Wilfrid: Abbot, Bishop, Saint: Papers from the 1300th Anniversary Conferences

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This volume is not only the first major collection of essays on St. Wilfrid since the book edited by D.P. Kirby in 1974, it is also a memorial volume to the great Viking archaeologist Richard Hall of the York Archaeological Trust.

St. Wilfrid was a dominant figure of his age, prominently featured in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation. He lived c.634 to 710 and was the abbot of several houses, a bishop and a great champion of Roman Christianity. He was the founder of Ripon, Hexham and Oundle churches. His lengthy career witnessed recurring conflicts with the kings of Northumbria and with Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury, causing periods of exile and appeals to Rome. Keen to defend his reputation, one of his followers, Stephen of Ripon wrote an early Life of the saint, one of our most important surviving witnesses for this early period.

In 2010 two conferences were held in honour of Wilfrid, one in Manchester organised by Nick Higham, the other in York organised by the late Richard Hall. The two sets of proceedings are here combined in a single volume, with full bibliography and index. The authors, in order of appearance, are: N.J. Higham ; Ailsa Mainman ; Alan Thacker; Clare Stancliffe; Sarah Foot; Francisco José Alvarez Lopez; N.J. Higham; Mark Laynesmith; Sandra Duncan; Christopher Grocock; Richard N. Bailey; Jane Hawkes; Eric Cambridge; Paul Bidwell; Jesse D. Billett; Paul Fouracre; I.N. Wood; Éamonn Ó Carragáin; James T. Palmer; T.M. Charles-Edwards; Morn Capper; Damian J. Tyler; Alaric A. Trousdale; W. Trent Foley; and Catherine Cubitt.

The cover of the book features a Tudor panel painting of St. Wilfrid with King Caedwalla of Wessex, hanging in Chichester Cathedral.