November 8

Saint Willehad of Bremen

Roman Martyrology

First bishop of Bremen, who preached to the Frisians and Saxons

Willehad was an Anglo-Saxon from Northumbria in northern England, trained in the church at York. Around 770 he crossed the sea to Frisia, on the coast of today’s Netherlands, where the English missionary Boniface had been killed earlier.

Preaching there was dangerous. His biography, written decades later, says angry pagans once cast lots to decide whether he should die, and the lots spared him. Around 780 Charlemagne sent him to the Saxons between the Weser and Elbe rivers. In 782 a Saxon revolt swept away his work, and several of his companions were killed. Willehad escaped, travelled to Rome, and then spent about two years at the monastery of Echternach, where he copied the letters of Saint Paul by hand.

When peace returned, he went back. In 787 he was made bishop, with his seat at Bremen, and built a cathedral there, dedicated on 1 November 789. He died a week later. He is remembered as a patient missionary who returned to the people who had driven him out.

How then can they call on the One in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

Romans 10:14–15 · BSB

A prayer

Faithful God, you sent Willehad across the sea to people who had never heard of Christ, and when his work was torn down you gave him courage to begin again. Give us the same patience and hope, so that we never give up on others but keep sharing your love. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.