WILFRID OF YORK, ST.

Anglo-Saxon monk, bishop of York; b. 634; d. monastery at Oundle, April 24, 709 or 710. Born of noble stock, he was sent as a boy of 14 years to the royal court of Northumbria, but Queen Eanfled, realizing his true bent, sent him to the Celtic-oriented Abbey of lindisfarne to be trained as a monk. Wilfrid longed to visit Rome, and so when he was 18, Eanfled sent him to Kent, whence after a year's wait he set out with benedict biscop, a fellow Northumbrian. On reaching Lyons they were received kindly by the archbishop, while the count, his brother, offered Wilfrid a large estate and his own daughter as wife, but Wilfrid refused. Benedict pressed on by himself to Rome while Wilfrid, after some months in Lyons, reached Rome in 654. There he visited many shrines and was instructed in the Scriptures and in Roman ecclesiastical discipline by Archdeacon Boniface. He returned to Lyons, and during his three years there was tonsured, and narrowly escaped death when his patron, the archbishop, was martyred. On returning to Northumbria where he was made abbot of ripon, he imbued Alhfrith, King Oswius's son, with his own enthusiasm for Roman ways. After being ordained a priest by a visiting bishop, Agilbert, he took a prominent part in the Council of whitby at which the Northumbrian Church was reconciled to Rome and Roman liturgical use. As a result, the Irish bishop colman of Lindisfarne resigned, and Wilfrid took his place as bishop of york. Refusing to be consecrated by Celtic bishops, he went to Gaul for the ceremony and on returning nearly two years later found that King Oswiu had appointed chad bishop in his place. However, in 669 he was restored to York by Abp. theodore of canterbury, and for nine years he ruled over the see, building great new churches at hexham and Ripon, of which the crypts survive in each place. He introduced the benedictine Rule to Northumbria and made many improvements in the Church services. When Archbishop Theodore sought to divide the See of York in 678, Wilfrid objected and went to Rome to appeal to the pope. Although Wilfrid was successful in Rome, Ecgfrith, King Oswius's successor, refused to accept the pope's decision and after imprisoning Wilfrid, drove him into exile. During his six-year exile Wilfrid converted the pagan south Saxons, establishing a monastery at Selsey. In 687 Theodore, having made peace with Wilfrid, persuaded King Alhfrith, Ecgfrith's successor in Northumbria, to restore Wilfrid to his see, but in 703 he was again driven out, and he again personally appealed to the pope. Although vindicated in Rome, he resigned York to john of beverley on his return and accepted instead the newly created bishopric of Hexham, retaining also his monastery at Ripon. After his death at Oundle his relics were taken to Ripon and thence to Canterbury, but were restored to Ripon in 1226. Most of the information about Wilfrid is derived from a Life written before 720 by his disciple, Eddius Stephanus, edited and translated by B. Colgrave. bede [Histoire ecclesiastique 5.19, ed. C.

Plummer (Oxford 1896)] used this Life, but added a little fresh information.

Feast: Oct. 12; April 24 (translation).

Bibliography: w. hunt, The Dictionary of National Biography From the Earliest Times to 1900 (London 1938) 21:238242. w. levison, England and the Continent, in the Eighth Century 278–279. f. m. stenton, Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford 1947). e.s. duckett, Anglo-Saxon Saints and Scholars (Hamden, Conn.1967). The Age of Bede, tr. j. f. webb, ed. d. h. farmer (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England 1983). s. eddius, The Life of Bishop Wilfrid, tr. b. colgrave (Cambridge 1985). w. t. foley, Images of Sanctity in Eddius Stephanus' Life of Bishop Wilfrid, An Early English Saint's Life (Lewiston, N.Y. 1992).

[b. colgrave]