry after
the death of King Edwin; but St. Oswald obtained St. Aidan, the holy Irish monk
of Hij, for bishop, and planted the faith again in that kingdom. St. Aiden
resided, not at York, as St. Paulinus had done, but at Lindisfarne. Finan and
Colman, his countrymen, succeeded him, and had all the kingdom of
Northumberland for their diocess. These Scots or Irish followed an erroneous
calculation of Easter; and King Oswi who had been instructed by them, and his
queen Eanflede, daughter of Edwin, who came from Kent, sometimes kept Lent and
Easter at different times in the same court. The Scots and Britons herein were
not schismatics, as Rapin and some others pretend; for they did not coincide
with the Quartodecimans, who had been condemned by the church, nor had this
difference between the Scots and the universal church then proceeded to a
breach of communion. To put an end to this dispute, in 664 a conference was
held in the great monastery of St. Hilda, at Streaneshalch, now Whitby, before
the kings Oswi and Alcfrid. Colman brought thither his Scottish clergy; on the
other side, Agilbert, bishop of West-Sex or Dorchester, had with him Agatho, a
priest from Paris, Romanus, the abbot Wilfrid, and the deacon James. Colman
alleged the example of his predecessors, and of St. Columba himself, and
pretended that practice to have been established in Asia, by St. John the
Evangelist; which assertion it would have been a difficult task to prove. 1 Wilfrid
replied, that the agreement of all the churches in Africa, Asia, Egypt, Greece,
Gaul, Rome, Italy, and the rest of the world, ought to have more weight than
that of the Picts and Britons in a part of the two remotest islands of the
ocean; that St. John could not reject at once all the observances of the law,
so long as the church judaized in some points; but that after the death of St.
John the custom which St. Peter established at Rome, was observed by his
successors in Asia, and by the universal church, and was commanded by the
Nicene council: that the Britons and Picts neither followed St. Peter, nor St.
John, neither the law nor the gospel; that Columba and the rest of their
ancestors were without fault, because they knew no better; but that they were
inexcusable who refused to be instructed. He added that Christ said to St.
Peter: Thou art Peter, &c. 2 Hereupon
King Oswi said: “Do you all acknowledge, of both parties, that our Lord said
this particularly to Peter, and that the Lord gave him the keys of the kingdom
of heaven?” They replied: “We acknowledge it.” Then he concluded: “I declare,
that I will not oppose this keeper of the gate of heaven, and that I will obey
his orders to the utmost of my power, lest he shut that gate against me.” This
resolution of the king was approved by the whole assembly. Rapin confesses that
Oswi acknowledged a prerogative of St. Peter above the rest of the apostles,
and that on this account he preferred the practice which he had established at
Rome, to that which he thought derived from St. John. 3 It
is evident from the very silence of both parties, that the Scots or Irish and
Britons never called in question the supremacy of the bishop of Rome. Another
difference which regarded the tonsure was agitated in this conference. The
Romans made it quite round the head, to resemble, they said, our Lord’s crown
of thorns. This was called St. Peter’s Tonsure: the other, called by derision
Simon Magus’s, was only a semicircle shaved from ear to ear above the forehead,
not reaching to the hinder part, which was covered with hair. 4 Bede
mentions no decision with regard to this point, which was left to the custom of
each place. St. Cedd, bishop of Essex or London, who was present at this
conference, and, being a native of Deira, had followed the Scottish customs,
declared upon the spot that he embraced the Roman discipline: but Colman said
he would consult with his brethren, the monks of Jona, and retired to them with
his Scottish priests. Tuda was consecrated bishop of Northumberland in his
room, but soon after died of a pestilence which raged in England in 664. He had
been educated and ordained by the Southern Irish, but conformed to the Roman
discipline; he was much lamented on account of his virtue. King Alcfrid desired
to have his own priest Wilfrid placed in the episcopal see, and sent him into
France, to receive consecration at the hands of his old friend Agilbert, who,
seeing his diocess of West-Sex divided, and another bishop, named Wina, placed
at Venta, called by the Saxons Wintacestir, now Winchester, returned to France,
which was his native country, where the bishopric of Paris was given him.
Wilfrid being absent a long time on this journey, Oswi caused St. Ceadda, or
Chad, abbot of Lestingau, a disciple of St. Aidan, to be ordained bishop. The
see of Canterbury being vacant by the death of Deusdedit, he was consecrated by
Wina, bishop of Winchester, who was the only bishop at that time in Great
Britain that had been canonically ordained. Agilbert joyfully received Wilfrid,
and, with twelve other bishops, performed the ceremony of his ordination with
great solemnity at Compiegne. St. Wilfrid was then in the thirtieth year of his
age, in 664; he was carried by the bishops in a golden chair, according to the
custom of the Gauls.
At his return into
England he would not dispute the election of St. Chad; but retired to Rippon,
which monastery he made his residence for three years, though he was often
called into Mercia by King Wulfere, to ordain deacons and priests and to
perform other episcopal functions. Oswi having defeated and slain Penda in 655,
conquered all that kingdom; but, three years after, made Peada, Penda’s son, to
whom he had given his daughter in marriage, king of that part which lay south
of the Trent; but Peada dying soon after, Oswi again united that country to his
own dominions. Not long after, the Mercians took up arms, and placed Wulfere,
Penda’s second son, upon the throne in 659. This prince was for some time a
pagan, or at least favoured the pagans; but at length became a zealous
propagator of the faith, and governed by the counsels of St. Wilfrid, who
founded monasteries and churches in several parts of Mercia. Mr. Peck
endeavours to prove, 5 that
the priory of St. Leonard, about a quarter of a mile out of Stamford, was built
by St. Wilfrid, though rebuilt, in honour of St. Leonard, by William, bishop of
Durham, in the reign of the Conqueror, and only then dedicated in honour of St.
Leonard. 6 St.
Theodorus, archbishop of Canterbury, in his visitation, found the election of
St. Chad to have been irregular, and removed him; but, charmed with his
humility and virtue, placed him in the see of Litchfield. At the same time he
put St. Wilfrid in possession of the see of York, in 669, before the death of
Oswi, which happened in 670. Upon his demise, Alcfrid was obliged by the people
to leave the throne to Egfrid, the eldest legitimate son of Oswi. St. Wilfrid
consecrated the great church of St. Peter, which he had built at Rippon, in
presence of the new king, in 670; and afterwards that of St. Andrew at Hexham,
and several others. Being a man of most persuasive oratory and strict virtue,
he promoted every where religion and piety with incredible success. He invited
out of Kent the precentor Eddi Stephani, who became from that time his constant
companion, and afterwards wrote his life. With his assistance the saint
established, in all the churches of the north, the use of Plain-song, which St.
Gregory the Great instituted in the church-music, and admirably well adapted it
to every different part of the divine office, as Franchini observes; 7 in
which it is easier and more becoming than that which is performed with a
harmonious discord of voices and variation of melody. 8 The
monastic state was a principal object of St. Wilfrid’s care; and this he
settled among the Midland and Northern English, as St. Austin had established
it in Kent. 9
King Egfrid had taken to
wife St. Audry, who preferring a religious life, according to the liberty which
the church has always understood, by constant tradition, to be allowed by the
divine law before cohabition, St. Wilfrid endeavoured at first to engage her to
change her resolution; but finding her inflexible in it, at length consented to
give her the veil. This action exceedingly provoked the king; and his new Queen
Ermenberga employed every base and little means entirely to ruin him in the
opinion of her husband. In order to undermine him, a project was set on foot
for dividing his bishopric, after the holy prelate had spent ten years in
settling Christianity in it. Theodorus, the archbishop of Canterbury and
metropolitan of all England, was gained by specious pretences, and parcelled
his great diocess, consecrating Bosa to the see of York, for the Deiri; Eata to
that of Lindisfarne, for Bernicia; and Eadhed to the church of Lindissi or great
part of Lincolnshire, which Egfrid had won from Mercia. 10 This
passed in the year 678. Eadhed resided first at Sidnacester, near Gainsborough;
but after King Wulfere had recovered Lindsey and all Lincolnshire, he retired
to Rippon. Wilfrid, for opposing this partition, was rejected; but appealed to
the pope. Dreading a disturbance or schism, he raised no clamour; but being too
well versed in the canons not to see the irregularity and nullity of many steps
that had been taken against him embarked for Rome. Being driven by contrary
winds at sea upon the coast of Friesland, he was moved to compassion upon
seeing the spiritual blindness and idolatry of the inhabitants, and preached
the faith to them. During that winter and the following spring he staid among
them, converted and baptized many thousands, with several lords of the country.
Thus he opened that harvest which St. Willibrord and others, excited by his
example, afterwards cultivated. Wilfrid is honoured to this day as the apostle
of that country. 11 Ebroin,
either through the solicitations of the saint’s enemies in England, or on the
score of his enmity on account of St. Delphinus of Lyons, sent letters to
Adalgise, king of Friesland, promising to give him a bushel of gold, if he
would send him Bishop Wilfrid, or his head. The king read the letters publicly
before Wilfrid, the messengers, and his own officers, and tearing them to
pieces with indignation, threw them into the fire, expressing the utmost
execration of so detestable a treachery.
Next summer Wilfrid,
leaving his new converts with great reluctance under the direction of proper
pastors, travelled through Austrasia, where King Dagobert II. entertained him
most honourably, and entreated him to fill the bishopric of Strasburg, which
happened then to be vacant. Upon his refusal, this prince made him very
considerable presents, and sent Adeodatus, bishop of Toul, to accompany him to
Rome, where he arrived late in the year 679. He found Pope Agatho already
apprised of what had passed in England, by a monk whom Theodorus had despatched
on his side with letters. The pope was preparing to hold a great council
against the Monothelites. In the meantime, to discuss this cause, he assembled
a synod in October, 679, in the Lateran basilic, or church of our Saviour,
consisting of above fifty bishops and priests, chiefly of the Suburbicarian
churches (i. e. of part of Italy and those of Sicily), though their names
are strangely mangled in Sir Henry Spelman’s copy. 12 The
causes of the dissension in the British church having been weighed, it was
decreed, by the authority of St. Peter, that there should be in it one
archbishop honoured with the pall, who should promote and canonically ordain
the bishops to the other sees; but that none of the bishops should presume to
meddle with the rights of any other prelate, but all should study to instruct
and convert the people. After this, St. Wilfrid was admitted to the council,
though Johnson thinks this a second council, held soon after the first, in the
same place; and that St. Wilfrid was not arrived at Rome when the first was
convened, but had only stated his case to the pope by letters. Having presented
his petition in person to the pope and bishops assembled, the synod exceedingly
commended his moderation, in that he had raised no disturbance or resistance by
contumacy, but had been content calmly to enter his protestation and appeals,
professing that he would submit to whatever was determined: and it was
definitively decreed, that he should be restored to his bishopric. Mr. Johnson
takes notice that St. Wilfrid never claimed any archiepiscopal jurisdiction,
and that this synod 13 expressly
says, the sacerdotal primacy in Britain was settled by St. Gregory and St.
Austin in the see of Canterbury; whence this author imagines St. Gregory
altered his first decree or purpose by some posterior regulation. St. Wilfrid
staid above four months at Rome, and assisted at the great Lateran council of
one hundred and twenty-five bishops, in which he, with the rest, condemned the
Monothelite heresy. When he arrived in England, he repaired to the king, and
showed him the sealed decrees of the pope. The prince, when he had first caused
them to be read to the prelates of his own faction that were in the room with
him, cried out, they had been obtained by bribery, and commanded a certain
reeve (or steward of the church for secular affairs) to commit Wilfrid to prison,
where he was detained nine months. They took from him everything but the
clothes which he then wore, and sent his attendants some one way, and some
another. Queen Ermenberga took away his case of relics, which she hung up in
her chamber, and carried about with her in her chariot, when she went out. The
holy bishop’s guards heard him sing psalms in his dark dungeon, and beheld a
light which terrified them; and the saint having cured the governor’s wife with
holy water, he refused to guard him any longer, and the king ordered him to be
removed to another prison. At length the queen was seized with a sudden fit of
sickness in a monastery, the abbess whereof (who was Ebba, the king’s aunt)
represented to her the injustice done to St. Wilfrid: whereupon he was set at
liberty, his relics were restored, and his companions were sent back to him.
St. Wilfrid, who was
inflamed with an ardent zeal for the conversion of infidels and the salvation
of souls, repaired to the kingdom of the South Saxons, which had not yet
received the light of faith. Edilwalch, the king, who had been lately baptized
in Mercia, where King Wulphere was his godfather, received him with open arms;
and the saint, by his preaching, converted the whole nation, with all the
priests of the idols. That country was oppressed with a dreadful famine, no
rain having fallen there for three years; but on the day on which St. Wilfrid
first administered baptism with great solemnity to an incredible number of the
nobility and people, abundant rains fell. The saint also taught the people to
fish, which was a great relief to them. In the first essay they caught three
hundred fishes, of which the saint induced them to give one hundred to the
poor, and as many to those of whom they had borrowed their nets, keeping the
like number for their own use. The king gave him land of eighty-seven families,
on which he built two monasteries, Bosenham and Selsey, that is, Isle of the
Sea-Calf. This latter place became an episcopal see, which was afterwards
removed to Chichester. The saint sent a priest into the Isle of Wight, whither
the faith had not penetrated, and he had the satisfaction to see all the
inhabitants regenerated in the waters of life. Cadwalla, king of the West
Saxons, to whom that island was then subject, sent for St. Wilfrid, and took
his advice. The saint chiefly resided in the peninsula of Selsey, and
cultivated this vineyard five years, till, upon the death of King Egfrid, he
was called back into Northumberland. That prince was slain in battle by the
Picts, whose country he had invaded in 685. As he left no issue, Alcfrid, his
natural brother, was sent for out of Ireland, whither he had retired, and a
second time mounted the throne. St. Theodorus being above fourscore years of
age, and seized with frequent fits of sickness, sent to St. Wilfrid, requesting
that he would meet him at London, with Erchambald, bishop of that city. He
confessed to them all the actions of his life; then said to St. Wilfrid: “The
greatest remorse that I feel is, that I consented with the king to deprive you
of your possessions, without any fault committed on your part. I confess this
my crime to God and St. Peter; and I take them both to witness, that I will do
all that lies in my power to make amends for my fault, and to reconcile you to
all the kings and lords who are my friends. God hath revealed to me that I
shall not live to the end of this year. I conjure you to consent that I may
establish you in my life-time archbishop of my see.” St. Wilfrid replied: “May
God and St. Peter pardon you all our differences. I will always pray for you as
your friend. Send letters to your friends, that they may restore to me part of
my possessions, according to the decree of the holy see. The choice of a
successor in your see will be afterwards considered in a proper assembly.”
Pursuant to this engagement St. Theodorus wrote to King Alcfrid, to Ethelred,
king of the Mercians, to Elfleda, who had succeeded St. Hilda in the abbey of
Streaneshalch, and others. Alcfrid having received these letters, recalled the
holy bishop in the second year of his reign, towards the end of the year 686,
and restored to him, first his monastery of Hexham, and soon after that of
Rippon, and the episcopal see of York; Bosa of York, and St. John of Beverley,
at Hexham, relinquishing their sees to him. Theodorus had first parcelled it
into three, afterwards into five bishoprics, consecrating Tunbert to Hexham,
and Trumwin to the diocess of the Southern Picts, subject to the kings of
Northumberland, whose see was fixed at Withern. These bishops were holy men,
well qualified for their ministry, and, in simplicity, took upon themselves a
charge which their immediate superiors imposed upon them.
St. Wilfrid, after his
restoration, reduced Hexham and Rippon to their original condition of mere
monasteries; and St. Cuthbert who had from the beginning sustained the
episcopal charge only in obedience and by compulsion, retired to Farne upon St.
Wilfrid’s return, and died there the following year, 687; so that St. Wilfrid
was obliged to take upon him the care also of the diocess of Lindisfarne, till
a new bishop could be chosen. The irreproachable conduct, the vigilancy, and
the indefatigable zeal of our holy prelate ought to have stopped the mouths of
his enemies; but these very virtues, which enraged the devil, raised new storms
against him. King Alcfrid would have a new bishopric elected at Rippon: St.
Wilfrid opposed the project, and was obliged once more to fly, in 691, five
years after he had been restored. He retired to Ethelred, King of the Mercians,
who received him most graciously, and entreated him to take upon himself the
care of the see of Litchfield, which was then vacant. The good bishop’s
discourses on the vanity of the world, and the infinite importance of
salvation, made such an impression on the king, that, in hopes more easily to
secure a happy eternity, he soon after relinquished his crown, and put on the
monastic habit. Our saint founded many monasteries and churches in Mercia, and
usefully employed there his labours; till, finding his enemies in
Northumberland had gained Brithwald, Archbishop of Canterbury, and were
soliciting a sentence of deposition against him, he appealed a second time to
Rome, and took another journey thither in 703. His accusers appeared there against
him, but to their own confusion. Pope John VI. honourably acquitted the saint,
who had in every thing proceeded according to the canons. His very enemies
always acknowledged his life to be irreproachable; and a bishop cannot be
deposed unless a canonical fault be proved against him in a synod. If it was
necessary to divide his bishopric, this was not to be done without his
concurrence, and withal reserving to him his own see; the authority at least
not of some small consistory, but of a full provincial council, in the West,
also of the pope, and in the East of the patriarch of that part, ought to
intervene, as many instances in France and other places long before that time,
clearly show. Moreover, this persecution was raised by court envy, jealousy, and
resentment. These were the instruments which conjured up the storm, and the
secret springs which put in motion the engines that were employed against this
servant of God through the simplicity or ignorance of many, the malice of some,
and the complaisance and condescension of others. The holy prelate being the
best skilled in sacred learning and in the canons of the Church in all Britain,
as St. Theodorus on his death-bed acknowledged him to be, was too great a
disciplinarian for some at court. How pure his views were, and how remote from
avarice and ambition, appeared from his charity towards his persecutors, the
meekness with which he maintained the rights of his see, and the discipline of
the Church, and the humility and disinterestedness with which he refused the
bishopric of the Mercians, and excused himself from acquiescing in the earnest
request of St. Theodorus, when he desired to make him his coadjutor in the
metropolitical see of Canterbury. 14 If
he was rich, he knew no other use of what he possessed than to employ it in the
foundation of churches, and in the relief of the poor. He rejoiced to see
others share the fruits of his harvest; and though traversed in every advance
that he made, he never threw away the labouring oar, or grew remiss in his
ministry, or in quickening others to the utmost exertion of their zeal in the
cause of God. Such a character appeared in the most shining light to all
impartial judges, and St. Wilfrid met at Rome with that protection and applause
which were due to his heroic virtue. Pope John VI. in 704, sent letters 15 by
an express messenger to the kings of Mercia and Northumberland in favour of the
persecuted bishop, charging Archbishop Brithwald to call a synod which should
do him justice; in default of which he ordered the parties to make their
personal appearance at Rome.
St. Wilfrid, in his
return, was taken dangerously ill at Meaux in France: under which distemper
Bede relates 16 that
he was assured by a heavenly vision, that Christ, through the intercession of
his mother, the Holy Virgin Mary, and at the prayers of his friends, had
prolonged his life four years. When he landed in England, Archbishop Brithwald
promised him heartily to concur to his restoration to his former see. Ethelred,
the late King of Mercia, then abbot of Bardney, received him with great joy,
and warmly recommended him to his nephew Coënred, to whom he had resigned his
crown when he forsook the world. Coënred was so inflamed with the love of
heavenly things by the converse he had with the holy man, that he conceived a
great desire also to renounce the world; which project he afterwards executed
in the year 709, of his reign the fourth, when he travelled to Rome with Offa,
king of the East-Saxons, and both put on the monastic habit, and, persevering
with great fervour to their last hours, died happily in that city. Alcfrid,
King of Northumberland, yet made difficulties; but died in 705, and, in his
last sickness, repented of the injustice he had done to St. Wilfrid, as his
sister Elfleda, abbess of Streaneshalch, gave testimony. His restitution,
therefore, was easily agreed to by the whole kingdom, under Osred, who being
only eight years old, succeeded his father, Brithric being regent during his
minority. St. Wilfrid took possession of the diocess of Hexham, but chiefly
resided in his monastery of Rippon, leaving York to St. John of Beverley. He
governed the monasteries in Mercia, of which he had been the founder, and which
were afterwards destroyed by the Danes. He died at one of these at Undalum, now
called Oundle, in Northamptonshire, on the 24th of April, 709, having divided
his treasures between his monasteries, churches, and the former companions of
his exile. His body was buried in his church of St. Peter at Rippon. 17 That
monastery having been destroyed by the wars, the greatest part of his remains
was translated to Canterbury in the time of St. Odo, and deposited under the
high altar, in 959. They were enshrined by Lanfranc, and deposited on the north
side of the altar by St. Anselm, on the 12th of October: the day of which
translation became his principal festival. These relics are said now to repose
near the monument of that truly great man, Cardinal Pole.
True virtue is always of
a piece with itself, is always governed by the same principle, and always
steers the same course. In prosperity it is humble, modest, and timorous; in
adversity, magnanimous, and equally active and brave. To suffer from good men
is often the severest of trials: but from whatever quarter persecution comes,
it is our duty not to sink under it, but sincerely humbling ourselves both
before God and man, we must not be daunted, considering that on one side it is
the part of cowards only to be pusillanimous, or to despair; and, on the other,
it is arrogance and pride to fall into impatience, or to repay injuries with
revenge, insults, or ill will. St. Wilfrid saw the clouds gather, and ready to
burst over his head; yet was undaunted. He never reviled his persecutors—never
complained of the envy and malice of those who stirred up whole kingdoms
against him. Envy died with him: and immediately the whole world gave due
praise to the purity of his intentions, the ardour of his zeal for virtue and
discipline, and the sanctity of his life. The historians of our nation
unanimously conspire in paying a grateful tribute to his memory, which is
consecrated in the Roman and other Martyrologies.
Note 1. If any of
the apostles who lived among the Jews tolerated for some time a coinciding of
Easter with the Jewish Pasch, at least the contrary rule was always the general
discipline of the church, which the apostles established to show the
distinction and the liberty of the new law, as for the same purpose they
changed the Sabbath into Sunday. When the general council of Nice, in 325, had
condemned the custom of keeping Easter with the Jews on the fourteenth day of
the first lunar month nearest the spring equinox, those who obstinately
persisted in that practice were called Quartodecimans, and were schismatics,
&c. They who held that practice to be of precept from the Jewish law, were
always heretics. The Scots or Irish, in the fifth and sixth centuries, kept Easter
on a Sunday, not on the fourteenth day, with the Quartodecimans and Jews,
unless when this fourteenth day was the Sunday, by which they differed widely
from the practice that was condemned at Nice, yet fell short of perfect
conformity with the universal church. [back]
Note 3. Rapin
Thoyras, Hist. d’Angleterre, l. 3, t. 1, p. 246, ed. Gallic. [back]
Note 4. There was
likewise the Oriental Tonsure called St. Paul’s, which some monks used also in
the West; this consisted in shaving the whole head. The use of ecclesiastical
tonsures seems only to have been introduced in the fourth or fifth century
after the persecutions, as a mark of a person’s being consecrated to God, and
in imitation of Christ’s crown of thorns. See Bona Rerum Liturg. Smith in Bed.
Append. p. 715; Fleury, l. 39. [back]
Note 5. History of
Stamford, l. 2. [back]
Note 6. Bede tells
us, that King Alcfrid bestowed on St. Wilfrid land of thirty families at
Stamford, where he built a monastery before he founded that of Rippon. Mr.
Smith is inclined to think this Stamford was situated on the Derwent in
Yorkshire. But ancient MSS. and writers call it Stamford in Lincolnshire, as Mr.
Smith confesses; and after Oswi’s victory over Penda, all Mercia was subjected
to the Northumbrians, till Oswi constituted Peada rather viceroy than king of
South-Mercia; so that St. Wilfrid might build a church in that country. (See
Mr. Peck’s History of Stamford.) After King Wulfere, his brother became
independent in Mercia, Lindsey, and probably almost all Lincolnshire, was again
conquered by the Northumbrians, and obeyed them for some years. This church of
St. Leonard’s, near Stamford, was formerly a place of great devotion. The nave,
or middle aisle is still standing, and shows the remains of a stately pile, and
of costly and excellent workmanship, though it is now converted into a barn,
for the use of a new farm-house. In digging the foundations of this house some
stone coffins were found, which are used for troughs, and the bones of the
illustrious dead interred there were scattered about the fields with an
indecency which the pagan Romans would have called sacrilegious. Mr. Hearn, in
his Preface to Textus Roffensis, p. 43, speaking of the ruins of Rewley, (alias
North-Ousney,) an abbey of Cistercians, near Oxford, says: “Great quantities of
men’s bones are frequently dug up, which are often barbarously used, without
considering that the persons there buried were renowned for all sorts of
virtues, particularly for justice, clemency, and bounty towards the poor. But I
foresee what the advocates of sacrilege will say,” &c. See the like
invectives of Mr. Stephens and others, which might seem too harsh if here
inserted. The pagan Romans punished a wilful violation, or removing the stones,
of a sepulchre, with great rigour, calling it a sacrilege, and a crime against
the public next in guilt to that of treason. See Gutherius De Jure Manium, l.
3, c. 25; De Sepulchro violato ap. Grævium, Antiq. Roman. t. 12. [back]
Note 7. Guido, a
monk of Arezzo, in Tuscany, in 1009, was the inventor of the gamma-ut or gamut,
and the six notes, Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La; which syllables are taken
from the three first verses of the hymn of St. John Baptist, Ut queant
laxis, &c. Without the use of the gamut, a person could not in a
little time become perfect master of plain-song. Guido says, in a letter which
he wrote: “I hope they who come after us will not forget to pray for us. For we
make a perfect master of singing in a year or two; whereas till now a person
could scarcely attain this science, even imperfectly, in ten years.” The gamut
is the first note, but oftener taken for the whole scale of music, or series of
sounds rising or falling towards acuteness or gravity from any given pitch or
tone. Plain-song is that in which all sing in unison; it is executed by fixing
the musical notes within due limits, and ordering or disposing the changes,
risings, and fallings of the voice according to the natural series of the
musical sounds. [back]
Note 8. Smith, in
Bed. App. n. 12, p. 720. [back]
Note 9. See F.
Reyner’s learned work, entitled, Apostolatus Benedictinorum in Angliâ. [back]
Note 10. Johnson’s
Collect. of English Canons. an. 679, pref. [back]
Note 11. See Batavia
Sacra, p. 25. [back]
Note 12. Spelman,
Conc. Brit. vol. 1, p. 158; Labbe’s Councils, t. 6, p. 579. [back]
Note 13. Can.
7. [back]
Note 14. His modesty
is remarkable in never soliciting the metropolitical jurisdiction, which St.
Gregory had ordained should be settled at York, and which had been granted to
St. Paulinus. It had failed in the Scottish bishops who resided at Lindisfarne;
but was recovered in 734, by Egbert or Ecgbright, brother to Eadbyrht, king of
Northumberland, a prelate still more eminent for his superiority in knowledge
than for his high birth, as Bede testifies. He was Alcuin’s master. [back]
Note 15. Extant in
Spelman, pp. 179, 204; but in the latter place falsely ascribed to Pope John
VII. as if it were a different letter. [back]
Note 16. Hist. l. 5,
c. 19. [back]
Note 17. See
Dugdale’s History of the Collegiate Church of St. Peter at Rippon, which was
dissolved 27 Henry VIII. [back]
Rev. Alban
Butler (1711–73). Volume X: October. The Lives of the
Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/10/121.html
.jpg)
October 12, 2024
St. Wilfrid
St. Wilfrid was born
around 634 AD in Northumbria, England. He grew up in a Christian household and
was educated in a monastery, where he developed a deep love for God and the
Church. His early studies took him to Rome, where he was inspired by the rich traditions
of the Catholic faith.
After returning to
England, Wilfrid became a bishop and worked tirelessly to strengthen
Christianity in Northumbria. He played a pivotal role in establishing monastic
communities and promoting the teachings of the Church. Wilfrid was known for
his strong leadership and dedication to the unity of the Church, often
advocating for adherence to Roman customs over local practices, which sometimes
led to conflicts with other church leaders.
Throughout his life,
Wilfrid faced numerous challenges, including political strife and disagreements
with fellow bishops. He endured exile and imprisonment but remained steadfast
in his mission to spread the Gospel. His commitment to education and pastoral
care helped him win the hearts of many, and he was instrumental in the
evangelization of the region. St. Wilfrid passed away around 709 AD and was
later recognized as a saint for his dedication to the Church and his tireless
efforts in promoting the faith.
Practical Lessons:
Lesson 1: Be Open to
Learning and Growth: St. Wilfrid’s journey to Rome taught him about the
broader Christian faith. We can apply this lesson by seeking opportunities to
learn about our faith through reading, attending talks, or engaging in
discussions. For instance, consider joining a Bible study group or
participating in parish events that deepen your understanding of Catholic
teachings.
Lesson 2: Foster Unity in
Your Community: Wilfrid worked hard to promote unity within the Church,
despite facing opposition. In our everyday lives, we can practice fostering
unity by resolving conflicts and promoting understanding among friends, family,
and colleagues. Simple actions, like listening actively to others’ perspectives
or mediating disagreements, can help create a more harmonious environment.
Prayer to St. Wilfrid:
Almighty God, we thank
You for St. Wilfrid, who dedicated his life to spreading the Gospel and uniting
Your Church. Grant that we may follow his example of faith and perseverance.
Help us to seek knowledge and understanding in our faith and to promote unity
and harmony in our communities. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
SOURCE : https://catholicexchange.com/st-hedwig
Pictorial
Lives of the Saints – Saint Wilfrid, Bishop
“A
quick walker, expert at all good works, with never a sour face” – such was the
great Saint Wilfrid, whose glory it was to secure the happy links which bound
England to Rome. He was born about the year 634, and was trained by the Celtic
monks at Lindisfarne in the peculiar rites and usages of the British Church.
Yet even as a boy Wilfrid longed for perfect conformity in discipline, as in
doctrine, with the Holy See, and at the first chance set off himself for Rome.
On his return, he founded at Ripon a strictly Roman monastery, under the rule
of Saint Benedict. In the year 664 he was elected Bishop of Lindisfarne, and
five years later was transferred to the see of York. He had to combat the
passions of wicked kings, the cowardice of worldly prelates, the errors of holy
men. He was twice exiled and once imprisoned; yet the battle which he fought
was won. He swept away the abuses of many years and a too national system, and
substituted instead a vigorous Catholic discipline, modelled and dependent on
Rome. He died October 12th, 709, and at his death was heard the sweet melody of
the angels conducting his soul to Christ.
Reflection – To look
towards Rome is an instinct planted in us for the preservation of the faith.
Trust in the Vicar of Christ necessarily results from the reign of His love in
our hearts.
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/pictorial-lives-of-the-saints-saint-wilfrid-bishop/
Berwick
Church, St Wilfrid stained glass window
Short
Lives of the Saints – Saint Wilfrid, Bishop and Confessor
Born in England in the
seventh century, and destined for an exalted station, the noble Wilfrid left
all for Christ, and fled from the court of the kings of Northumberland to
consecrate himself entirely to the service of God. Having received holy orders
whilst abroad, he returned to England and was created archbishop of York. The
heresy of Pelagius was then prevailing in his archdiocese; and the great mass
of the nobility were leading lives of lamentable disorder. The purity of Saint Wilfrid’s
faith and morals being a manifest reproach to these wretched men, his efforts
to establish discipline won for him many enemies. The holy archbishop was
repeatedly banished from his see, imprisoned, and stripped of all that he
possessed. But his exile, on each occasion, afforded Saint Wilfrid a fresh
opportunity for preaching the Gospel to new and willing hearers. After working,
in this way, many conversions in Friesland and Mercia, the saint peacefully
expired in the year 709.
. . . The
night is gone,
And with the morn those angels faces smile
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.
– Saint John Henry Newman
Favorite Practice – To
make such judicious use of the wrongs inflicted on you that they may serve to
promote the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
MLA
Citation
Eleanor Cecilia Donnelly.
“Saint Wilfrid, Bishop and Confessor”. Short
Lives of the Saints, 1910. CatholicSaints.Info.
22 April 2021. Web. 12 October 2024.
<https://catholicsaints.info/short-lives-of-the-saints-saint-wilfrid-bishop-and-confessor/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/short-lives-of-the-saints-saint-wilfrid-bishop-and-confessor/
St. Wilfred the Elder,
Bishop of York
(AD 634-709): Part 1
It was in the year AD
634, that is "the hateful year" after the death of King
Edwin of Northumbria and the flight of St.
Paulinus, that St. Wilfred was born. He was but a child when he lost his
mother and, when only a boy of thirteen, he parted from his father to enter the
monastery at Lindisfarne, under the patronage of Queen
Enflaed of Northumbria. There, he made rapid progress in his studies,
but there was evidently something that failed to satisfy him in the discipline
of the Celtic monks and he was fired with the desire of visiting Rome, thinking
that there, and there alone, could he learn a more regular mode of life.
The Queen, daughter of the great Edwin & wife of King
Oswiu, encouraged Wilfred in his purpose and in AD 653, upon her advice, he
made his way to the court of Canterbury. Here, he was well received and
forwarded on his way by the lady's kinsman, Erconbert, and, thence in company
with another high-born Northumbrian youth, he passed on, crossed the Channel
and journeyed on through France till he came to Lyons. The Archbishop of that
see took an instant liking to him, being charmed with his beautiful
countenance, his prudence in speech, his quickness in action, his steadiness
and maturity of thought. He offered to adopt him as his son, to give him his
niece in marriage and, it is said, to make him governor of an entire province.
It was a great temptation to a youth of nineteen, but Wilfred had the courage
to resist it. "I have made a vow," he said, "I have left, like
Abraham, my kindred and my father's house in order to visit the Apostolic See,
and there to study the rules of ecclesiastical discipline, that my nation may
profit thereby. If, however, God gives me life, I will return this way and see
you again." And so he journeyed onward and reached the eternal city,
almost the first of a long line of pilgrims from the shores of England to the
Mother city of the West.
It is not difficult to picture the delight and enthusiasm with which he would
visit the various sanctuaries that must have had so deep an interest for him,
as they have to this day for all Christians. However, Wilfred had come there to
learn rather than to see, and accordingly made good use of his time, and gained
all the instruction he could in the rules of ecclesiastical discipline and the
true calculation of Easter from the Archdeacon Boniface. Having knelt to
receive the blessing of the Pope he took his journey homeward, stopping,
according to promise, at Lyons, where he narrowly escaped martyrdom. For the
Archbishop was seized by his persecutors and dragged to execution, entreating
Wilfred to save himself by flight. Wilfred, however, refused to leave one to
whom he owed so much. "What is better," he cried, "than for
father and son to die together and be with Christ?" He too was seized and,
after the murder of the Archbishop, was stripped for execution, when it
suddenly occurred to one of the judges to raise the question, "Who is yon
fair youth preparing for death?" "An Englishman from beyond the
sea," was the answer. No charge had been raised against him and therefore
the judge could not but order his release. "Touch him not, but let him
go." And thus unexpectedly set free, Wilfred lost no time, in escaping
from the country and returning to his own land.
In England, his advance was rapid. There must have been something singularly
bright and arresting about him, as in his early years we find him winning the
hearts of all with whom he came in contact. When still a boy he had completely
captivated Queen Enflaed. In the same way, the Archbishop of Lyons was won by
him; and now the young Alcfrith, King of Deira under the overlordship of his
father, Oswiu. The two struck up a firm friendship which so increased in
fervour that Wilfred's biographer could only compare it to that between David
and Jonathan. Lands and honours were showered upon the young churchman and he
was soon granted the monastery of Ripon, which the monks of Melrose found
themselves obliged to vacate. Thus began his connection with the place with
which his name is inseparably associated, a place which he loved better than
any other and within which, at length, he found a grave.
For three years, Wilfred ruled the monastery, happily and wisely, as abbot. His
charities endeared him to the poor, whose needs at all times moved his generous
heart. He won the respect and affection of all classes and men spoke of the
Abbot of Ripon as humble and tranquil, occupied in devotion and in almsgiving,
benignant, sober, modest and merciful. But there was one thing that disturbed
the quiet of his time there.
It seemed to Wilfred that in the customs he had learned at Rome and the
calculation of Easter he had received there, he had found a more excellent way
than that known to those about him, the members of the Celtic Church to whom he
owed his first lessons in the rudiments of Christianity. There were others who
agreed with him on these subjects, notably the Queen Enflaed and James the
Deacon, the sole survivor of the mission of Paulinus. Also Agilbert,
the exiled Bishop of Wessex, who had travelled north to visit King Alchfrith
and from whose hands Wilfred himself received the priesthood. However, the
majority of the churchmen of the North had received their traditions from
Lindisfarne and Iona and knew nothing of nor cared anything for Rome and
Canterbury. The question between the two parties nearly rent the Church
asunder, so keen was the struggle and the interest it excited. Of course it was
highly unseemly that Easter should be kept twice in every year at the Royal
court, the king and his party keeping high festival, while the queen and her
chaplains were still undergoing the discipline of the Lenten fast.
Wilfred was somewhat hasty and overbearing in his actions towards this
controversy. He had a real mountain to climb with converting the ways of his
countrymen, but he rushed in, exhibiting the two faults of imperiousness and
egotism. It seemed as if his stay in Rome had infected him with the Roman love
of domination; and with all his high qualities and many virtues was blended a self-complacent
consciousness, not only of abilities and force of character, but of exertions
and sacrifices for religion and the Church.
To settle the questions at issue, in AD 664, King Oswiu summoned a great
council to meet in the hall of St.
Hilda's Abbey at Whitby. To this, now famous, 'Synod of Whitby' came Colman, St.
Aidan's successor in the see of Lindisfarne; Cedd,
the holy Bishop of the East Saxons; James the Deacon, grown old in the service
of God; and many others. The discussion which followed was lengthy. Bishop
Colman showed the indomitable pride and tenacity of the Celtic race, and
Wilfred the eloquence, vehement and persuasive, which distinguished him. The
arguments on either side would now be considered poor enough and the
controversy ended with St. Columba being put forward, on the one hand, and St.
Peter, on the other, as the authority for the two lines of action. When Wilfred
quoted the text, "Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my
Church.....and I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven". Oswiu
turned to Colman and asked whether it was true that our Lord had said that to
St. Peter. Colman could not but confirm this. So the monarch went on, "Can you show that any authority was given to Columba?" This of
course he could not do. "Then you both agree," resumed Oswiu," that it was
St. Peter who received the keys from our Lord." Both disputants assented.
"If it be so," said the King, "I cannot gainsay the power of him
who keeps the keys, lest, haply, coming to heaven's gate, St. Peter should deny
me the help of his office and refuse to let me into bliss." And so the
King, with the assent of all present, agreed that the changes advocated by
Wilfred should be adopted.
Upon this decision, Bishop Colman, "perceiving," as Bede says,
"that his doctrine was rejected and his sect despised, took with him such
as were willing to follow him, and would not comply with the Catholic Easter
and the tonsure of the crown (for there was much controversy about that also),
and went back into Scotland." The see, thus vacated, was filled by the
appointment of a good man, named Tuda, who, however, governed the Church but a
very short time, as apparently in the autumn of this same year, he was carried
off by a pestilence that raged throughout the country. Thus the bishopric of
the Northumbrians was once more left vacant.
This time the "Roman" party succeeded in gaining the appointment for
their champion and Wilfred was nominated by the King to the bishopric. However,
the first Northern bishop, Paulinus, had fixed his episcopal chair not at
Lindisfarne, to which the later Scottish mission under Aidan had transferred it,
but at York; and it was to this city that Wilfred immediately removed his new
see. His conduct further appears in a peculiarly ungracious light, for, not
content with merely breaking with this old Scottish tradition, Wilfred offered
what seems to be a deliberate insult to all the English bishops. He refused
consecration at their hands and sought it instead from French bishops beyond
the sea, travelling to Compiegne for enthronement by the Archbishop of Paris.
No objection seems to have been raised at the time but, when it was found that
he lingered in France and left his see for some time uncared for, the Ionian
party, headed by Alchfrith, persuaded King Oswiu to fill his place by the
appointment of St.
Chad, the Abbot of Lastingham. Chad still recognised the Scottish teaching,
but he was, rather dubiously, consecrated by Bishop Wine of Winchester and two
unrecognised Welsh prelates.
At length, Wilfred returned to England (AD 666) but was, unfortunately,
shipwrecked in Sussex by a fearsome storm. The Saxon pirates thereabouts had
become merciless wreckers and considered everything cast by the winds and the
sea on their coasts their undoubted property, the crew and passengers of
vessels driven on shore their lawful slaves. They therefore attacked the
stranded ship with the utmost ferocity. Wilfred's crew made a gallant
resistance. It was a strange scene. On one side, the Christian prelate and his
clergy were kneeling aloof in prayer; on the other, a pagan priest was
encouraging the attack, by what both parties supposed were powerful
enchantments. A fortunate stone from a sling struck the pagan priest on the
forehead and put an end to his life and his magic. But his fall only exasperated
the barbarians. Thrice, they renewed the attack and thrice were beaten off.
Wilfred's prayers became more urgent, more needed and, fortunately, more
successful. The tide came in, the wind shifted, the vessel got to sea and
eventually reached Sandwich.
When he finally reached Northumbria, he, of course, found a bishop already
installed in his see at York. Whatever his feelings were, he seems to have
submitted quietly and to have retired to his monastery at Ripon, which he
governed as wisely and carefully as before; only leaving it occasionally,
notably on a mission through Mercia, but also when called upon to exercise
episcopal functions in other parts of England: wherever a diocese happened to
be left vacant by the death of its bishop.
And so time rolled on, until the arrival, in Canterbury, of Archbishop
Theodore in AD 669. Finding fault with Bishop Chad's election and
consecration, he persuaded the latter to voluntarily resign his bishopric in
favour of Wilfred. Chad retired to Lastingham, his former monastery, and was
shortly afterwards appointed by Theodore to the vacant See of Mercia. Wilfred,
meanwhile, gained possession of his long awaited see and set to work in good
earnest in it's administration.
At York, Wilfred shuddered to see the neglected state of his cathedral.
"The foundations had settled and so the walls had cracked. The rain oozed
through the yawning roof, the windows were unglazed and birds' nests hung in an
unsightly way about the bare mullions, while the pillars ran down with green
slime, or were covered with dripping moss." To repair all this ruin was
the first care; and then Wilfred returned to his dearly loved monastery at
Ripon, where he reared from the foundations an entirely new church of wrought
stone that was the wonder of all Yorkshire, built as it was by workmen from
Italy "after the Roman manner." The church, including the tiny crypt
still to be seen today, was finished in AD 672 and a bright day it must have
been for Wilfred when it was consecrated. "Oswiu was no more. He had died
in the preceding year, after a complete reconciliation with Wilfred, but his
son and successor, Egfrith, was present, together with his Royal brother, Aelfwin,
and all the princes and nobles of Northumbria and the principal officers of
Church and State. In the presence of this great concourse, Wilfred dedicated
the church and the altar, vesting it with precious coverings of purple and
gold. Then, after the celebration of the Eucharist, the consecrator turned to
the worshippers and, like the mighty eastern potentate, rehearsed to them the
great things which had been done for God. All the gifts which princes and holy
men had made on that day to the Church did he recite and then he enumerated, as
far as possible, the possessions of the early British Church which had passed
into secular hands when the Saxons came in: as if to remind the nation how
greatly it was in debt to the Church. The magnificent ceremony over, Wilfred
feasted the two monarchs, their attendants and the whole concourse of people
with noble hospitality, the banquet lasting three whole days."
Around the same time, Wilfred became a good friend of Egfrith's queen, St.
Etheldreda of Ely. She had formed "a resolution the reverse of
wife-like" and determined to retire into a nunnery. Wilfred, instead of
dissuading her from thus forsaking the plain duties to which God had called
her, encouraged her in her resolution and himself placed the monastic veil upon
her head. He was, thus, not the most popular person at court when she
eventually fled her husband to become a nun at Coldingham Priory. Two years
later, however, Wilfred was rewarded for his support when the lady gave him a
large estate on which to found the abbey of St. Andrew in Hexham. Thus from
Yorkshire, Wilfred's band of Italian workmen moved on to Northumberland, where
a still more stately church was built upon his orders. "And at this day,
the visitor who looks round the exquisite Minster of Hexham will find nothing
worthier of his attention than the small crypt of Roman masonry, with two Roman
inscriptions built up in its walls, on the western side of the transept;
descending into it, he enters the only remaining part of Wilfred's church, the
building deep underground formed of admirably carved stone; of which an early
writer tells us, adding that, so far as he knew, the church had no equal on
this side of the Alps."
Yet if Wilfred was great as a church-builder, he was no less great as chief
pastor of his diocese. His care for building up the spiritual temple was even
more earnest than that for the material fabric. We read of him as indefatigable
in his journeys over the country to baptize and to confirm, as holding
ordinations, forming new parishes and preaching incessantly, even in the
smallest hamlets. Honoured and trusted by all the great men of the realm from
the king downwards, loved and followed enthusiastically by the common people,
it was the most active period of his life and forms a strange contrast to the
years of incessant struggles and wanderings which were soon to fall to his lot.
SOURCE : https://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/adversaries/bios/wilfred.html
St. Wilfred the Elder, Bishop of York
(AD 634-709): Part 2
The last thirty years of
Wilfred's life were strangely chequered and darkened with shadows.
Nevertheless, he rose above his misfortune, greater in adversity than in
prosperity, chastened and softened by the repeated troubles and banishments and
in the quaint words of an old church writer, "as it is observed of
nightingales, that they sing the sweetest when farthest from their nests; so
this Wilfred was most diligent in God's service, when at the greatest distance
from his own home."
Wilfred's wealth and magnificence was beginning to appear greater than became a
subject, and King Egfrith, still Unhappy at the bishop's interference in his
marriage was glad of any opportunity of humbling the latter's pride. In AD 678,
he thus persuaded Archbishop
Theodore of Canterbury that Wilfred's northern diocese was too large
for the supervision of one man. The Archbishop therefore called an assembly in
which, during Wilfred's absence, a division was effected and a large part of
the diocese taken out of his control. Indignant at this high-handed treatment,
Wilfred first complained to the King, but in vain. Upon which he took a step,
unprecedented at the time, but one that was to become fatally common in after
ages, and appealed to the Pope. His resolution was no sooner taken than he set
out on his travels.
Wilfred's journey, however, led him through Friesland (the Netherlands), a
country that had not yet received the faith of Christ. The opportunity for
missionary work was not to be lost and Wilfred at once began to preach to the
country folk with no little success. He won converts among the chieftains and
gained influence over the King himself who rejected, with horror, a bribe
offered for the saint's head by the ruler of a neighbouring country, who was
one of Wilfred's enemies. The letter in which the proposal was made was read
out to the King as he sat at a feast, in the presence of Wilfred and his
companions. He listened quietly to the end and then, taking the scroll, he tore
it to pieces and flung it into the fire that blazed before him, exclaiming to
the messengers who had brought it, "Tell your lord what I now say; so may
the Maker of all things tear in pieces and utterly consume the life and kingdom
of one who is forsworn to his God, and keeps not the covenant into which he has
entered!" Being thus freed from this peril, and having spent the winter
happily with his new converts, he set out again on his way to Rome, where his
cause was tried before Pope Agatho and many bishops, and he was, by their
unanimous sentence, fully acquitted of that which had been laid to his charge,
and declared worthy of his bishopric. However, it was one thing to be acquitted
by the Pope and Council and quite another to regain his see, as Wilfred was
soon to discover.
In AD 680, he hastened back to Northumbria, armed with the Papal bull of
acquittal, But, to his great astonishment he found that Englishmen had too much
regard for their national independence to receive it quietly. It was rudely
put, aside, and Wilfred, instead of being restored to his episcopal throne, was
flung into prison. Here he remained for some months and, even when, at the
intercession of some of his friends, he regained his liberty, he was not
allowed to remain in the Northumbrian Kingdom. Southward he wandered, and at
last settled in Sussex, the only kingdom in England into which Christianity had
not yet penetrated.
The men of Sussex and the adjoining Meonware (of south-east Hampshire), Bede
tells us, were ignorant of the name and faith of God. There was a small Irish
community of Christians living at Bosham, under Abbot Dicul, but their attempts
at converting the natives have been quite unsuccessful. Wilfred, however, was
more than up to the job. He saw a fair field of labour once more opened to him
and nobly he occupied it.
Just before his arrival
there a terrible famine had wasted the country. So sore was the distress that
often "forty or fifty, being spent with want, would go together to some
cliff, or to the seashore, and there, hand-in-hand, miserably perish by the
fall or be swallowed by the waves." The sea and the rivers abounded with
fish, but the poor country folk were too simple to take them and could only
fish for eels. Wilfred set himself at once to supply their temporal needs and
borrowed a quantity of eel-nets, which his followers cast into the sea and
"by the blessing of God immediately took three hundred fishes of different
kinds, which they divided into three parts, giving a hundred to the poor, a
hundred to those who had lent them the nets and keeping a hundred for their own
use. By this act of kindness the Bishop gained the affections of them all and
they began more readily, at his preaching, to hope for heavenly goods; seeing
that, by his help, they had received those which are temporal." And so,
Wilfred led the people of Sussex from lower to higher things, from the wants of
the body to the needs of the soul. In AD 681, King Aethelwalh of Sussex gave
him a parcel of land at Selsey, upon which to found a cathedral, and for
another four years, lovingly and patiently, Wilfred laboured amongst them. He
only ended his work in Sussex to turn to a fresh sphere of labour. For, after
becoming the spiritual teacher of King Caedwalla of Wessex, he travelled to the
Isle of Wight, an area which he became the first to evangelize.
Wilfred's devotion was not to go unrewarded, even in this World. By AD 686,
Archbishop Theodore, was growing old and feeble. He had been touched by
Wilfred's efforts and longed to be reconciled to the man whom he had formerly
treated in so cavalier a manner. The two good men met in London and Theodore
expressed his regret for Wilfred's sufferings and his desire to promote his
restoration to his see; a desire which he was happily able to carry out due to
the death of St. Eata, Bishop of Hexham. Wilfred was once more enabled to
return, as a bishop, to his dearly-beloved Northumbria. The following year, he
was even restored to the see of York, after the removal of Bishop Bosa, though
the diocese over which he presided was of smaller extent than that which he had
formerly ruled. The monks of his own monasteries at Ripon and elsewhere had
been true to his cause, throughout his long exile, and never wavered in their
allegiance. Great, therefore, was the rejoicing over his restoration,
particularly when he replaced Edhaed of Ripon as Abbot of Ripon. They went out
in crowds to meet him and led him back in triumph to the churches in which they
had prayed, day by day, for his return. Not long afterward, Bishop Cuthbert of
Lindisfarne resigned his office and retired to his hermitage on Inner Farne.
Wilfred thus became acting Bishop of Lindisfarne too. Egfrith, the king who had
been so bitter against him before, was now dead and with his successor,
Aldfrith, Wilfred lived on good terms for some years. "Peace and quietness
abounded between the two, with the enjoyment of nearly every form of
good."
By degrees, however, fresh troubles arose and, after five years, those who had
caused the former enmity succeeded in re-kindling the torch of dissension. It
is hard to make out who was in the right and who was in the wrong in the
dispute that now began. Probably, there were faults on both sides. The bishop
may have been wanting in tolerance and gentleness, but the King seems certainly
to have been unjust. Amongst other things, Wilfred appears to have attempted to
make himself Bishop of all Northumbria as before. In return, King Aldfrith
established a plan to take Ripon from the Bishop and establish a lesser diocese
there. This was, of course, the minster of Wilfred's own creation, the minster
that he loved more passionately than any other spot on earth. Thus, he steadily
resisted. A situation which resulted once more in his banishment or, at least,
a strong compulsion to leave the country.
This time, AD 691, he found a resting place nearer home than formerly and was
warmly received by the King Aethelred I of Mercia, in whose kingdom episcopal
work was soon found for him. In those days, Leicester had a bishop of its own.
The see, at that time, happened to be vacant and Wilfred was, at once, asked to
occupy it. Accordingly, Wilfred lived, for eleven years, in obscurity,
labouring earnestly among the Mercians, though scarcely any details of this
part of his life have come down to us. It was a sad time for England and the
perpetual disputes between the kings and bishops must have done much harm to
the Church; but at length, King Aldfrith determined to put an end to them and,
with the design of restoring peace and promoting some satisfactory settlements,
he summoned a council to meet at a place that is probably to be identified as
Austerfield.
Here, Wilfred appeared among the other bishops, having been assured that his
case should meet with due consideration. However, there was a long and stormy
debate and, after overpowering Wilfred with accusations and recriminations, the
synod determined to confirm all the regulations of Archbishop Theodore,
including those against which Wilfred had made appeal to Rome. To this Wilfred
demurred, for he considered these last statutes annulled by the decrees of Rome
and Theodore's subsequent action. His enemies tried to extort from him a
written declaration of absolute submission to the Archbishop; but warned beforehand
by a friend that his signature would be misused and made the handle for
depriving him of everything he possessed, Wilfred persistently refused. His
enemies could extort nothing from him beyond a promise to obey his Archbishop
in everything which was not contrary to the statutes of the Fathers, the Canons
or the Council of Pope Agatho. General confusion ensued, amid which the King
proposed that all Wilfred's preferments and property should be confiscated; but
the members of the council thought this too severe and proposed to leave him
the monastery at Ripon, on condition that he never left it without the Royal
permission, and that he gave up the exercise of his episcopal functions. This
was a harsh measure indeed and no wonder that Wilfred met the proposal with a
burst of indignation. "By what right," he exclaimed, "do you
dare to abuse my weakness and force me to turn the murderer's sword against
myself, and sign my own condemnation? How shall I, accused of no fault, make
myself a scandal in the sight of all who know that, during nearly forty years,
I have borne, however unworthily, the name of Bishop?" Then followed a
rapid recital of all the great things he had been privileged to do for the
Northumbrian Church. Had he not been the first to root out the evil customs and
win over the whole land to the true celebration of Easter? Was it not he who
taught them the sweet harmonies of the primitive Church in the responses and
chants of the two alternate choirs? And now, after all this, was he called to
condemn himself with his own hand, and this with no crime resting on his
conscience? "I appeal," he cried, "I appeal to the Holy See. Let
those who desire my deposition go there with me to receive the decision. The
sages of Rome shall learn the reasons for which you would have me degraded, ere
I bend to your will alone." His appeal was met with indignant outcries and
there were even voices raised in favour of a proposal that he should be flung
into prison; but he was suffered to depart quietly.
"Let him go," was the cry of the majority, "without hindrance;
and let us too go quietly to our own homes." In Northumbria, however, he
and his partisans were treated as excommunicate and grievous was the
persecution which his faithful monks, who clung to him through all reverses,
had to undergo. He himself was safe in Mercia, whose King was resolute in the
determination to add no new trouble to the great wrongs that he had already
received; and at his court the indomitable old man, who now numbered more than
three-score years, rested awhile, before bravely setting out for Rome.
Twice before, Wilfred had visited the Eternal City: once in the freshness and
ardour of youth; a second time in the vigour of his manhood, when he had made
his appeal from the decision of Theodore; and now, for the third time, with the
snows of old age thick upon his head, he bent his steps towards Rome and made
his second appeal to the Pope. Upon his arrival, he presented, in due form, a
memorial stating his grievances and begged that the decision of the former
Council in his favour might be confirmed: "or," said he, "if
that should seem too much, let the see of York be disposed of as you will, only
at least let me have Ripon and Hexham." For four months, the investigation
lasted. Eventually, the discovery was made (it would seem accidentally) that a
certain Bishop Wilfred had been present at an important Council held there
twenty-four years before. The Bishops gazed at each other in astonishment and
asked who could that Bishop Wilfred have been? The answer came from some of the
older men, whose memories reached back to that earlier Council, "that he
was the same Bishop who had lately come to Rome to be tried by the Apostolic
See, being accused, by his own people, and who," said they, "having
long since been there upon a similar accusation, was proved by Pope Agatho to
have been wrongfully expelled from his bishopric, and was so much honoured by
him that he commanded him to sit, in the Council of the Bishops which he had
assembled, as a man of an untainted faith and an upright mind." Upon
hearing this, the whole assembly, with one voice, exclaimed that a man who had
been forty years a bishop, a man who had shown such zeal in the cause of God,
ought not to be condemned, but should rather be sent back with honour to his
own land.
Once more, therefore, Wilfred returned to England with Papal letters in his
favour and, once more, he was destined to find them useless, for Aldfrith, the
Northumbrian king, flatly refused to allow him to take possession of his bishopric
again. His exile, however, on this occasion, was of no long duration, as
Aldfrith died in AD 704, shortly after Wilfred's return to England. The throne
was seized by a noble named Edwulf and the bishop, quite naturally, moved to
support the new monarch; but his overtures of friendship were rejected and he
quickly fell in with the camp of the late King's young son, Osred, and Dux
Bertfrith. The choice proved fortuitous, for the allies soon defeated Edwulf at
the Battle of Bamburgh.
In AD 706, Archbishop
Bertwald of Canterbury was, therefore, obliged, through the Pope's
insistence, to call the Synod of the River Nidd. Here, a compromise was
effected and peace restored to the distracted Church. Both parties gave up
something of their demands and, the once fiery and imperious spirit of Wilfred,
bent and chastened by age and troubles, was content with the prospect of quiet
and peace in exchange for the hope of triumphant ascendancy. He was thus
officially recognised as Bishop of Hexham and Abbot of Ripon. So, writes his
biographer, the ecclesiastical hierachy returned to their own homes in the
peace of Christ. Wilfred's life on earth, however, was now drawing to an end
and he was soon to enter into a more lasting and unruffled peace.
For three quiet years, the bishop laboured among his own people and then the
end came. For some time, his health had been failing and, in the autumn of AD
709, he was on a visit to the monasteries of his own foundation in the
neighbouring Kingdom of Mercia, when his last illness seized him. He reached
the minster of St. Andrew, at Oundle, and, there, quietly lay down to die. A
few parting admonitions were given to those around and then he leaned his head
back upon the pillow and went to his rest without a groan or murmur, just as
the monks in the choir, hard by, were chanting the verse "Thou shalt send
forth thy spirit and they shall be created, and thou shalt renew the face of the
earth." And so, on 12th October AD 709, passed away the foremost man of
the day and one of the grandest pillars of the Anglo-Saxon Church, after an
episcopate of forty-five years, and a life in which cloud and sunshine had been
strangely blended. "His life," says Fuller, "had been like an
April day, often interchangeably fair and foul, and after many alterations, he
set fair in full lustre at last."
Edited from ECS Gibson's
"Northumbrian Saints" (1884) and elsewhere.
SOURCE : https://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/adversaries/bios/wilfredpt2.html
Icon
of St. Wilfrid
San Vilfrido di York Vescovo
Festa: 24 aprile
di profonda
erudizione, nato intorno al 634, si distinse per l'instancabile opera di
riforma della Chiesa anglosassone, in linea con i dettami del Concilio di
Trento. Consacrato vescovo di York nel 664, egli profuse il suo zelo apostolico
nella predicazione, nella fondazione di monasteri e nell'introduzione della
regola benedettina, incontrando l'opposizione di alcuni esponenti del clero che
resistevano alle innovazioni. I contrasti lo condussero ad esiliare più volte,
durante i quali si recò a Roma per ottenere il sostegno del papa, che ne
confermò la legittimità e l'autorità. Nel 705, finalmente reintegrato nella sua
sede episcopale, Vilfrido poté dedicarsi alla cura del gregge fino alla sua
morte, avvenuta il 24 aprile 709 a Ripon, dove aveva trascorso gli anni della
sua giovinezza monastica.
Martirologio
Romano: A York nella Northumbria, in Inghilterra, san Vilfrido, vescovo,
che esercitò per quarantacinque anni con grande impegno il suo ministero e,
costretto ripetutamente a cedere ad altri la sua sede, terminò in pace i suoi
giorni tra i monaci di Ripon, dei quali era stato abate.
Vilfrido nacque intorno
al 634 in una famiglia nobile della Northumbria. Ricevette un'educazione
eccellente, prima in patria e poi a Canterbury, sotto la guida di San Teodoro di
Tarso. In questo ambiente, Vilfrido si familiarizzò con la tradizione romana e
con la regola benedettina, che influenzarono profondamente la sua spiritualità
e il suo stile di vita.
Nel 664, Vilfrido fu consacrato vescovo di York. Il suo episcopato fu segnato
da un'intensa attività pastorale e missionaria. Vilfrido si dedicò alla
predicazione del Vangelo, alla fondazione di monasteri e alla riforma della
Chiesa anglosassone, in linea con i dettami del Concilio di Trento.
L'impegno di Vilfrido per la riforma lo portò a scontrarsi con alcuni esponenti del clero anglosassone, che resistevano all'introduzione di nuove pratiche e discipline. Le controversie sfociarono in diversi esili, durante i quali Vilfrido si recò a Roma per cercare il sostegno del papa. In ogni occasione, Vilfrido ottenne la conferma della sua legittimità e il riconoscimento della sua autorità.
Nonostante le avversità, Vilfrido non abbandonò mai la sua missione. Nel 705, dopo un ultimo esilio, fu reintegrato nella sua sede episcopale e poté trascorrere gli ultimi anni in pace, dedicandosi alla cura del suo gregge. Morì il 24 aprile 709 a Ripon, dove era stato monaco e abate.
Autore: Franco Dieghi
