Saint of the Day – 1 March – Saint Swidbert (Died 713) Bishop, Missionary, Founder and Abbot of Kaiserswerth Monastery. Born in Northumbria, England and died on 1 March 713 in today’s Kaiserswerth near Düsseldorf in North Rhine-Westphalia. Patronages – of Germany, against sore throats, of Drevenack, Germany, of Friesland, Netherland, of Ripon, England. Also known as – … the Elder, Suitbert, Suidbert, Suitbertus, Swithbert, Apostle of Friesland, Apostle of the Bructeri. The Name from old High German means: “the strong shining one.”
The Roman Martyrology reads today: “At Kaiserswerth, the Bishop, St Swidbert, who, in the time of Pope Sergius, preached the Gospel to the inhabitants of Friesland, Holland and to other Germanic peoples.”
The tale of Swidbert’s birth which arose around 1500, tells how a star, sending out two rays, fell on his mother’s bed before his birth. Bishop St Aidan of Lindisfarne, interpreted her dream – the boy who was born would be called to work in two countries – Gaul and Germania.
Some traditions call Swidbert the son of Count Sigebert of Nottingham but he was most likely a Monk in the Monastery in Ripon under St Wilfrid of York. When St Wilfrid travelled to Rome in 678, Swidbert accompanied him and remained behind in Friesland on their return journey, as a missionary.
Another tradition reports that Swidbert left Ripon in 678 after Wilfrid’s departure and went to St Egbert in Rathmelsighe – today’s Mellifont – from wher, in 690, he was sent to southern Friesland together with twelve companions – including St Willibrord – as a Missionaries. In 692/693 his companions elected him as the Bishop, whereafter Swidbert returned to his homeland and was Ordained as a Missionary Bishop by St Wilfrid of York.
After another stay in Friesland, however, he then turned – as our wonderful Church Historian, the Venerable St Bede tells us – to missionary work in the area settled by the Bructeri on the Ruhr and Lippe. Swidbert’s work was unsuccessful – also because the invading Saxons destroyed his facilities. He now moved his activities to Frankish territory and in 695 founded the Benedictine Monastery of Swidbertswerth which was later named after him and later still, called Kaiserswerth and which, he headed as Abbot, on the Rhine island which had been given to him by the Mayor of the Merovingians, Pippin the Middle and his wife, Plektrudis
After his death, Swidbert was soon venerated as a Saint. In 877, the Church of his Monastery was dedicated, not only to Peter, as it had been from the beginning ,ut also to Swidbert. In 904, Swidbert was named as its sole Patron. His bones lie in a precious Shrine made between 1193 and 1332, in the collegiate Church in Kaiserswerth, where they were transferred in 1264, together with those of Abbot Wileich . Other Relics are kept in the Church of Peter and Paul in Duisburg-Süd.
Swidbert’s Benedictine Monastery was apparently destroyed during the Saxon invasions at the end of the 8th Century, but was soon rebuilt. In the 12th Century, the Rhine Island previously named after Swidbert, was given its new name Kaiserswerth because of the importance of the imperial palace built in 1045. After secularisation, the Church became a Parish Church.
AnaStpaul 