The Ripon Connection? Willibrord, Wilfrid, and the Mission to Frisia
Ziegler, Michelle
The Heroic Age Issue 6 Spring 2003
Abstract
This essay challenges the view that Wilfrid of York inspired, sent or supported Willibrord’s mission to Frisia. The evidence of Wilfrid’s evangelization of Frisia and Willibrord’s life from his youth at Ripon through his consecration as Archbishop of Frisia is reviewed.
The late medieval people of Frisia have spun heroic legends around the missionary Willibrord giving him the title Apostle of the Frisians. From the Frisian origin myth to legendary associations with Charlemagne, committed to writing between 1200 and 1500, Willibrord emerges as the heroic leader of the Frisians into the light of the Christianity and the Holy Roman Empire (Bremmer 7-19).
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