Saint Winibald of Heidenheim

Saint Winibald, also known as Wunibald, was an Anglo-Saxon monk and priest who preached the Gospel to the Germanic peoples at the side of Saint Boniface and later founded the monastery of Heidenheim in Bavaria, becoming its first abbot. He was the brother of Saint Willibald, bishop of Eichstätt, and of Saint Walburga. The Church commemorates him on December 18.

He was born around 701 in England, probably in Wessex. What is known about him comes mainly from the Life written after his death by Hugeburc, his kinswoman and a nun of Heidenheim, who drew on the accounts of Walburga and of the abbot’s disciples. According to her, at the age of nineteen he set out with his father and brother on a pilgrimage to Rome. His father, whom later tradition calls Richard and venerates as a saint, died on the way, in Lucca. In Rome Winibald received the tonsure and lived there as a monk for seven years, although illness had troubled him since his youth.

He then visited his homeland to encourage his relatives to serve God, and returned to Rome with one of his brothers. Around 738 Saint Boniface, who was related to him and was looking for helpers for his missionary work, met him there. Winibald followed him to Thuringia, was ordained a priest by him, and was given charge of seven churches near Erfurt. After a few years he moved to Bavaria, where Duke Odilo received him. For three years he taught there and admonished the powerful just as he did the poor, and afterward he worked at Boniface’s side in Mainz.

Yet he longed for the monastic life, so he left Mainz and went to his brother, the bishop of Eichstätt. On his advice he bought land at Heidenheim and in the early 750s, the year usually given being 752, founded a monastery there. Hugeburc relates that the area was wild and covered with forest, and that Winibald cleared it himself before the first huts and the church were built. He preached the faith to the people of the region and opposed pagan practices and unlawful unions, which earned him hostility.

His last years were spent in grave illness. He still managed to visit the tomb of Saint Boniface at Fulda. He wished to end his life at Monte Cassino, near the tomb of Saint Benedict, but his brother and his friends persuaded him not to leave the community he had founded. When he could no longer go to the church, he had an altar set up in his room and celebrated Mass there. He died at Heidenheim on December 18, 761, in the presence of Willibald, at about sixty years of age, after nearly ten years as head of the monastery.

After his death Walburga led the community, and Heidenheim became a double monastery, for monks and nuns. On September 24, 777, Bishop Willibald raised his brother’s body from the grave and laid it in the crypt of the new church. At that time, long before the papal procedure of canonization came into being, such a rite was the way of recognizing someone as a saint. The Diocese of Eichstätt has venerated Winibald among its patrons since the Middle Ages.