St Wilfrid of York

Wilfrid of York is one of the strongest and most embattled churchmen of early England, and the life is better for not pretending otherwise. He was monk, abbot, bishop, missionary, Roman advocate, exile, and restorer of order, sometimes all in one decade. His zeal for Roman discipline, chant, liturgical splendor, and ecclesiastical structure repeatedly brought him into conflict, and his career is full of appeals, depositions, imprisonments, exiles, and returns. Yet controversy is not the whole point.

Wilfrid kept working for the Church through each reversal. He preached, founded, restored, and even evangelized fresh regions while under pressure. The result is a saint who remains complicated, but also plainly formidable in courage, energy, and endurance.