Saint Winebald is one of those amazing English missionaries who
evangelized Europe, leaving behind a flourishing Catholicism and a number of
monasteries and laying the beginnings of Christianity in what is now Germany,
France, Holland, Austria, Belgium, and Luxembourg. St. Winebald was the son of
a West Saxon nobleman, St. Richard, and the brother of St. Willibald. With his
father and brother he made a pilgrimage to Rome in 721. His father died in
Italy, and Winebald remained in Rome for further study, like his countrymen
before him, St. Wilfrid and St. Benedict Biscop. He returned to England and
brought back to Rome some of his relatives to begin a monastic life in the holy
city. When St. Boniface came to Rome in 739, he recruited Winebald for the
German missions, ordained him a priest, and put him in charge of churches in
Germany and Bavaria. His brother, Willibald, who was now bishop of Eichstatt,
asked Winebald to found a monastery for the training of priests and as a center
of learning. Their sister, St. Walburga, came from England to found a convent,
and both the monastery and the convent were founded at Heidenheim. He
established the rule of St. Benedict in his monastery, and Heidenheim became an
important center of learning in the missionary territory. Because of illness,
Winebald was not able to carry on the missionary work that he desired and
yearned to end his days at Monte Cassino. In 761, Winebald visited St.
Boniface's shrine at Fulda and on the way home to Heidenheim became very sick.
When he reached Heidenheim, he became weaker and weaker and after giving his
monks a few last words he died on December 18, 761. His tomb became a local
shrine and the site of pilgrimages.
Jonathan Fabian Ginunggil,
Most High Servant,
Jesus, Mary, Joseph Ministry of Love
(Blessed and Saints and the Nine Choirs of Angels)
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