WILFRID (Wilfrith), Saint, Bishop of York. - Born in Northumbria ca. 634, of a noble family, died in the monastery of Oudle (Murcia) on 12 October or probably 24 April 709.
A monk at Lindisfarne and at Canterbury, he felt the need to perfect his intellectual culture through contact with Roman civilization, and he went to Rome, where he noted the divergences between the liturgy that was held in honor there and that which was used in Northumbria. On the way back to his homeland, he stayed three years at Lyon and there completed his knowledge. At the Council of Whitby (664) he defended with such ardor the adoption of the date of Easter according to Roman usage that King Oswy, who until then had opted for the Celtic computation, broke with the ancient usage (cf. Mansi, XI, col. 67).
Made abbot of the monastery of Ripon and highly esteemed for his learning, W. was elected archbishop of York, but he could not take possession of his church. The inopportune idea that he had of receiving consecration from the hands of the archbishop of Paris displeased King Oswy, who took advantage of his absence to replace him with Ceadda. Nevertheless Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury, restored his see to him (669). Having lost it in 678 following court intrigues, W. set out to plead his cause at Rome, where Pope Agatho restored his bishopric to him (779), obliging him, however, to share his task with certain coadjutors (cf. Mansi, XI, col. 179).
The pontifical decision seemed suspect to the clergy of Northumbria, and W., first imprisoned, had to go into exile in Sussex and on the Isle of Wight, where his apostolic zeal allowed him to convert numerous pagans. The archbishop of Canterbury wished to give him a compensation by choosing him as his successor; but W. refused the offer and wished to be fully restored in all his rights at York, by virtue of the decree of Pope Agatho. This intransigence caused him new misunderstandings. At the Council of Austerfield (702) he was offered a return to his old monastery of Ripon, on condition of residing there permanently. W. then set out again for Rome to introduce his appeal there. The Holy See recognized the full legitimacy of his claims and asked the King of Northumbria to give back to him the see of York. But the Council held at Ripon postponed the Roman decision and provisionally left the see to Bosa, who occupied it, and gave W. the see of Ripon and of Hexham (cf. Mansi, XII, coll. 158-74).
Bibliography4 works
Guglielmo Mollat