November 7

Saint Willibrord

Roman Martyrology · Remembered by Catholics, Anglicans and Lutherans

English monk who brought the Gospel to the Frisians of the Low Countries

Willibrord was born in Northumbria, in the north of England, around 658. As a boy he was sent to the monastery of Ripon, and at about twenty he moved to Ireland, where he spent some twelve years studying and praying under the English monk Egbert.

In 690 he sailed with eleven companions to Frisia, the coastal lands of today’s Netherlands. With the backing of the Frankish ruler Pepin, he preached and built churches, and in 695 Pope Sergius I ordained him archbishop of the Frisians in Rome. He made Utrecht his base and founded the abbey of Echternach, in present-day Luxembourg. The work was fragile: after 714 the pagan Frisian king Radbod pushed back, and churches were destroyed. Willibrord began again, for a time with the young Boniface at his side.

He died at Echternach in 739, past eighty, and was buried there. He is remembered as the apostle of the Netherlands and patron of Luxembourg, where a dancing procession still honours him each spring.

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

Isaiah 52:7 · BSB

A prayer

Faithful God, you called Willibrord to leave his homeland and carry the good news of Christ to the people of Frisia, and you gave him patience to build again when his work was torn down. Give us the same courage to share our faith and the same perseverance when our efforts seem to fail. Amen.