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St Willibrord in Recent Historiography
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 February 2016
Extract
In contrast to his fellow-countryman Boniface, Willibrord did not leave any correspondence or other writings. As a matter of fact, the only thing known to us is a small private note, consisting of a few lines. This note was written when he was seventy years old and is part of the liturgical calendar which he carried with him on his missionary travels. Here Willibrord, speaking about himself in the third person, mentions two events from his eventful life: first, that he came across the sea to the Frankish Kingdom in 690, secondly, that he was consecrated bishop by Pope Sergius in Rome five years later. These are the only things he says about himself.
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References
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15 ‘Proposuit animo…verbum Dei aliquibus earum, quae nondum audierant, gentibus evangelisando committere’, Bede, HE, v, 9 (ed. Plummer, p. 296).
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18 Ibid., pp. 28–36.
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28 Ibid., pp. 44–8 and 60-83.
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39 Boniface, Epistulae, ed. M. Tangl, MGH, Epp. Sel. (21955), No 109.
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42 Wampach, Echternach, I, 2, No 39.
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45 See for the geographical situation of these places Wampach’s map of ‘Echternachs entfernter Klosterbesitz in Friesland, am Niederrhein und in Franken-Thüringen’ in Wampach, 1, 1. With regard to Susteren see Werner, Adeisfamihen, pp. 157, 289; and idem, Der Lüttkher Raum in frühkarolingischer Zeit, VeröfTentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts für Geschichte, 62 (Göttingen, 1980), p. 170. In Hammelburg a monastery was only planned, not realized; see Werner, Adelsfamilien, pp. 156–9. For the presumptive evidence of a monastery in Rindern see Angenendt, ‘Willibrord… bisschopszetel’, p. 106.
46 Gijsseling, M. and Koch, A. C. F., eds, Diplomala Belgica ante annum millesimum centesimum scripta, 2 vols (Brussels, 1950), I, 305, No 173Google Scholar: ‘monasterium, quod est infra muros Traiecto castro situm constructum, ubi apostolicus vir et in Christo pater noster Vuillibrordus archiepiscopus sub sancte conversationis cenobitali ordine custos preesse videtur.’