Wilfrid, St, Bishop of York, was born in Northumbria in 634. He was brought up in the monastery of Lindisfarne, but at eighteen visited Rome, returning in 658 a warm partisan of the Roman party in the controversy with the native church on the shape of the tonsure and the time of keeping Easter. At the synod of Whitby (664) he contended against Bishop Colman, and succeeded in gaining over the king, who, learning it was only St Peter to whom the keys had been given, thought it most prudent to be on his side lest Peter should pay him out in his need by closing the gate upon him. Already he had been given the monastery at Ripon, and now he was chosen Bishop of York, being consecrated at Compiègne. On his return he found that Chad had been elected Bishop of Northumbria; but Archbishop Theodore restored Wilfrid. He improved the minster of York, built a splendid church at Hexham, some of the underground portions of which still remain, and raised a new minster at Ripon, the vault of which, called St Wilfrid's Needle, still exists. Theodore, without consulting Wilfrid, divided Northumbria into the sees of Lindisfarne, Hexham, and Whiternie, in addition to York, and Wilfrid made his appeal to Rome. On the journey he was driven by a storm to the coast of Friesland, the inhabitants of which were still pagan. Such was the effect of his preaching that thousands were baptised, and that work of conversion begun which was to be completed by Boniface and Willibrod. Pope Agatho decided in his favour, but King Ecgfrid flung him into prison. He escaped to Sussex, was allowed to return by the new king Aldfrid in 686, keeping the sees of York and Ripon. But again he appealed to Rome against the measures of the new primate, Berthwald (704), and was finally, after a council held near Ripon, allowed to keep Ripon and Hexham, but not York. He died at Oundle in 709, and was buried in Ripon.
The Vita Wilfridi, by Eddius, was edited for the Rolls series by Canon Raine, in Memorials of the Church of York (vol. i. 1879). See also Dr W. Bright's Chapters of Early English History (1878); and Theodore and Wilfrith, by Bishop G. F. Browne (1897).