 The Rt Rev Jack L Iker, SSC, Bishop The Rev Mark A Stockstill, SSC, Vicar Office 325.356.2997 Vicarage 325.356.2198 Cell 325.330.2411 mastockstill@yahoo.com |
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Wilfred was
born around 634 in Northumbria, and was educated for a while at the island
monastery of Lindisfarne, after which he went south to London, where he
became an enthusiastic supporter of Roman liturgical customs, as contrasted
with the traditional Celtic customs that were prevalent in the North and in
other areas that had been evangelised by Celtic rather than Roman
missionaries. The two questions that were nominally in dispute were (1) the
method of calculating the date of Easter, and (2) the method of tonsuring a
monk (i.e. which areas of the head ought to be shaved). As often happens,
these were probably stand-ins for other questions less easily articulated.
In about 654, Wilfred left England for Rome (stopping for a year in Lyons,
France) and then returned (stopping for three years in Lyons), arriving in
England in about 660. He was made abbot of Ripon in Northumbria, and imposed
the Roman rules there. In 664 a conference was held (the Synod of Whitby) to
settle the usages controversy, and the Roman party triumphed, thanks in
large part to the leadership of Wilfrid. He was appointed Bishop of York by
Alcfrid, sub-king of Deira (a division of Northumbria), but was unwilling to
be consecrated by bishops of the Celtic tradition, and so went over to
France to be consecrated, and was gone for two years. On his return, he
found that King Oswy of Northumbria had appointed Chad (see 2 March 672) as
bishop of York. Wilfrid returned quietly to Ripon. But in 669 the new
Archbishop of Canterbury, Theodore (see 19 September 690), declared that
Wilfrid was rightful bishop of York. Chad quietly withrew, and Wilfrid was
installed at York. For the next few years, Wilfrid enjoyed peace and
prosperity, stood high in the favor of King Efrith of Northumbria, and was
undisputed bishop of a diocese that included the entire kingdom of
Northumbria, with his cathedral at York. But there was trouble ahead. The
queen wanted to leave her husband and become a nun, and Wilfrid encouraged
her in this. After she had left (in 672), the king was not as cordial to
Wilfrid as he had been, and in 678, Archbishop Theodore, acting in close
concert with the king, divided the Diocese of York into four smaller
dioceses, and appointed new bishops for three of them, leaving Wilfrid with
the fourth, which did not include the city of York. Wilfrid decided to
appeal to the pope. On his way to Rome, he spent a year preaching in Frisia,
and so was the beginning of the movement by Christian Anglo-Saxons in
Britain to convert their relatives on the Continent. The pope eventually
sided with Wilfrid, but the ruling was not accepted in England, and Wilfrid
was banished from Northumbria. He went to Sussex, the last center of
Anglo-Saxon paganism in England, and preached there. When he arrived, there
had been no rain for many months, the crops were ruined, and the people were
starving. Wilfrid showed them how to construct fishnets for ocean fishing,
and so saved the lives of many. They listened to his preaching with
favorable presuppositions, and soon a large number of them were ready for
baptism. On the day that he baptized them, it rained. He remained in Sussex
for five years, preaching with great success.