Suitbert of Kaiserswerdt

Swidberth of Kaiserwerdt
Swidberth of Kaiserwerdt
	Suitbertus
Born	Northumbria
Died	713; Suitberts-Insel, now Kaiserswerth
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church ; Eastern Orthodox Church
Feast	1 March
Patronage	Germany

Last updated April 27, 2019

Saint Suitbert, Suidbert, Suitbertus, Swithbert, or Swidbert was born in Northumbria, England, in the seventh century, and accompanied Willibrord on the Anglo-Saxon mission.

Willibrord was a Northumbrian missionary saint, known as the "Apostle to the Frisians" in the modern Netherlands. He became the first Bishop of Utrecht and died at Echternach, Luxembourg.

Anglo-Saxon missionaries were instrumental in the spread of Christianity in the Frankish Empire during the 8th century, continuing the work of Hiberno-Scottish missionaries which had been spreading Celtic Christianity across the Frankish Empire as well as in Scotland and Anglo-Saxon England itself during the 6th century. Both Ecgberht of Ripon and Ecgbert of York were instrumental in the Anglo-Saxon mission. The first organized the early missionary efforts of Wihtberht, Willibrord, and others; while many of the later missioners made their early studies at York.

Life

Suitbert studied in Ireland, at Rathmelsigi, Connacht, along with Ecgberht of Ripon. The latter, filled with zeal for the conversion of the Germans, had sent Wihtberht, to evangelize the Frisians, but owing to the opposition of the pagan ruler Rathbod, Wihtberht was unsuccessful and returned to England. Ecgberht then sent Willibrord and his twelve companions, among whom was Suitbert. ^[1]

Connacht, formerly spelled Connaught, is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the west of the country. Up to the 9th century it consisted of several independent major kingdoms.

Saint Ecgberht was an Anglo-Saxon monk of Northumbria and Bishop of Lindisfarne.

Saint Wigbert, (Wihtberht) born in Wessex around 675, was an Anglo-Saxon Benedictine monk and a missionary and disciple of Saint Boniface who travelled with the latter in Frisia and northern and central Germany to convert the local tribes to Christianity. His feast day is August 13.

They landed near the mouth of the Rhine and journeyed to Utrecht, which became their headquarters. The new missionaries worked with great success under the protection of Pepin of Heristal, who, having recently conquered a portion of Frisia, compelled Redbad, King of the Frisians to cease harassing the Christians. Suitbert laboured chiefly in North Brabant, Gelderland, and Cleves.^[1]

The Rhine is one of the major European rivers, which has its sources in Switzerland and flows in an mostly northerly direction through Germany and The Netherlands, emptying into the North Sea. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps, forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein, Swiss-Austrian, Swiss-German and then the Franco-German border, then flows through the German Rhineland and the Netherlands and eventually empties into the North Sea.

Redbad was the king of Frisia from c. 680 until his death. He is often considered the last independent ruler of Frisia before Frankish domination. He defeated Charles Martel at Cologne. Eventually, however, Charles prevailed and compelled the Frisians to submit. Redbad died in 719, but for some years his successors struggled against the Frankish power.

North Brabant, also unofficially called Brabant, is a province in the south of the Netherlands. It borders the provinces of South Holland and Gelderland to the north, Limburg to the east, Zeeland to the west, and Belgium to the south. The northern border follows the Meuse westward to its mouth in the Hollands Diep strait, part of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta.

After some years he went back to England, and in 693 was consecrated in Mercia as a missionary bishop by Wilfrid of York. He returned to Frisia and fixed his see at Wijk bij Duurstede on a branch of the Rhine. A little later, entrusting his flock of converts to Willibrord, he proceeded north of the Rhine and the Lippe, among the Bructeri, or Boructuari, in the district of Berg, Westphalia. This mission bore great fruit at first, but was eventually a failure owing to the inroads of the pagan Saxons; when the latter had conquered the territory.

Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. The name is a Latinisation of the Old English Mierce or Myrce, meaning "border people". Mercia dominated what would later become England for three centuries, subsequently going into a gradual decline while Wessex eventually conquered and united all the kingdoms into the Kingdom of England.

Wilfrid 7th-century Anglo-Saxon bishop and saint

Wilfrid was an English bishop and saint. Born a Northumbrian noble, he entered religious life as a teenager and studied at Lindisfarne, at Canterbury, in Gaul, and at Rome; he returned to Northumbria in about 660, and became the abbot of a newly founded monastery at Ripon. In 664 Wilfrid acted as spokesman for the Roman position at the Synod of Whitby, and became famous for his speech advocating that the Roman method for calculating the date of Easter should be adopted. His success prompted the king's son, Alhfrith, to appoint him Bishop of Northumbria. Wilfrid chose to be consecrated in Gaul because of the lack of what he considered to be validly consecrated bishops in England at that time. During Wilfrid's absence Alhfrith seems to have led an unsuccessful revolt against his father, Oswiu, leaving a question mark over Wilfrid's appointment as bishop. Before Wilfrid's return Oswiu had appointed Ceadda in his place, resulting in Wilfrid's retirement to Ripon for a few years following his arrival back in Northumbria.

Wijk bij Duurstede Municipality in Utrecht, Netherlands

Wijk bij Duurstede is a municipality and a city in the central Netherlands.

About the year 700 Suitbert withdrew to Werth, a small island that formed an important crossing point of the Rhine, six miles from Düsseldorf. It had been granted to him by Pepin of Heristal. There Suitbert built a Benedictine abbey and ended his days in peace,^[1] 1 March 713.

Kaiserswerth is one of the oldest parts of the City of Düsseldorf. It is in the north of the city and next to the river Rhine. It houses the Deaconess's Institute of Kaiserswerth where Florence Nightingale worked Kaiserswerth has about 7,000 inhabitants and an area of 4.71 km².

Veneration

His relics were rediscovered in 1626 at Kaiserwerth and are still venerated there. He is considered a patron saint of Germany. His feast day falls on 1 March.

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References

1 2 3 MacErlean, Andrew. "St. Suitbert." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 26 April 2019This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "St. Suitbert" . Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton.

External links

Swithberht 1 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England

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[Mcerlean-1] 1 2 3 MacErlean, Andrew. "St. Suitbert." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 26 April 2019This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.