In the year 720, three men set off on a pilgrimage. A youth of nineteen years, Winebald left his home in Wessex with his father, Richard, and his brother, Willibald, just one year older. Winna, the boys’ mother, having died ten years before, Richard entrusted the care and education of his eleven-year-old daughter, Walburga, to the abbess of Wimborne. The three men planned to travel to Rome on pilgrimage to see the sights, visiting the tombs of martyrs and saints along the way.
 St. Winebald. http://sscrmnl.edu.ph/st-winebald/ | Arriving a year later, the three men accomplished their pilgrimage; however, tragedy struck the band in Lucca, Tuscany. In the year 722, Richard developed a fever, died, and was buried in the Church of San Frediano. The two bereaved brothers returned to Rome together. There, they were both struck down with the Black Plague, and took turns caring for each other, depending on who had greater strength. Both brothers recovered, but these disastrous events propelled them each on different paths. The older brother, Willibald, continued on his journeys, but Winebald entered a monastery in Rome to study, where he remained for two years. |
After these two years of contemplation and study, Winebald felt a burning desire to share his life of prayer and study with his fellow countrymen. Setting off once more, Winebald returned to his homeland of Wessex, and recruited several relatives to return to Rome to join him in monastic life, where they remained for a number of years.
| By the year 739, Winebald’s uncle, Boniface (brother of Winebald’s late mother, Winna) had already led several successful missions to bring the gospel to the Franks, and he needed to look no further than his own saintly and adventurous nephews and niece for co-laborers in this mission. First, Boniface would recruit his nephews. Boniface traveled to Rome where he convinced Winebald to leave his quiet monastic life and head off on this mission to the Franks. Boniface also asked Pope Gregory III to commission Willibald, who had meanwhile traveled the known world several times and then settled down in a monastery in Monte Casino, to join his group of missionaries. |  St. Boniface. http://www.stbonifacechurch.net/pictures.htm |
 St. Willibald. http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=2145 | When Pope Gregory III heard that Winebald’s brother, Willibald, was in Rome, he summoned Willibald to a private interview during which the man recounted stories of his years of pilgrimage and travel. After hearing his stories, the Pope asked Willibald if he too would like to join his uncle and brother in their new mission. Willibald agreed, was granted permission by his superior, and so this Dream Team of missionaries set off on their new adventure. |
| Boniface ordained Winebald--now a man of about forty years old--a priest and set him in charge of seven churches in Germany and Bavaria. Meanwhile, his older brother, Willibald, was made bishop of Eichstatt. Bishop Willibald asked Winebald to found a monastery in Heidenheim for the training of priests and as a center of learning. And here is where the siblings’ lives came full circle. Their sister, Walburga, now a grown woman, eagerly agreed to travel to Heidenheim to found a convent there. And so the three siblings were reunited after many years apart, and joined in the very same mission--sharing the gospel with the Germanic people. |  St. Walburga. http://www.crusaders-for-christ.com/saint-of-the-day/saint-walburga-february-25th |
 St. Winebald. http://catholicsaints.info/saint-winebald-of-heidenheim/ | Though he had been permanently weakened by the illness he had survived, with his own hands, Abbot Winebald cleared the forest where the new monastery would be built. He cleared the thistles and brambles and planted a garden near a group of huts that would be the seed of the future monastery. Joined by those who wanted to share in this new foundation, in time, his growing group of monks built a church and abbey.  Heidenheim Abbey today. http://www.ptprojects.co.uk/case-studies/2013/heidenheim/ |
Abbot Winebald made it his regular habit to go forth from the abbey to preach and teach the pagan Germans in the surrounding region. He taught with such precision and love, that many were convinced of his words, and many came to know the love of God. Abbot Winebald grew to be greatly revered by all within and without his community. When the beloved abbot died in 761, Willibald and Walburga were at his bedside, and he was surrounded by all those he loved and those who loved him--and his sister, Walburga, took his place as Abbess of the community.
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