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Wilfrid
Bishop of York
Wilfrid in Orthodox art.
Enthroned	664
Ended	678
Predecessor	Chad of Mercia
Successor	Bosa of York
Born	c. 634
Died	April 24, 709

Sainthood
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church and the Anglican Communion
Major shrine	Ripon, Sompting (Sussex), and Frisia (Roeder).
Commemorated	October 12April 24
Attributes	(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
Patronage	Diocese of Middlesbrough; Ripon[1]
Saints Portal

Wilfrid (c. 634 - April 24, 709) was an English bishop and saint. His life coincided with the lives of Cuthbert and Benedict Biscop, all of whom helped to convert the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England to Christianity.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Whitby and York 3 Expulsion 4 Resignation and death 5 See also 6 Notes 7 References 8 External links

He was born of good parentage in Northumbria, possibly near Ripon in Yorkshire.^[2] At about age fourteen, he left home over a conflict with his stepmother, probably without his father's consent.^[3] When serving in King Oswiu's court, he attracted the notice of the queen, Eanfled who, fostering his inclination for a religious life,^[3] placed him under the care of an old noble, Cudda, now a monk at Lindisfarne.^[4] Wilfrid studied at Lindisfarne for a brief time before going to Canterbury and the king's court there, where he stayed with friends of the queen for three years.^[3] Later on Eanfled enabled him to visit Rome in the company of Benedict Biscop and Acca.^[1] According to Wilfrid's later biographer, at Lyon Wilfrid's pleasing features and quick intelligence made Aunemund, the archbishop, desire to adopt him and marry him to his niece. Resisting his offers, the youth went on to Rome, received the papal benediction, and then, in accordance with his promise, returned to Lyon, where he stayed for three years, till the murder of his patron, whose fate the executioners would not let him share. However, the archbishop was not murdered until 660, but Wilfrid returned to England in 658, so there are some chronological issues with this story.^[4] On his return home in 658, Oswiu's son Alchfrith gave him a monastery at Ripon,^[2][5] and, before long, Agilbert, bishop of the Gewissæ, or West Saxons, ordained him priest.^[3]

He was probably already regarded as the leading exponent of the Roman discipline in England^[2] when his speech at the council of Whitby determined the overthrow of the Celtic party in 664.^[5][6] About a year later he was consecrated to the see of York,^[7] not, however, in Northumbria, since he refused consecration at the hands of the Celtic Church,^[1] but at Compiègne, Agilbert who was now bishop of Paris. On his return journey he narrowly escaped the pagan wreckers of Sussex, and only reached his own country to find Ceadda (St Chad) installed in his see of York.^[2] For three years from 665 to 668 he ruled his monastery at Ripon in peace, though acting as bishop in Mercia and Kent during vacancies in sees there. On the arrival of Theodore in 669, newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, Wilfrid was installed finally in his see,^[7] and there spent nine years of ceaseless activity, especially in building churches, including the monastery at Hexham.^[4] Wilfrid did not attend in person the Council of Hertford in September of 672, but sent representatives. Among the councils decisions was one that postponed a decision on the creation of new dioceses, which would affect Wilfrid later.^[8]

Wilfrid was a proponent of a liturgy that included music, and sent to Kent for a singing master to instruct his clergy in the Roman manner of church music. He also introduced the Rule of St Benedict into the monasteries he founded. He also was one of the first Anglo-Saxon bishops to record the gifts of land and property to his church at Ripon. Easter tables, used to calculate the correct date to celebrate Easter, were brought in from Rome which used the Dionysiac Easter tables recently introduced.^[4] He set up schools and became the religious advisor of the Northumbrian queen Æthelthryth, first wife of Egfrid, who Wilfrid encouraged in her desire to be a nun. Æthelfrith was the donor of the land at Hexham where Wilfrid founded a monastery.^[9]

In 677^[10] in the words of Bede:

a dissension broke out between King Egfrid and the most reverend prelate, Wilfrid, who was driven from his see, and two bishops substituted in his stead, to preside over the nation of the Northumbrians, namely, Bosa, to preside over the nation of the Deiri, with his seat in York; and Eata over that of the Bernicians, with his see in the church of Hexham, or else Lindisfarne; both of them promoted to the episcopal dignity from a society of monks. With them also was Edhed ordained bishop in the province of Lindsey, which King Egfrid had only just conquered, having overcome and vanquished Wulfhere; and this was the first bishop of its own which that province had.... Before Edhed, Sexwulf was bishop as well of that province as of the Mercians and Midland Angles; so that, when expelled from Lindsey, he continued in the government of those provinces. Edhed, Bosa, and Eata, were ordained at York by Archbishop Theodore; who also, three years after the departure of Wilfrid, added two bishops to their number; Tumbert, in the church of Hexham, Eata still continuing in that of Lindisfarne; and Trumwine in the province of the Picts which at that time was subject to the English. Edhed returning from Lindsey, because Ethelred had recovered that province, was placed by him over the church of Ripon.^[11]

Egfrid's second wife Eormenburg disliked Wilfrid, and she probably persuaded her husband to take a hard line with the bishop.^[5] Another contributing factor in the king's expulsion of Wilfrid was Wilfrid's encouragement of Æthelthryth entry into a nunnery.^[9] Wilfrid went to Rome in 677 to appeal Theodore's decision.^[2][12][10] On the way he sojourned at the court of Aldgisl, the Frisian king in Utrecht for most of 678.^[10] Pope Agatho held a synod in October of 679 where the pope ordered Wilfrid's restoration, but that the new dioceses should be retained.^[10][2] Wilfrid must have been in Austrasia at this time, because according to his biographer Eddius Stephanus, Wilfrid left Austrasia after the death of Dagobert II, in mortal danger from the supporters of Duke Ebroin. In 680, Wilfrid appeared before a Witenagemot and produced his papal bull ordering his restoration, but he was briefly imprisoned and then exiled.^[13] Once again, Egfrid and his wife's attitude towards Wilfrid heavily influenced the decision to exile the bishop.^[5] After this, he took refuge in Sussex with King Æthelwealh of Sussex.^[14] He spent the next five years preaching, converting, founding Selsey Abbey^[2] and possibly baptising St Cuthman.^[15] He also converted Cædwalla of Wessex, who gave the exiled bishop estates on the Isle of Wight. Cædwalla had recently conquered Kent, as well as the recently converted Sussex.^[16]

In 686, Wilfrid was finally recalled to York after the death of Egfrid.^[17][7] He appears to have resided at Ripon and for a time he acted as administrator of the see of Lindisfarne after Saint Cuthbert's death in 687.^[17] After 687 his nephew Beornwine was given part of the Isle of Wight to help convert the island to Christianity.^[18] In 691, the subdivision issue arose once more, along with quarrels with the new king Aldfrith who was a supporter of the Celtic Church,^[5] and Wilfrid left the area for the midlands.^[7] While he was there, Wilfrid became involved in the missionary efforts to the Frisians, which he had started in 678 when he was forced by politics to take a different route to Rome that led him through Frisia. While passing through Frisia, he tried to convert the ruler of the kingdom to Christianity, but his successes were shortlived. However, in 690 Wilfrid helped the missionary journey of Willibrord, which was more successful.^[19] While Wilfrid was in exile, he resided in Mercia, and acted as bishop there with the consent of King Æthelred of Mercia. He is generally held to have been bishop of Leicester from about 692 to 705.^[20] In around 700, Wilfrid appealed once more to Pope Sergius I over his expulsion from York, with the pope referring the issue back to a council in England. In 702 King Aldfrith held a council at Austerfield that upheld Wilfrid's expulsion from York, and once more Wilfrid traveled to Rome to appeal to the pope. The pope held a council, which declared that the king of Northumbria should follow the earlier papal decrees restoring Wilfrid to his see. With the death of Aldfrith in December of 704, Wilfrid was allowed to return to Northumbria, although not as bishop.^[21]

In 704, Wilfrid retired to the monastery at Ripon, where he lived in prayer and penitence until his death at Oundle, Northamptonshire, in 709,^[22] while on a visitation of monasteries he had founded in Mercia.^[2] He was buried in Ripon.^[4] Before his death, he also served as spiritual advisor to the young king Osred of Northumbria.^[5] Soon after his death, a Vita Wilfredi was written by Stephanus, a monk of Ripon.^[22]

He was one of the first bishops to bring relics of saints back from Rome, and his biographer Stephanus implied that Wilfrid was the first person to have legally obtained body parts as relics, as the papacy was trying to restrict the relics being removed from Rome to things that had come in contact with the bodily remains such as dust and cloth.^[23] Commentators have said that Wilfrid "came into conflict with almost every prominent secular and ecclesiastical figure of the age."^[24] Hindley, an historian of the Anglo-Saxons, states that "Wilfrid would not win his sainthood through the Christian virtue of humility."^[3] His feast day is October 12^[1] or on April 24.^[2] He is venerated in the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church and the Anglican Communion.

• Eddius Stephanus, Wilfrid's biographer
• Preston, centred round a monastery founded by Wilfrid

• Ashely, Mike. The Mammoth Book of British Kings & Queens. New York: Carroll & Graf. 1998. ISBN 0796706929
• Bede. A History of the English Church and People. Translated by Leo Sherley-Price. London: Penguin Books. 1988. ISBN 0140440429
• Hindley, Geoffrey A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons: The beginnings of the English nation New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers 2006 ISBN 978-0-78671738-5
• Lawrence, C. H. ed. The English Church and the Papacy in the Middle Ages. Stroud: Sutton Publishing. 1999. ISBN 0750919477
• Lyon, Bryce. A Constitutional and Legal History of Medieval England. New York: Norton. 1980. ISBN 03939581324
• Ortenberg, Veronica. "The Anglo-Saxon Church and the Papacy". in Lawrence, C. H. ed. The English Church and the Papacy in the Middle Ages Stroud: Sutton Publishing 1999. ISBN 0750919477
• "Patron Saint Index entry on Saint Wilfrid" - at Catholic-Forum.com - accessed on September 12, 2007
• Powicke, F. Maurice and E. B. Fryde. Handbook of British Chronology. London: Royal Historical Society. 1961.
• Stenton, F. M. Anglo-Saxon England Third Edition Oxford:Oxford University Press 1971 ISBN 978-0-19-280139-5
• Thacker, Alan "Wilfrid [St Wilfrid] (c.634–709/10)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Oxford University Press, 2004 Online Edition accessed November 9, 2007
• Walsh, Michael. A New Dictionary of Saints: East and West. London: Burns & Oates. 2007. ISBN 086012438X

• His epitaph, from Bede
• Prosopography of Anglo Saxon England entry for Wilfrid

Catholic Church titles
Preceded by Chad of Mercia	Bishop of York 664–678	Succeeded by Bosa of York
Preceded by Cuthwine of Leicester	Bishop of Leicester 692–705	Succeeded by Headdi
Preceded by John of Beverley	Bishop of Hexham 705–709[25]	Succeeded by Acca

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

v • d • e List of Archbishops of York

Pre-Reformation Paulinus1 · Chad1 · Wilfrid1 · Bosa1 · John of Beverley1 · Wilfrid II1 · Egbert2 · Ethelbert · Eanbald I · Eanbald II · Wulfsige · Wigmund · Wulfhere · Æthelbald · Hrotheweard · Wulfstan · Oskytel · Edwald · Oswald · Ealdwulf · Wulfstan II · Aelfric Puttoc · Cynesige Aldred · Thomas of Bayeux · Gerard · Thomas of York · Thurstan · William FitzHerbert · Henry Murdac · William FitzHerbert · Roger de Pont L'Evêque · Geoffrey Plantagenet · Simon Langton · Walter de Gray · Sewal de Bovil · Godfrey Ludham · William Langton · Bonaventure · Walter Giffard · William de Wickwane · John le Romeyn · Henry of Newark · Thomas of Corbridge · William Greenfield · William Melton · William Zouche · John of Thoresby · Alexander Neville · Thomas Arundel · Robert Waldby · Richard le Scrope · Thomas Langley · Robert Hallam · Henry Bowet · Philip Morgan · Richard Fleming · John Kempe · William Booth · George Neville · Lawrence Booth · Thomas Rotherham · Thomas Savage · Christopher Bainbridge · Thomas Wolsey Post-Reformation Edward Lee · Robert Holgate · Nicholas Heath · Thomas Young · Edmund Grindal · Edwin Sandys · John Piers · Matthew Hutton · Tobias Matthew · George Montaigne · Samuel Harsnett · Richard Neile · John Williams · Accepted Frewen · Richard Sterne · John Dolben · Thomas Lamplugh · John Sharp · William Dawes · Lancelot Blackburne · Thomas Herring · Matthew Hutton · John Gilbert · Robert Hay Drummond · William Markham · Edward Venables-Vernon-Harcourt · Thomas Musgrave · Charles Thomas Longley · William Thomson · William Connor Magee · William Dalrymple Maclagan · Cosmo Lang · William Temple · Cyril Forster Garbett · Arthur Michael Ramsey · Frederick Donald Coggan · Stuart Yarworth Blanch · John Stapylton Habgood · David Hope · John Sentamu 1Bishops of York  ²First Archbishop of York

Persondata
NAME	Wilfrid
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Bishop of York; Saint; Bishop of Hexham; Bishop of Leicester
DATE OF BIRTH	c634
PLACE OF BIRTH	Northumbria
DATE OF DEATH	April 24, 709
PLACE OF DEATH	Oundle, Northamptonshire