He was son of the holy king St. Richard, and was born about the
year 704 in the kingdom of the West-Saxons, about the place where
Southampton now stands. When he was three years old his life was
despaired of in a violent sickness; but when all natural remedies
proved unsuccessful, his parents carried him and laid him at the
foot of a great cross which was erected in a public place near their
house, according to the custom in Catholic countries to this day.
There they poured forth their prayers with great fervor, and made a
promise to God that in case the child recovered they would consecrate
him to the divine service. God accepted their pious offering, and the
child was immediately restored to his health. St. Richard kept the
child two years longer at home, but only regarded him as a sacred
depositum committed to him by God; and when he was five years old
placed him under the abbot Egbald, and other holy tutors in the
monastery of Waltheim. The young saint, from the first use of his
reason, in all his thoughts and actions seemed to aspire only to
heaven, and his heart seemed full only of God and his holy love. He
left this monastery about the year 721, when he was seventeen years
old, and his brother Winibald nineteen, to accompany his father and
brother in a pilgrimage of devotion to the tombs of the apostles at
Rome, and to the Holy Land. They visited many churches in France on
their road; but St. Richard died at Lucca, where his relics are still
venerated in the church of St. Fridian, and he is commemorated in the
Roman Martyrology on the 7th of February. The two sons went on to
Rome, and there took the monastic habit.
Above two years after this, Winibald having been obliged to return
to England, St. Willibald with two or three young Englishmen set out
to visit the holy places which Christ had sanctified by his sacred
presence on earth. They added most severe mortifications to the
incredible fatigues of their journey, living only on bread and water,
and at land using no other bed than the bare ground. They sailed
first to Cyprus and thence into Syria. At Emesa St. Willibald was
taken by the Saracens for a spy, was loaded with irons, and suffered
much in severe confinement for several months, till certain persons
who were charmed with his wonderful virtue, and moved with compassion
for his disaster, satisfied the caliph of his innocence, and procured
his enlargement. The holy pilgrims expressed their gratitude to
their benefactors, and pursued their journey to the holy places.
They resolved in visiting them to follow our Divine Redeemer in the
course of his mortal life; and therefore they began their devotions
at Nazareth. Our saint passed there some days with his companions in
the continual contemplation of the infinite mercies of God in the
great mystery of the incarnation; and the sight of the place in which
it was wrought drew from his eyes streams of devout tears during
all the time of his stay in that town. From Nazareth he went to
Bethlehem, and thence into Egypt, making no account of the fatigues
and hardships of his journey, and assiduously meditating on what our
Blessed Redeemer had suffered in the same. He returned to Nazareth,
and thence travelled to Cana, Capharnaum, and Jerusalem. In this last
place he made a long stay to satisfy his fervor in adoring Christ in
the places where he wrought so many great mysteries, particularly
on the mountains of Calvary and Olivet, the theatres of his sacred
death and ascension. He likewise visited all the famous monasteries,
lauras, and hermitages in that country, with an ardent desire of
learning and imitating all the most perfect practices of virtue, and
whatever might seem most conducive to the sanctification of his soul.
The tender and lively sentiments of devotion with which his fervent
contemplation on the holy mysteries of our redemption inspired him
at the sight of all those sacred places, filled his devout soul with
heavenly consolations, and made on it strong and lasting impressions.
In his return a severe sickness at Acon exercised his patience and
resignation. After seven years employed in this pilgrimage he arrived
safe with his companions in Italy.
The celebrated monastery of Mount Cassino having been lately repaired
by pope Gregory II. the saint chose that house for his residence,
and his fervent example contributed very much to settle in it the
primitive spirit of its holy institute during the ten years that he
lived there. He was first appointed sacristan, afterward dean or
superior over ten monks, and during the last eight years porter,
which was an office of great trust and importance, and required a
rooted habit of virtue which might suffer no abatement by external
employs and frequent commerce with seculars. It happened that in
738 St. Boniface coming to Rome begged of pope Gregory III. that
Willibald, who was his cousin, might be sent to assist him in his
missions in Germany. The pope desired to see the monk, and was much
delighted with the history of his travels, and edified with his
virtue. In the close of their conversation he acquainted him of
bishop Boniface’s request. Willibald desired to go back at least to
obtain the leave and blessing of his abbot; but the pope told him
his order sufficed, and commanded him to go without more ado into
Germany. The saint replied that he was ready to go wheresoever his
holiness should think fit. Accordingly he set out for Thuringia where
St. Boniface then was, by whom he was ordained priest. His labors in
the country about Aichstadt, in Franconia and Bavaria, were crowned
with incredible success, and he was no less powerful in words than in
works.
In 746 he was consecrated by St. Boniface bishop of Aichstadt.
This dignity gave his humility much to suffer, but it exceedingly
excited his zeal. The cultivation of so rough a vineyard was a
laborious and painful task; but his heroic patience and invincible
meekness overcame all difficulties. His charity was most tender
and compassionate, and he had a singular talent in comforting the
afflicted. He founded a monastery which resembled in discipline
that of Mount Cassino, to which he often retired. But his love of
solitude diminished not his pastoral solicitude for his flock. He was
attentive to all their spiritual necessities, he visited often every
part of his charge, and instructed all his people with indefatigable
zeal and charity. His fasts were most austere, nor did he allow
himself any indulgence in them or in his labors on account of his
great age, till his strength was entirely exhausted. Having labored
almost forty-five years in regulating and sanctifying his diocess, he
died at Aichstadt on the 7th of June, 790, being eighty-seven years
old. He was honored with miracles, and buried in his own cathedral.
Pope Leo VII. canonized him in 938. In 1270 the bishop Hildebrand
built a church in his honor, into which his relics were translated,
and are honorably preserved to this day; but a portion is honored
at Furnes in Flanders. See the three lives of St. Willibald written
by contemporary authors, especially that by a nun of his sister St.
Walburga’s monastery. She gives from the saint’s own relation a
curious and useful description of the Holy Land, as it stood in that
age; which is rendered more curious by the notes of Mabillon, and
those of Basnage in his edition of Canisius’s Lect. Antiquæ. On St.
Willibald, see Solier the Bollandist, t. 2, Julij, p. 485.