Wihtberht
Wigbert,(Wihtberht) (May 7, 675 - August 13, 747) born inWessexaround 675, was anAnglo-SaxonBenedictinemonk and a missionary anddiscipleofBonifacewho travelled with the latter inFrisiaand northern and centralGermanyto convert the local tribes toChristianity.His feast day is August 13 in theRoman Catholic Churchand theEastern Orthodox Church.[1]
Life
[edit]Wihtberht was an Englishman of noble birth,[2]who embraced the monastic life.[3]It has been supposed that Wihtberht was a monk of Glastonbury, but Löffler finds this improbable.[2]
Character
[edit]At times ananchorite,[4]andhermit[5]he was known for hismissionarywork,miraclesandprophecies.[6] He is known to history mainly throughAlcuinandBedeand is mentioned in theSecganHagiography.Alcuindescribed him as venerable,[7]and outstanding in his religious practice[6]whileBedeadmired hiscontempt of this worldand his learning.[4]He worked mainly inIreland.[7]
First mission
[edit]Around 664 Wihtberht was studying atRath Melsigiin Ireland. Also there wasEcgberht of Ripon,who had gone to Ireland to avoid an outbreak of the plague in Northumbria. However, Ecgberht and many of the students contracted the disease. Ecgberht vowed that if he recovered, he would become a "peregrinus" on perpetual pilgrimage from his homeland of Britain and would lead a life of penitential prayer and fasting.[8]He began to organize monks in Ireland to proselytize inFrisia,but was dissuaded from going himself by a vision related to him by a monk who had been a disciple ofBoisil(the Prior ofMelroseunder AbbotEata), who advised him that this task was not for him. Ecgberht instead sent Wihtberht.[9]Around 680, Wihtberht, went to Frisia, where he spent two years; but owing to the opposition of the rulerRedbad, King of the Frisians,Wihtberht was unsuccessful and returned.[10]Wihtberht’s reputation among the Irish was such that he was celebrated in the ninth-century Irish martyrology,Félire Óengusso.
Second mission
[edit]When Boniface felledThor's OaknearFritzlarin northernHessein 723, he built a woodenchapelfrom the oak's wood and in 724 established aBenedictinemonastery in Fritzlar. Boniface called Wihtberht from England to become the abbot.[3]Wihtberht was certainly older than Boniface. He went to Germany about 734, and Boniface made him abbot of themonastery of Hersfeldin Hesse. Under the new abbot the school soon became famous. Among his pupils there wasSturmi,the first Abbot of Fulda.[2]
About 737 Boniface transferred him to Thuringia as Abbot ofOhrdruf,[2]where he established a school for missionaries operating inThuringia.Wihtberht died in 747, and was initially buried in Fritzlar in the stone basilica he had built to replace the original wooden chapel. His former student,Lulluslater had most of his body (except for a few sacred relics which remained in Fritzlar) interred in a gold and silver shrine in Hersfeld Abbey.[3]Wihtberht ispatron saintof the town ofBad Hersfeld.His feast day is August 13.
Legacy
[edit]The Priory of St Wigbert (Priorat Sankt Wigberti) is an ecumenicalBenedictinemonasteryfor men, belonging to theLutheran ChurchofThuringia,located inWerningshausen,Germany.[11]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^A Western Rite Orthodox Martyrology, (St. Gregory the Great Orthodox Church, Washington, D.C.), p. 146.
- ^abcdLöffler, Klemens. "St. Wigbert." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 16 May 2013
- ^abcButler, Alban.The Lives of the Saints,Vol. VIII, 1866
- ^abBede.HE v.9
- ^"Wihtberht 2".Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England.
- ^abAlcuin.VersEubor 1023-4
- ^abAlcuin.VitWillibrPr 4.
- ^Mayr-Harting, Henry. "Ecgberht (639–729)",Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,2004
- ^Costambeys, Marios. "Willibrord [St Willibrord] (657/8–739)",Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2011, accessed 24 Jan 2014
- ^St. Cuthbert, His Cult and His Community to AD 1200,(Gerald Bonner et al, eds.) Boydell & Brewer, 1989, p. 194ISBN9780851156101
- ^The Priory of St. Wigberti
External links
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