(A.D. 713.)
[Ado, Usuardus, Molanus, Belgian, and Cologne Martyrologies, Gallican
and Roman Martyrologies. Authorities:--Bede, lib. V. C. 12; and the
life of S. Willibrod. There exists a forged life of S. Swibert, under
the name of Marcellinus, which was composed in the 15th century, and
which is undeserving of attention. S. Swibert is called the Elder
to distinguish him from S. Swibert, B. of Verden, in Westphalia, in
807. (April 30); there was also another Swibert about 750, abbot in
Cumberland, mentioned by Bede. Many writers have confounded together
S. Swibert the Elder, and S. Swibert the Younger.]
S. Swibert was a Northumbrian monk who had been trained under S.
Egbert, whom he accompanied to Ireland. Egbert desired greatly the
conversion of Friesland, but was unable himself to attempt it, and
his zeal communicated itself to his disciple Swibert, and when S.
Willibrord sailed in 690 for that country, Swibert, at Egbert's desire,
accompanied him. They landed at the mouth of the Rhine, at Katwyck, and
Willibrord established his head quarters at Utrecht. Two years before,
Pepin l'Herstall had conquered Radbod, king of Frisia, and had obliged
him to ask peace, and abandon to the mayor of the palace his most
important possessions, amongst others the whole basin between the Meuse
and the Rhine, where stand now the town of Leyden, Delft, Gouda, Brill,
and Dortrecht, as well as the city of Utrecht.
Finding it difficult to make headway against the superstitions of
paganism, Willibrord appealed to the authority of Pepin, who sent
Willibrord to Rome to receive mission and benediction for his work
from the Holy See. On his return, success declared for the apostles,
and four years after, Pepin sent Willibrord again to Rome with letters
praying the pope to ordain him bishop to the nation he had converted.
Pope Sergius consecrated him in 696, and Willibrord fixed his see at
Utrecht, of which he was the first bishop. In the meantime, Swibert had
been labouring in Hither Friesland, or the southern part of Holland,
the northern part of Brabant, and the counties of Guelders and Cleves,
with great success. In 697, Swibert was in England, probably in quest
of fellow-helpers for the harvest, for the fields were white thereto,
and he received episcopal consecration from the hands of S. Wilfred
of York, then in banishment from his see. Swibert, invested with this
sacred character, returned to his flock, and committing them to the
care of S. Willibrord, penetrated further up the Rhine, and preached to
the Boructarii, a people living below Cologne, with success. But the
Saxons invading the country, swept away his work, and he retired into
the islet of Kaiserwerth in the Rhine, which Pepin had given him, where
he founded a monastery, which flourished for many ages, till it was
converted into a collegiate church of secular canons.
His relics were found in 1626, at Kaiserwerth, in a silver shrine, and
there are preserved and venerated.