The ''Vita Sancti Wilfrithi'' or ''Life of St Wilfrid'' (spelled "Wilfrid" in the modern era) is an early 8th-century hagiographic text recounting the life of the
Northumbria
la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria
, common_name = Northumbria
, status = State
, status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...
n
bishop
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
,
Wilfrid
Wilfrid ( – 709 or 710) was an English bishop and saint. Born a Northumbrian noble, he entered religious life as a teenager and studied at Lindisfarne, at Canterbury, in Francia, and at Rome; he returned to Northumbria in about 660, and ...
. Although a
hagiography
A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies migh ...
, it has few miracles, while its main concerns are with the politics of the Northumbrian church and the history of the
monasteries
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...
of
Ripon
Ripon () is a cathedral city in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. The city is located at the confluence of two tributaries of the River Ure, the Laver and Skell. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the city ...
and
Hexham
Hexham ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Northumberland, England, on the south bank of the River Tyne, formed by the confluence of the North Tyne and the South Tyne at Warden, Northumberland, Warden nearby, and ...
. It is one of a collection of historical sources from the late 7th- and early 8th-centuries, along with the anonymous ''
Vita Sancti Cuthberti'', the works of
Bede
Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...
and
Adomnán
Adomnán or Adamnán of Iona (, la, Adamnanus, Adomnanus; 624 – 704), also known as Eunan ( ; from ), was an abbot of Iona Abbey ( 679–704), hagiographer, statesman, canon jurist, and saint. He was the author of the ''Life of Co ...
's ''
Vita Sancti Columbae'', that detail the Christianisation of
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
and make the period the best documented period in English history before the age of
Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who bot ...
.
Date and authorship
In the preface to the ''Vita Wilfrithi'', the author reveals that he is a priest called
Stephen
Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; ...
. Writers in modern times often style the author "Eddius Stephanus", an attribution that goes back to the 17th century. This attribution is now thought unlikely by many historians. The identification was made because the ''Vita Wilfrithi'' recounts that sometime between 666 and 669, Wilfrid brought two singing masters from Kent to Ripon, Ædde and Æona.
This Ædde was also mentioned by Bede, who says that an ''Æddi cognomento Stephanus'' ("Ædde, also known as Stephen") was brought to Northumbria by
Wilfrid
Wilfrid ( – 709 or 710) was an English bishop and saint. Born a Northumbrian noble, he entered religious life as a teenager and studied at Lindisfarne, at Canterbury, in Francia, and at Rome; he returned to Northumbria in about 660, and ...
and was the first singing-master (''cantor'') among the Northumbrians. This is not however thought to be good evidence by many modern historians, while many other factors, such as age, make the attribution positively unlikely.
The ''Vita Wilfrithi'' can be dated reasonably securely between 709, the year of Wilfrid's death, and c. 720. The latter date, c. 720, is the approximate date of the ''Vita Sancti Cuthberti'', a text which the ''Vita Wilfrithi'' quotes, and indeed imitates so often that one historian has used the word "plagiarism". There are some indications that it was written after 716.
Synopsis
The ''Vita'' narrates the life and career of Wilfrid, from his boyhood until his death, with brief digressions into the other affairs of Wilfrid's two main monasteries,
Ripon
Ripon () is a cathedral city in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. The city is located at the confluence of two tributaries of the River Ure, the Laver and Skell. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the city ...
and
Hexham
Hexham ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Northumberland, England, on the south bank of the River Tyne, formed by the confluence of the North Tyne and the South Tyne at Warden, Northumberland, Warden nearby, and ...
.
[Gransden, ''Historical Writing'', p. 71] It details his boyhood decision to become a churchman, his quarrels with
Theodore of Tarsus
Theodore of Tarsus ( gr, Θεόδωρος Ταρσοῦ; 60219 September 690) was Archbishop of Canterbury from 668 to 690. Theodore grew up in Tarsus, but fled to Constantinople after the Persian Empire conquered Tarsus and other cities. After ...
,
Archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...
, and various secular figures, his travels back and forth between
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
and
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, his participation in church
synod
A synod () is a council of a Christian denomination, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word ''wikt:synod, synod'' comes from the meaning "assembly" or "meeting" and is analogous with the Latin ...
s, and eventually his death.
The text devotes over one third of its contents to Wilfrid's "Northumbrian achievements", but Stephen devotes almost no space to Wilfrid's second period in office as Bishop of York (686–691), and little space to his activity in Mercia. The ''Vita Wilfrithi'', in common with many hagiographies written close to the death of their subject, records very few miracles, but like Bede and
Eusebius of Caesarea
Eusebius of Caesarea (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος ; 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christia ...
, incorporates full documents relevant to its story.
[
]
Problems
According to Fulk ''et al.'', the ''Vita Wilfrithi'' is tendentious and partisan. The ''Vita'', perhaps mirroring the views of Wilfrid himself, is contemptuous of the Gaelic
Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...
contribution, the "poisonous seeds" they planted, to the development of the Northumbrian and English church, and thus discredits Lindisfarne
Lindisfarne, also called Holy Island, is a tidal island off the northeast coast of England, which constitutes the civil parish of Holy Island in Northumberland. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th century AD; it was an important ...
and the other English monasteries associated with them.
Wilfrid is given full responsibility for the victory of the Roman faction in the Synod of Whitby
In the Synod of Whitby in 664, King Oswiu of Northumbria ruled that his kingdom would calculate Easter and observe the monastic tonsure according to the customs of Rome rather than the customs practiced by Irish monks at Iona and its satellite ins ...
, his great triumph over the Gaelic monks. Bede however sidelines Wilfrid, making it unclear to the modern historian which writer is being more accurate; and while Stephen depicts the second half of the 7th century as a "Wilfridian golden age", in the narrative of Bede's ''Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum
The ''Ecclesiastical History of the English People'' ( la, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum), written by Bede in about AD 731, is a history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict be ...
'', Wilfrid is but one of many ecclesiastical figures who contribute to the development of the English church. These factors led the historian Walter Goffart
Walter Goffart (born February 22, 1934) is a German-born American historian who specializes in Late Antiquity and the European Middle Ages. He taught for many years in the History Department and Centre for Medieval Studies of the University of To ...
to argue that Bede's ''Historia Ecclesiastica'' was actually written because the leaders of the Bernician church sought to counter the version of history being promulgated by the Deiran "Wilfridians" in the ''Vita Wilfrithi''.[Goffart, ''Narrators'', pp. 235–328]
Inspirations
The ''Vita Wilfrithi'' inspired a 10th-century Latin poem entitled ''Breviloquium Vitae Wilfridi'', written by Frithegod
Frithegod, (flourished ''circa'' (''c.'') 950 to ''c.'' 958) was a poet and clergyman in the mid 10th-century who served Oda of Canterbury, an Archbishop of Canterbury. As a non-native of England, he came to Canterbury and entered Oda's service a ...
to commemorate Oda's acquisition of Wilfrid's relics for Canterbury Cathedral
Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England. It forms part of a World Heritage Site. It is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, currently Justin Welby, leader of the ...
around 950. The historian Michael Lapidge Michael Lapidge, FBA (born 8 February 1942) is a scholar in the field of Medieval Latin literature, particularly that composed in Anglo-Saxon England during the period 600–1100 AD; he is an emeritus Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, a Fellow of ...
has called the ''Breviloquium'' "one of the most difficult Latin poems written in pre-conquest England".[Lapidge,]
Frithegod (fl. c.950–c.958)
, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''
Notes
References
* Colgrave, Bertram, ed. and trans. (1927). ''The Life of Bishop Wilfrid by Eddius Stephanus''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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External links
* Stephen of Ripon
''Vita Wilfridi I episcopi Eboracensis''
ed. Wilhelm Levison
Wilhelm Levison (27 May 1876, in Düsseldorf – 17 January 1947, in Durham) was a German medievalist.
He was well known as a contributor to ''Monumenta Germaniae Historica'', especially for the vitae from the Merovingian era. He also edited Wi ...
, in ''Monumenta Germaniae Historica
The ''Monumenta Germaniae Historica'' (''MGH'') is a comprehensive series of carefully edited and published primary sources, both chronicle and archival, for the study of Northwestern and Central European history from the end of the Roman Empire ...
'', ''Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum'', VI, Hannoverae et Lipsiae 1913, pp. 163–263 (in Latin)
{{Authority control
8th-century Latin books
8th-century Christian texts
Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England
Christian hagiography
History of Christianity texts
Northumbria
Latin texts of Anglo-Saxon England
Biographies about religious figures