Our family recently visited Ripon in Yorkshire, an historic town associated with a figure called Wilfrid. On our visit to the Cathedral, it turned out that there was no biography available in the Cathedral shop, so I am minded to write my own. While this history is full of unfamiliar roles and concepts, nevertheless, these were our, albeit imperfect, Christian forefathers. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 3, warns of "boasting in men" and then goes on to say, "All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future -- all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's." It is in that spirit that I have penned the present brief life of Wilfrid of Ripon.
The 600s is a long time ago, and at that time the map of our country looked quite different to the way it looks today. Just 200 years earlier, settlers (the Angles, Saxons and Jutes) had sailed across the North Sea from what is now Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands, and made their home in what is now England. Their language was an ancient version of what is now German, but over time it would morph into what we know as English. The incoming settlers, who did not worship the Christian God, displaced the indigenous population of the time, who spoke a language quite like modern-day Welsh, westwards. Many of these locals had been Christians (Christianity has been present in Britain since at least the 100s). During the 600s, what is now England was divided into several new Germanic kingdoms, such as Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex, and also some Celtic kingdoms such as Rheged, which covered what is now Cumbria. In the late 500s and 600s, the new Germanic kingdoms were gradually Christianised - from the north by Irish Christians, such as Aidan, and from the south by Christians from Rome, such as Augustine of Canterbury (there was also a third, Frankish Christian influence from what is now France). The Irish Christian Aidan was an illustrious evangelist who, Bede tells us, unlike his harsher predecessor, gently gave his non-Christian Northumbrian hearers the milk of the Word
Wilfrid was born in 634 in the Anglian kingdom of Northumbria (what is now the North East of England). He was born into a noble family and was acquainted with local royalty such as Queen Eanfled, wife of King Oswy. From the age of somewhere between 10 and 14, Wilfrid was educated at the monastery in Lindisfarne, which also served as a base for Irish monks who were bringing the Christian gospel to the kingdom of Northumbria and elsewhere. Wilfrid was trained under a monk called Cudda, and later taught by none other than the illustrious Aidan. After Lindisfarne, Wilfrid continued his education at Canterbury, Rome and Lyons (in what is now France). His contact with Rome led to him accepting the Roman date of Easter, the Roman rite of monastic tonsure and a thorough knowledge of Roman church law.
After Lyons, Wilfrid returned to Northumbria, dispatched with prayers of blessing and armed with various holy relics. At the behest of Alhfrith, the king's son and Wilfrid's patron, Wilfrid became (abbot) of a monastic community at Ripon in 660, replacing the previous Irish monks who followed their own Irish monastic rule (see below). Monastic communities were centres of Christian learning and prayer for unmarried men (or, in other cases, women). They followed an instruction manual called a "rule"; the most famous such rule was the Benedictine rule which originated in 529. The church building for such a community was called an Abbey.
In the year 663 Wilfrid was ordained as a priest. As a priest under the authority of a bishop based in what is now France, in 664, Wilfrid took part in the synod of Whitby (like a church conference), convened to discuss the proper date for celebrating Easter, that is whether to retain their Irish customs or to adopt the customs of the Roman church. In the debate at that synod, Wilfrid, who had been trained by Irish monks, won the argument against Abbess Hilda and bishop Colman. The clinching point was that the Roman customs could allegedly be traced to Peter, who had been given the power of the keys, while the Irish customs claimed only the authority of the Apostle John. This has sometimes been presented as the capitulation of vigorous local Christian customs to the superiority of Rome, however the local customs were no more Biblical or pure than the Roman ones, and a single church in a single jurisdiction needed to come to some agreement (they couldn't very well celebrate Easter on different dates!). Other Roman customs adopted included the form of tonsure (monastic haircut), form of singing, and the introduction of the monastic rule of Benedict of Nursia (replacing the Irish regulations previously used). Bishop Colman, out of respect for his own Christian customs, duly resigned his office as bishop.
That same year (664), Wilfrid's royal patron, Alhfrith, the son of the king of Northumbria, then secured Wilfrid's appointment as bishop of York at the age of 30. This was a prestigious appointment. Wilfrid wanted to make sure he was consecrated (made bishop) properly, so he went to Gaul (what is now France) to do so. However, this led to Alhfrith's father, Oswiu, appointing Chad (or, "Ceadda"), another leading Christian of the time, as bishop of York instead of Wilfrid. So, on his return from what is now France, Wilfrid withdrew to Ripon where he served as abbot 666–669. During this time, Wilfrid was invited to make trips to Mercia (Midlands) to carry out the duties of a bishop there.
In 668, a Greek from Constantinople called Theodore of Tarsus was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, and arrived with various instructions from Rome. In 669, Theodore reversed the previous decision, and it was Wilfrid who was made bishop of York instead of Chad. This was amicable, and Chad was made bishop at Lichfield in the kingdom of Mercia. After this, for 8 years or so, Wilfrid carried out his duties as bishop for the kingdom of Northumbria (with his episcopal see at York), starting up new monasteries, building churches, and perfecting the wording and order of formal church services. Stephen of Ripon's "Life of Wilfrid" also includes accounts of miracles performed in answer to Wilfrid's prayer, such as the resurrection of a dead infant and the healing of an injured builder.
Then, in 677, Theodore of Tarsus decided to divide up Wilfrid's diocese, appointing three other bishops. Wilfrid objected to this and appealed to Rome. It was on this trip to Rome, to put his case before the Pope (677/678), that Wilfrid was involved in mission work among the Frisian people of the Netherlands. Following a hundred years of Irish missionary work starting in 562, and reaching as far as Switzerland, Wilfrid was one of the Anglo-Saxon Christians who inspired a similar missionary project from what is now England, seeking to bring the gospel to the still non-Christian Germanic ancestors of the settlers. Willibrord, the Apostle to the Frisians, was trained at Ripon where Wilfrid had been abbot. Pope Agatho's ruling went in Wilfrid's favour, and Wilfrid returned home in 680. However, the new king of Northumbria, Ecgfrith, didn't agree, and he had Wilfrid put in prison.
Released from prison in 681, Wilfrid went into "exile" in another Germanic kingdom in England, Sussex. There he spent about five years based at Selsey. He "began gently to persuade the king and queen to accept the word of God, preaching to them the greatness and blessedness of God's kingdom, giving them, as it were, milk without guile". With the king and queen's permission he then preached to the people, who had previously "remained persistently heathen" and many were baptised. From 685 he was ministering in the kingdom of Wessex (the area to the west of London, including the present-day Weald).
In something like 686, at Theodore of Tarsus' initiative and request, Wilfrid was yet again recalled to Northumbria by yet another new king, Aldfrith. Monasteries at Hexham and Ripon were restored to Wilfrid's leadership, and he was made bishop of York again.
However, lingering issues surrounding Wilfrid's previous deposition meant that he went to Mercia (what is now known as the Midlands) where he again served as a missionary bishop.
There were several more councils at which Wilfrid's case was discussed, but he ended his days where he started out his ministry, namely as abbot at Ripon, and also at Hexham (where he was also bishop from 705) and in several places in Mercia. Wilfrid died in 709 at his monastery in the region of Oundle, and then taken to be buried at Ripon.
Primary sources
Venerable Bede, History of the English People
Stephen of Ripon, Life of Wilfrid (written approx. 720)
Secondary sources
Article on Wilfrid in Encyclopaedia Britannica
Needham, N. 2000 years of Christ's Power.
Neill, S. Christian Missions.
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