Hierarch Willibrord of Utrecht

St. Willibrord was born in 658 in Northumbria, England. As a boy he was given for upbringing to the monastery of Ripon, and as a young man spent about twelve years in Ireland, then renowned for its high level of monastic learning. In 690, leading a group of twelve companions, he set out on a mission to the Frisians, a pagan Germanic people inhabiting the territory of the present-day Netherlands. Securing the support of the Frankish mayor of the palace, Pepin of Herstal, he preached successfully among the Frisians; in 695 in Rome, Pope Sergius I consecrated him Archbishop of the Frisians with his see at Utrecht, which became the starting point for the Christianization of the Netherlands. He founded several monasteries, the most important being the abbey of Echternach (now in Luxembourg), where Willibrord spent his final years and was buried. His missionary labors continued for more than forty years and laid the foundations of church organization throughout the Low Countries. He died on November 7, 739, at Echternach.