# Wihtberht > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Wihtberht > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Wihtberht.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wihtberht > Source revision: 1345886022 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Anglo-Saxon Benedictine monk and missionary honored as a saint (675-747)}} {{Other uses|Wigbert (disambiguation)}} [[File:Bonifatius und Wigbert Plum.JPG|thumb|Saint Wigbert and Saint Boniface. Stained glass window by [Alois Plum](/source/Alois_Plum).]] '''Wihtberht''' or '''Wigbert''' (May 7, 675 – August 13, 747) born in [Wessex](/source/Wessex) around 675, was an [Anglo-Saxon](/source/Anglo-Saxons) [Benedictine](/source/Benedictine) monk and a missionary and [disciple](/source/Apprenticeship) of [Boniface](/source/Saint_Boniface) who travelled with the latter in [Frisia](/source/Frisia) and northern and central [Germany](/source/Germany) to convert the local tribes to [Christianity](/source/Christianity). His feast day is August 13th in the [Roman Catholic Church](/source/Roman_Catholic_Church) and on April 12th in the [Eastern Orthodox Church](/source/Eastern_Orthodox_Church).A Western Rite Orthodox Martyrology, (St. Gregory the Great Orthodox Church, Washington, D.C.), p. 146. ==Life== Wihtberht was an Englishman of noble birth, who embraced the monastic life.[http://www.bartleby.com/210/8/134.html Butler, Alban. ''The Lives of the Saints'', Vol. VIII, 1866] It has been supposed that Wihtberht was a monk of Glastonbury, but Löffler finds this improbable.[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15619b.htm Löffler, Klemens. "St. Wigbert." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 16 May 2013] == Character== At times an [anchorite](/source/anchorite),Bede.HE v.9 and [hermit](/source/hermit){{PASE|1817|Wihtberht 2|cw=1}} he was known for his [missionary](/source/missionary) work, [miracle](/source/miracle)s and [prophecies](/source/prophecy).Alcuin.VersEubor 1023-4 He is known to history mainly through [Alcuin](/source/Alcuin) and [Bede](/source/Bede) and is mentioned in the [Secgan](/source/Secgan) [Hagiography](/source/Hagiography). [Alcuin](/source/Alcuin) described him as venerable,Alcuin.VitWillibrPr 4. and outstanding in his religious practice while [Bede](/source/Bede) admired his ''contempt of this world'' and his learning. He worked mainly in [Ireland](/source/Ireland). ==First mission== Around 664 Wihtberht was studying at [Rath Melsigi](/source/Rath_Melsigi) in Ireland. Also there was [Ecgberht of Ripon](/source/Ecgberht_of_Ripon), who had gone to Ireland to avoid an outbreak of the plague in Northumbria. However, Ecgberht and many of the students contracted the disease. Ecgberht vowed that if he recovered, he would become a "peregrinus" on perpetual pilgrimage from his homeland of Britain and would lead a life of penitential prayer and fasting.[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/8579, Mayr-Harting, Henry. "Ecgberht (639–729)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', 2004] He began to organize monks in Ireland to proselytize in [Frisia](/source/Frisia), but was dissuaded from going himself by a vision related to him by a monk who had been a disciple of [Boisil](/source/Boisil) (the Prior of [Melrose](/source/Melrose_Abbey) under Abbot [Eata](/source/Eata_of_Hexham)), who advised him that this task was not for him. Ecgberht instead sent Wihtberht.[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/29576, Costambeys, Marios. "Willibrord [St Willibrord] (657/8–739)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2011, accessed 24 Jan 2014] Around 680, Wihtberht, went to Frisia, where he spent two years; but owing to the opposition of the ruler [Redbad, King of the Frisians](/source/Redbad%2C_King_of_the_Frisians), Wihtberht was unsuccessful and returned.[https://books.google.com/books?id=3jPRV2hUGE8C&dq=Rath+Melsigi&pg=PA194 ''St. Cuthbert, His Cult and His Community to AD 1200'', (Gerald Bonner et al, eds.) Boydell & Brewer, 1989, p. 194] {{ISBN|9780851156101}} Wihtberht’s reputation among the Irish was such that he was celebrated in the ninth-century Irish martyrology, [Félire Óengusso](/source/%C3%93engus_of_Tallaght). ==Second mission== When Boniface felled [Thor's Oak](/source/Thor's_Oak) near [Fritzlar](/source/Fritzlar) in northern [Hesse](/source/Hesse) in 723, he built a wooden [chapel](/source/chapel) from the oak's wood and in 724 established a [Benedictine](/source/Order_of_St._Benedict) monastery in Fritzlar. Boniface called Wihtberht from England to become the abbot. Wihtberht was certainly older than Boniface. He went to Germany about 734, and Boniface made him abbot of the [monastery of Hersfeld](/source/Hersfeld_Abbey) in Hesse. Under the new abbot the school soon became famous. Among his pupils there was [Sturmi](/source/Saint_Sturm), the first Abbot of Fulda. About 737 Boniface transferred him to Thuringia as Abbot of [Ohrdruf](/source/Ohrdruf%2C_Thuringia), where he established a school for missionaries operating in [Thuringia](/source/Thuringia). Wihtberht died in 747, and was initially buried in Fritzlar in the stone basilica he had built to replace the original wooden chapel. His former student, [Lullus](/source/Lullus) later had most of his body (except for a few sacred relics which remained in Fritzlar) interred in a gold and silver shrine in Hersfeld Abbey. Wihtberht is [patron saint](/source/patron_saint) of the town of [Bad Hersfeld](/source/Bad_Hersfeld). His feast day is August 13. ==Legacy== The Priory of St Wigbert (Priorat Sankt Wigberti) is an ecumenical [Benedictine](/source/Benedictine) [monastery](/source/monastery) for men, belonging to the [Lutheran Church](/source/Lutheran_Church) of [Thuringia](/source/Thuringia), located in [Werningshausen](/source/Werningshausen), [Germany](/source/Germany).[http://www.wigberti.de/?page_id=16 The Priory of St. Wigberti] ==See also== * [Willibrord](/source/Willibrord) ==References== {{Reflist}} == External links == * {{PASE|19049|Wihtberht 2}} * [https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=2106 Catholic Online: St. Wigbert] {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Wihtberht}} Category:675 births Category:747 deaths Category:West Saxon saints Category:Anglo-Saxon Benedictines Category:Christian missionaries in Germany Category:8th-century Christian saints Category:Medieval English saints Category:8th-century English clergy Category:English Christian monks Category:Yorkshire saints --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Wihtberht](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wihtberht) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wihtberht?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.