WULFRAM OF SENS, ST.

Latin, Wulframnus, also known as Wolfram; Merovingian bishop, missionary; b. Milly-er-Gâtinais, France; d. Fontenelle, March 20, either 695? (Laporte) or c. 700 (Boilandists). Convinced that his life at the royal court was endangering his soul, he gave his lands to the Abbey of fontenelle. Unanimously elected bishop of Sens (682?), he stabilized his diocesan government and then left, with several monks from Fontenelle, to evangelize the Frisians. It is said that just before this he resigned his bishopric of Sens because the legitimate Bishop Amatus, although exiled, was still living at the time of his election. The Frisian apostolate (known only through the Fontenelle tradition) apparently was a success. His cult followed the translations of his relics: in the first translation (704) the bodies of SS. wandrille, ansbert, and Wulfram were exhumed and placed in the church of Saint-Peter (commemorated, March 31); the second translation of these relics (944) removed them to the Abbey Mont-Blandin near Ghent; in the 11th century a third translation placed Wulfram's relics at Abbeville (some hold that his body had reposed only at Fontenelle prior to this translation), where a chapter of canons and a parish were established in his honor (he is also patron saint of the town); in a fourth translation (May 21, 1662), the bishop of Amiens had his well-preserved bones transferred to a new shrine. A. Legris [Analecta Bollandiana (1898) 265–306] holds that the shorter vita of Wulfram is the older; W. Levison [Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde (1900) 593] claims this distinction for the longer life (Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores 5:657–673).

Feast: March 20; Oct. 15 (translation).

Bibliography: Inventio et miracula s. Vulfranni, ed. j. laporte (Rouen 1938). Martyrologium Romanum, ed. h. delehaye (Brussels 1940) 105. a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, rev. ed. h. thurston and d. attwater (New York 1956) 1:642–643.

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