Venerable Wihtberht the Wonderworker, Abbot of Fritzlar and Ohrdruf

Saint Wihtberht of Fritzlar

In the Holy Orthodox Church, the thirteenth of August is the feast day of Saint Wihtberht [also Wigbert or Wictbert] of Fritzlar. Another of the great Old English missionary saints on the Continent, a contemporary and friend of Saint Willibrord and a dutiful helpmeet to Saint Boniface, Abbot Wihtberht was also the master and mentor of the German saints Lul and Sturm who continued the missionary work on the Continent among the Frisians, Saxons and other Teutonic tribes.

Born on the seventh of May around the year 675 to a family of means and honour in the Kingdom of the West Saxons, Wihtberht put aside the sæcular life and its honours early and entered the Benedictine Order. He had from them an enviably broad education, being known, in Bede’s words, for his ‘contempt of worldly things and for his knowledge of doctrine’. He resided for some time at Glastonbury before faring across the sea to Ireland, where he spent most of his monastic life. He befriended the mendicant Saint Ecgberht of Ripon, who began organising the brethren for missions to Frisia and Saxony.

Ecgberht had made most of his preparations to go abroad from Ireland, when he was visited by one of the disciples of Saint Boisil of Melrose. This disciple intimated to Ecgberht that Saint Boisil had appeared to him in a dream, telling him that Ecgberht should not go to the Continent but instead to instruct the monks at Iona. Ecgberht strictly enjoined the brother not to tell anyone else of this dream lest it be a delusion, but Ecgberht secretly feared that it was true. But the brother, the servant of Saint Boisil, kept having the dream – and Boisil upbraided him for being careless in giving his message to Saint Ecgberht.

Again and again, in secret, the brother pleaded with Ecgberht, until at last Ecgberht seemed to give in. But his heart was set upon going to the Continent, and so he lied to the brother with soothing words about his intention to leave for Iona. But God is not mocked. As Ecgberht prepared to set sail from Ireland, a wild storm blew up. The ship that he had laden with their provisions blew over, and the provisions were lost: though all of the holy relics and books were spared. Saint Ecgberht knew that he, like Jonah, was the cause. In his self-will and pride and vainglorious hopes of bringing the Gospel to the unenlightened peoples, he had neglected the word of God to his heart. Saint Ecgberht begged his brothers’ forgiveness, and appointed Wihtberht to lead the mission to the Continent, while he himself humbly accepted that his place was in Iona.

Saint Wihtberht’s first mission to the Frisians was to the infamously-stubborn Redbad King, and that mission ended in failure. Wihtberht was obliged to return to Ireland, and Saint Willibrord was sent in his place, as well as two other priests – named Heawold the Black and Heawold the White – who were martyred by the inhabitants of Saxony as they were celebrating the Liturgy on an altar in the open.

Saint Boniface’s missions among the heathen folk of Old Saxony and Frisia in the early 700s, around the same time as Saint Bede was writing his History of the English Church and People, met with greater success. After he felled Þórr’s Oak at Fritzlar, he had a chapel built from the wood and established a Benedictine house nearby. To serve as abbot in this house, Saint Boniface sent for none other than Wihtberht, who set himself up there. Saint Boniface added to him the newly-righted abbey at Ohrdruf, which was meant for the conversion of the Thuringian flock. Wihtberht ruled these two abbeys with a gentle and mild hand for over a decade, until his declining health obliged him to step down and return rule over them to Saint Boniface.

Concerning himself, Abbot Wihtberht was a stern and regular ascetic – even in his elderly infirmity. He imposed a strict fast upon himself, though he was notably lenient and indulgent toward his brother-monks. His life of steadfast holiness and humility gave him the ability to work wonders for the Thuringian and Saxon folk whom he witnessed to, and also for his brethren. Among his pupils were the abovementioned Lul and Sturm, who unfortunately each fell on either side of a political-ecclesiastical rivalry for much of their earthly lives. He reposed in the Lord, at peace with all his brothers, in the year 747 on the thirteenth of August. Holy Father Wihtberht, wonder-working abbot and gentle missionary, pray unto Christ our God that our souls may be saved!