Willibrord

Willibrord (Latin: Villibrordus; c. 658 – 7 November AD 739) was an Anglo-Saxon monk, bishop, and missionary. He became the first Bishop of Utrecht in what is now the Netherlands, dying at Echternach in Luxembourg, and is known as the "Apostle to the Frisians".

His father, named Wilgils or Hilgis, was styled by Alcuin as a Saxon of Northumbria.

Newly converted to Christianity, Wilgils entrusted his son as an oblate to Ripon Abbey, and withdrew from the world, constructing a small oratory, near the mouth of the Humber, dedicated to Saint Andrew. The king and nobles of the district endowed him with estates until he was at last able to build a church, over which Alcuin afterwards ruled.

Willibrord grew up under the influence of Wilfrid, Bishop of York. Later, he joined the Benedictines. He spent the years between the ages of 20 and 32 in the Abbey of Rath Melsigi, in County Carlow in southern Ireland, which was a centre of European learning in the 7th century.

During this time, he studied under Ecgberht of Ripon, who sent him and eleven companions to Christianise the pagan Frisians of the North Sea coast at the request of Pepin of Herstal, Austrasian mayor of the palace, who had nominal suzerainty over that region. Willibrord travelled to Rome twice. Both of these trips to Rome have historical significance.

According to Bede, Willibrord was not the only Anglo-Saxon to travel to Rome. The way he described the visit and its purpose is important: unlike the others, Willibrord was not on the usual pilgrimage to the graves of the apostles Peter and Paul and the martyrs. Rather, "he made haste to Rome, where Pope Sergius then presided over the apostolical see, that he might undertake the desired work of preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles, with his licence and blessing". As such, he came to the pope not as a pilgrim but specifically as a missionary. On 21 November 695, during his second visit to Rome, in the Church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, Pope Sergius I gave him a pallium and consecrated him as bishop of the Frisians. He returned to Frisia to preach and establish churches, among them a monastery at Utrecht, where he built his cathedral. Willibrord is counted as the first bishop of Utrecht.

In 698, he established the Abbey of Echternach on the site of a Roman villa in Echternach, which was donated to him by Pepin's mother-in-law, Irmina of Oeren, the wife of seneschal and Count Palatine Hugobert. After Hugobert died, Irmina founded a Benedictine convent at Horren in Trier. When a plague threatened her community, she gained the help of Willibrord; and when the pestilence passed by the convent, she gave Willibrord the lands for his abbey in Echternach.

Pepin of Heristal died in 714. In 716, the pagan Radbod, king of the Frisians, retook possession of Frisia, burning churches and killing many missionaries. Willibrord and his monks were forced to flee. After the death of Radbod in 719, Willibrord returned to resume his work under the protection of Charles Martel. He repaired the damage done there, ably assisted by Boniface.