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Wiro of Roermond, also Wiro or Wera of Utrecht (and possibly also the same as Vira of Northumbria; d. c. 700) is a Christian saint of the 8th century. His feast day is May 8.
saint wiro was a native of Anglo-Saxon England, of Northumberland. He seems to have been associated with Saint Willibrord, and to have been appointed the second bishop of Utrecht about 741. [1]
Between 746 to 747, Wiro was one of eight bishops, along with St. Boniface, who wrote a letter to Æthelbald, King of Mercia reproving him for various dissolute and irreligious acts including: stealing ecclesiastical revenue, violating church privileges, imposing forced labour on the clergy, and fornicating with nuns. [2] The letter implored Æthelbald to take a wife and abandon the sin of lust:
We therefore, beloved son, beseech Your Grace by Christ the son of God and by His coming and by His kingdom, that if it is true that you are continuing in this vice you will amend your life by penitence, purify yourself, and bear in mind how vile a thing it is through lust to change the image of God created in you into the image and likeness of a vicious demon. Remember that you were made king and ruler over many not by your own merits but by the abounding grace of God, and now you are making yourself by your own lust the slave of an evil spirit. [3]
He was an itinerant missionary and preached in the region of the Maas and the Rhine, where his legend associates him with the priest Plechelm and the deacon Otger. [4]
Later he founded St. Peter's Abbey on land given to him by Pippin II in the present Sint Odilienberg [5] near Roermond in the Netherlands with Otger. [1] Wiro is buried there.
He may be identical with the missionary bishop Vira from Northumbria, mentioned by Alcuin, among others.
The Basilica of Saints Wiro, Plechelm and Otger at Sint Odilienberg is dedicated to Wiro and his companions.
Veneration of Wiro and his two companions began early in Roermond. The legendary life story was written at the end of the 10th century. [6]
The monastery he founded was transferred to Roermond, in 1361, accompanied by his relics, which were lost during the Reformation. They were re-discovered later in the 16th century, and a feast day was celebrated for some years to commemorate the rediscovery. In 1881 the original grave was found in the former abbey, and most of the bones were returned to it.
Wiro's feast day is 8 May, but in Roermond 11 May. Since the Middle Ages his skull has been in Utrecht, where he was the patron saint of the bishopric. Pilgrimages are still made to his grave in Roermond.
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Offa was King of Mercia, a kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England, from 757 until his death in 796. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of Æthelbald. Offa defeated the other claimant, Beornred. In the early years of Offa's reign, it is likely that he consolidated his control of Midland peoples such as the Hwicce and the Magonsæte. Taking advantage of instability in the kingdom of Kent to establish himself as overlord, Offa also controlled Sussex by 771, though his authority did not remain unchallenged in either territory. In the 780s he extended Mercian Supremacy over most of southern England, allying with Beorhtric of Wessex, who married Offa's daughter Eadburh, and regained complete control of the southeast. He also became the overlord of East Anglia and had King Æthelberht II of East Anglia beheaded in 794, perhaps for rebelling against him.
Ecgberht, also spelled Egbert, Ecgbert, Ecgbriht, Ecgbeorht, and Ecbert, was King of Wessex from 802 until his death in 839. His father was King Ealhmund of Kent. In the 780s, Ecgberht was forced into exile to Charlemagne's court in the Frankish Empire by the kings Offa of Mercia and Beorhtric of Wessex, but on Beorhtric's death in 802, Ecgberht returned and took the throne.
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Æthelfrith was King of Bernicia from c. 593 until his death around 616 AD at the Battle of the River Idle. He became the first Bernician king to also rule the neighboring land of Deira, giving him an important place in the development and the unification of the later kingdom of Northumbria. He was especially notable for his successes against the Britons and his victory over the Gaels of Dál Riata. Although he was defeated and killed in battle and replaced by a dynastic rival, his line was eventually restored to power in the 630s.
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