The Dates of Wilfrid’s Commemorations

Ripon Cathedral Wilfrid Lectures

In Memory of Wilfrid

Canon Professor Joyce Hill is offering us two further lectures this year as part of our Patronal Festival celebrations. Each, in its different way, focuses on how we remember Wilfrid.

Thursday 1 October 2026 at 7.30, in the Cathedral Quire

The Dates of Wilfrid’s Commemorations

Why do we commemorate Wilfrid on 12 October when the Ripon community began by keeping his feast-day as 24 April? And how, in an era before AD dating was in use, do we know for sure that he died in 710, as on our ledger stone, rather than in 709, as given in the Common Worship calendar?  The lecture will be a detective story, showing how we can tease out the facts from patchy evidence.

The lectures are sponsored by the Friends of Ripon Cathedral.