Winnebald, St.
WINNEBALD, ST.
Anglo-Saxon missionary to Germany, abbot; b. Wessex, 702; d. Heidenheim monastery, (Württemberg), Dec. 18, 761. Of noble birth, he was the son of St. "Richard" (feast, Feb. 7) and the brother of SS. willibald and walburga. He traveled to Rome with his father and brother in 721. After staying there seven years he returned to Britain but revisited Rome in 730 taking another brother with him. Later he joined his kinsman, St. boniface, in Germany. He was ordained in Thuringia, served seven churches, and apparently spent three years in Bavaria. He rejoined Boniface at Mainz (c. 747) but, desiring the contemplative life, he founded and became first abbot of a double monastery at Heidenheim to which his sister and other English nuns came. He died after three years' illness. After his death Hugeburc or Hygeburh, an Englishwoman, came to Heidenheim and there wrote his life.
Feast: Dec. 18.
Bibliography: Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores (Berlin 1826—) 15.1:106–117. w. levison, England and the Continent in the 8th Century (Oxford 1946), passim. e. s. duckett, Anglo-Saxon Saints and Scholars (New York 1947).
[b. colgrave]