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Life of St Wilfrid
Eddius Stephanus, tr. Colgrave, 1927
21. Concerning the Goodness of Our Bishop
Thus that most pious king, Ecgfrith, found his kingdom extending both north and south by his triumphs, while at the same time the ecclesiastical kingdom of St Wilfrid of blessed memory increased to the south among the Saxons and to the north among the British, the Picts, and the Scots. Beloved and dear to all people, he diligently accomplished his ecclesiastical duties; in every part he ordained numbers of priests and deacons to help him, and thus he steered the ship of the Church carefully amid the tossing billows of the world. For no wave of feasting submerged him, nor did the waves of fasting toss him on to the rocks of pride. For even amid feasting he lived so abstemiously that he never by himself drank to the dregs though it were but the smallest cup, either when he was thirsty owing to the heat of the sun, or when wearied by the cold of winter, as many witnesses can prove. In watching and prayers, in fastings and study, who was to be found like him? He kept his body, as he testified before the faithful, pure from his mother’s womb, and unspotted, for he made it his custom to wash it during the night hours, winter and summer alike, with blessed and holy water, until Pope John of the Apostolic See and of blessed memory advised him to put an end to this rigour, out of consideration for his age. Almost all the abbots and abbesses of the monasteries dedicated their substance to him by vow, either keeping it themselves in his name or intending him to be their heir after their death. Secular chief men too, men of noble birth, gave him their sons to be instructed, so that, if they chose, they might devote themselves to the service of God; or that, if they preferred, he might give them into the king’s charge as warriors when they were grown up. Now all these things kindled the flame of envy and hatred in the breasts of many, and the devil fanned it. Nevertheless our holy bishop, in the words of the great teacher, patiently bore his “armour, on the right hand and on the left,” in prosperity and in adversity alike, always making gifts to the clergy as well as to the laity with such munificence that his equal could not be found.