Saint Wilfrid

Wilfrid, son of an Anglo-Saxon noble, was born in 634, only just after Christianity was accepted in Northumbria. At the age of eighteen, after four years living in the Celtic monastery at Lindisfarne, he determined to visit Rome – a hazardous journey. His meeting with the Pope and a stay for three years with the Bishop of Lyon changed his life, and he became a monk.

Back in Northumbria, he promoted the reformed customs of worship which he had learned in Rome. Well travelled, well connected and knowledgeable, he attracted royal patronage. When Celtic monks, only recently arrived at Ripon, moved away rather than abandon their traditional but outdated practices, Wilfrid was given the monastery and its estates. In 664 his zeal led the Northumbrian king to impose Roman customs throughout the Northumbrian church, and Wilfrid became Bishop of York at the age of thirty.

In the rest of his long career Wilfrid made both friends and enemies. Banished from his bishopric three times, he went twice more to Rome to plead his case. He was a missionary in Frisia (Holland) and converted the pagan Anglo-Saxons in Sussex and the Isle of Wight. He founded other monasteries, including Hexham in Northumberland, but when he died at Oundle (Northamptonshire) in 709/10 his body was brought back to Ripon, his first and favourite foundation. Wilfrid was buried here, to the south of the high altar.