Saint Peter's Selsey

Diocese of Chichester


Saint Wilfrid

13th Century Image of St. Wilfrid Saint Wilfrid evangelised Sussex, the last part of the British Isles to convert to Christianity. He was born, at Oundle, in 634AD, the Anglo-Saxon son of a Northumbrian thegn (Warrior Lord). Historically Ireland, Scotland and Northern England followed the tradition and usages of the Celtic church, whereas the South and East of England had been evangelised by Roman missionaries thus followed the Roman usages. Wilfrid had become an enthusiastic supporter of the Roman tradition after visits to Kent and Rome.

 

 

The principle differences between the Celtic and Roman traditions were:

According to the Venerable Bede:

About this time there arose a great and recurrent controversy on the observance of Easter, those trained in kent and Gaul maintaining that the Irish observance was contrary to that of the universal church…. Eventually the matter came to the notice of King Oswy and his son Alchfrid. Oswy thought nothing could be better than the irish teaching…..but Alchfrid who had been instructed in the faith by Wilfred who had gone to Rome to study the doctrine of the church ….knew that Wilfred's doctrine was in fact preferable to all the traditions of the Irish. ….

There was a movement to standardise on one tradition and in 664 a conference was called at the monastery of St. Hilda in Whitby (The Whitby Synod) to settle the matter. Bishop Colman and his Irish clergy supported the Celtic view whilst the English view (ie: that the Roman tradition be adopted) was advocated by Wilfrid and his supporters.

Wilfrid's central argument was that the roman Church was the only one that had the keys of St. Peter, the keys that would get you into Heaven. Essentially Wifrid made it a matter of salvation, if you followed the ways of Rome then you would get into heaven, follow the Celtic church and you would not!

Wilfrid's argument won the day and Bishop Colman and his supporters withdrew from the Diocese in their bitter disappointment. Wilfrid was appointed Bishop in Colmans place. However rather than let the northern Bishop's, of the Celtic tradition, consecrate him he went to Compiègne in France, instead. On his journey back home, in 666, he was shipwrecked in the land of the Southern Saxons (Sussex) where he was nearly killed by the heathen inhabitants.

On his eventual return to the North, he found that he had been replaced during his prolonged absence, by St.Chad who was working as Archbishop at the newly restored See of York. In 669 Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury visited Northumbria, where he found St Chad, as Archbishop of York and at his instigation, St. Chad withdrew and Wilfrid once more became Bishop of York.

Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury decided to split Wilfrid's great Diocese of York into four smaller Diocese's and appoint new Bishops for three of the smaller Diocese's leaving Wilfrid in charge of the fourth, Wilfrid's diocese did not include the City of York.

Wilfrid went on a journey to Rome to appeal against Theodores action. Rome found in Wilfrid's favour, however when he returned to Northumbria the old King had died, his son had taken over (who did not like Wilfrid), the new King ignored the papal ruling and imprisoned Wilfrid at Bamburgh. Then after a period of time, the imprisonment was converted to exile.

The banished Wilfrid went south to Sussex and in 681 he preached as a missionary at Selsey. On his arrival he found the local population suffering from drought and famine. The local fishermen only knew how to use lines to fish, so he set about teaching them to use nets. The locals were impressed and were keen to hear Wilfrid's teachings. Eventually, the local population agreed to be converted en-masse to Christianity. On the day of the baptisms, the rain came down, the drought ended. And so began the Christian tradition of Selsey.

Wilfrid persuaded the local leader, King Ethalwald of the South Saxons, to provide land to build a monastery. According to the Venerable Bede:


(the king)

gave to the most revered prelate, the land of eighty-seven families to maintain his company which were in banishment, which place is called Selsea, that is the island of the Sea-Calf...

In 683 King Cædwalla, of the West Saxons (who had conquered the land of the South Saxons), confirmed the grant, of land at Selsey, for Wilfrid to build a monastery. A picture of this confirmation can be found in Chichester Cathedral and St.Peter's church Selsey, has a 19th Century copy.

Cædwall grants Wilfrid land at Selsey

 

The INTERVIEW  between St. WILFRIDE the expelled Archbishop of York, the founder of Christianity among the South Saxons & CÆDWALL king of the West Saxons A * D 681 when upon the conquest of the former Kingdom, he constituted St Wilfrid the first Bishop of Selsey and built a Monastry in the Island of that name which he made the Episcopal See: in which place it continued till the time of Bishop Stigano who first removed the See to Chichester A*D 1070.
Wilfride is here in the act of presenting to the Saxon Monarch a Scroll written in Latin, the translation of which is thus: "Give to thy servants" "Oh give them a dwelling place for God's sake" Ceadwall replies "Let it be as thou desirest"

The painting the size of which is 12ft 8inches wide and 8ft 8inches high is the work of Theodore Bernardi of Amsterdam by command of Robert Sherborne Bishop of Chichester A*D 1519 from which painting this plate is Engraved by T.King Drawing Master Chichester October 1807.

After working in Selsey for five years Wilfrid was reconciled with Theodore and returned to the restored See at York. He worked in York for a further five years before being deposed again and was then moved to the Diocese of Hexham.

He died on 12th October 709. He was buried in Ripon Cathedral.