He was born in Northumbria in 634 A.D. From the court of King Oswi of Northumbria, where the queen encouraged his natural inclinations for a religious life, he went to Lindisfarne, and then to Rome to train as a monk.

On his return to Northumbria his great friend Alcfrid, the King's son, gave him estates and monasteries and made him Archbishop of York; but Wilfrid, charming in manner but resolute in his allegiance to Rome, made enemies among the supporters of the northern Church. More than once he had to appeal to the Pope to uphold his authority.

After the death of Oswi he quarrelled with the new king, who affected to believe that the letters Wilfrid had obtained from the Pope were not authentic and cast the saint into prison. On his release he had to leave Northumbria, and came south to Sussex, where the king and queen were Christians. The people, however, quite ignored the efforts of a few monks at Bosham to convert them.

Wilfrid found the country suffering from a long drought and famine. So desperate had things become that bands of men would leap from the cliffs into the sea rather than face death from starvation. The rivers and the sea were full of fish, but the people had only lines to catch eels. Wilfrid hit on the idea of tying a number of these nets together, went out to sea with them, and returned with a great catch of fish.

Such practical Christianity made a strong appeal to the fishermen of Bosham, and Wilfrid's teaching was now listened to readily. The people were converted almost in a body, and on the very day when Wilfrid was baptising them the rain came down. The drought was ended; the Church was begun.

For five years Wilfrid stayed in Sussex building up a little community; then he was called back to Northumbria, and left his peaceful preaching among the humble fishermen in the south to end his life in an atmosphere of ceaseless strife.

 

 

 

 

 

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