Calendar October 2019

Saint Wilfrid

Wilfrid was a dominating influence in the Christian Church of seventh century England. He lived from 633 until 709. A saint to be remembered more for his energy and enterprise than for his holiness or humility. He was the son of a Northumbrian nobleman and, after early study at Lindisfarne, he spent many years in France and Italy. He became convinced that the ways of the Latin Church in Rome were to be preferred to those of the Celtic Church in Britain. Over matters such as the calculation of Easter Day and the correct shape of the monastic tonsure, it was Wilfrid who, at the Synod of Whitby 664, argued vehemently that the only way forward was for the church in Britain to fall in line with Latin ways. His arguments prevailed.

At one time, he was a very powerful Bishop of York, but his domineering personality brought him enemies as well as followers and, in time, he fell out with the Kings of Northumbria and with Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury. The result of these