July 7: Saint Willibald, Bishop

He was first a Benedictine monk and later was sent by Pope Gregory III to assist Saint Boniface in the work of evangelizing Bavaria.

This was Willibald, the firstborn son of a landowner from southern England. Born on October 22, 700, in Wessex, he spent a year at the monastery of Waltham. Around 720, he accompanied his father and his brother Wunibald on a pilgrimage to Rome, and from there he traveled to Jerusalem, where he remained for three years.

From 729 to 739, he helped the Brescian abbot Petronax to rebuild the declining monastery of Monte Cassino in central Italy, which had been destroyed by the Lombards in 577. At the request of Boniface (his relative born as Winfrid), Pope Gregory III sent him to evangelize the Germanic peoples. In Eichstätt, he was ordained a priest by Boniface himself in 740 and in 741, consecrated him as Bishop of Eichstätt. Together with three companions, Willibald began an itinerant missionary ministry to proclaim the Gospel also to pagan peoples. As Bishop of Eichstätt, he built a cathedral and supported monastic foundations throughout the region, through which Christianity spread. Together with his brother Wunibald, he founded a new monastery in Heidenheim am Hahnenkamm.

Willibald died on July 7, 787, and was buried in the choir of his episcopal church.

His mortal remains are preserved in the Cathedral of Eichstätt, of whose diocese he is the Patron Saint.