Venerable Wynnebald, Abbot of Heidenheim

Saint Wynnebald of Heidenheim

Today in the Orthodox Church – the eighteenth of December – is the feast day of another English missionary monastic saint on the Continent, Saint Wynnebald of Heidenheim. Saint Wynnebald was one of the first such messengers of Christ to Thuringia in eastern Germany, and made his abode in Bavaria alongside his celebrated sister, Saint Wealdburg.

Saint Wynnebald was the middle child of an illustrious and holy family of West Saxons – though some sources have it that he was the eldest. His father, Richard – probably not his real name – was a prince or an underking in Wessex; and his mother, Winna, also a saint, was likely the sister of Saint Boniface. He was the younger brother of Saint Willibald, who was a pilgrim in Palestine; and he was the elder brother of Saint Wealdburg, who wrote of her brother’s pilgrimage and answered Saint Boniface’s call to join him on the Continent in converting the Thuringians – the ancestors of the folk of the state of the same name in eastern Germany.

Saint Wynnebald apparently accompanied his father and brother on part of their pilgrimage. Saint Richard fell ill and died at Lucca, and was interred there at the Basilica di San Frediano. The two sons, Wynnebald and Willibald, continued onward to Rome and completed the pilgrimage to the Tombs of the Apostles. In Rome, Willibald made the decision to take the additional voyage to Palestine. Wynnebald, however, stood behind, for his constitution was weak and sickly from childhood. He completed his schooling in Rome, became versant in the Scriptures and in the Psalms, and took the tonsure. He devoted himself fully to a life in imitation of Christ, under the Rule of Saint Benedict. In the year 730, Wynnebald returned to England and approached several of his kin. He managed to convince them to join him in the celibate and cloistered life, and journeyed with them together back to Rome. They remained there for seven years more.

Saint Boniface undertook one of his several voyages to Rome in 738, and there came across the two brothers, his nephews Wynnebald and Willibald, who were then living in Rome. Boniface made himself known to his nephews, and then entreated them of their mercy and kindness to travel with him northward, to where the Church was still young and struggling. He bade them travel with him into the Thuringian Forest, where they would establish churches and monastic communities to guide the German people toward Christ. Saint Wynnebald was entrusted with the care of the church at Erfurt, and the souls who were in that parish. It was around this time that Saint Wynnebald took up residence at a monestary in Schwanfeld. In the meantime, his brother Willibald was appointed a priest by Saint Boniface, to serve in Eichstätt.

Sometime after Saint Willibald was made, somewhat against his will, a bishop in 746, he bade his brother and sister establish a double Benedictine abbey at Heidenheim. To watch over the monks, he appointed his brother Wynnebald as abbot; and to watch over the nuns, his sister Wealdburg was chosen as abbess. Wynnebald went to this patch of land – a wild tangle of shrubbery, it seems to have been – cleared it, and built a few rough thatch huts for himself and the handful of monks who kept him company. In another nearby copse, his sister Wealdburg righted another such humble community.

His arrival was not welcomed by the locals, to put it mildly. They attempted first to remove him by atter, and when this had no effect, the heathen fell upon him with weapons in hand. But this time, too, he managed to flee the trap. He returned and rebuilt and lived as before with his monks around him. He taught them to be humble and to pray constantly; to bear themselves meekly and not to indulge in idle talk; to force themselves to prayer when the sloth was upon them; to rush to love their neighbours and to drag their feet if anger should seize them. He was mild and gentle with them, and much severer upon himself. He made himself the model which the monks must follow, and did not teach them only with words but also with deeds and with a disposition that had no need of words.

Late in his life, Saint Wynnebald was afflicted with a grave illness, and made for himself a chapel in his cell such that, even when he was unable to go to church, he could still pray and keep the Liturgy. He also kept an icon of his kinsman and master Saint Boniface among his effects; when at one point he was brought near to death by his illness, he prayed before this icon and within three weeks was restored to his usual health.

He suffered a relapse sometime after this, and was brought low by the cold weather of the oncoming winter. But not in spirit! He gathered his brothers around him and exhorted them to keep their minds fast upon God and to strive toward Him with all their efforts; and pray that He might give to them the tears of true repentance. Saint Wynnebald made his peace with them, and departed them in blessedness on the eighteenth of December in the year 760. After his passing, his brother Willibald committed the care of the monastery at Heidenheim to their sister, Saint Wealdburg. The monastery at Heidenheim continued to operate throughout the Middle Ages until it was forcibly disbanded in the Reformation. Holy father Wynnebald, pray unto Christ our God for us sinners!

Kloster Heidenheim, Bayern