Our Lady of Guadalupe

Date: February, 7

Richard was from Wessex, England, and his real name is uncertain. He appears to have been an Anglo-Saxon chieftain or a Brittonic under-king in Wessex, probably of part of Devon.

His wife was Saint Wuna of Wessex, and they were the parents of Willibald, Bishop of Eichstätt, Saint Winibald, Abbot of Heidenheim, and Walpurga, Abbess of Heidenheim.

He obtained by his prayers the recovery of his three-year-old son Willibald, whom he laid at the foot of a great crucifix erected in a public place in England, when the child’s life was despaired of in a grievous sickness.

In 720, he entrusted his eleven-year-old daughter Walpurga to the abbess of Wimborne in Dorset, renounced his estates, and set sail with his two sons from Hamblehaven near Southampton.

They landed in France and temporarily stayed in Rouen. From there, they set off on the pilgrimage to Italy, where they prayed at shrines situated along the way.

He died unexpectedly after developing a fever in Lucca, Tuscany, where he was buried in the Church of San Frediano, founded by the Irish monk Fridianus. Miracles were reported to have occurred at his tomb and a cult venerating him developed.

The people of Lucca gave him the name “Richard” and embellished their accounts of his life, describing him as an English prince. Another apocryphal story described him as the Duke of Swabia in Germany.

His son, Willibald, continued the pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Richard’s niece, a nun called Hygeburg (Huneburc of Heidenheim), wrote an account of the pilgrimage, entitled “Hodoeporicon”; historians date the text between 761 and 786. Some of Richard’s relics were transported to Eichstätt, where Willibald eventually became Bishop.

Richard’s feast day is 7 February. Richard is depicted with the Blessed Mother and his three children at Eichstätt Cathedral. In religious artworks, Richard is portrayed as a royal pilgrim in an ermine-lined cloak with two sons, one a bishop and one an abbot. His crown appears to lie on a book (Roeder).

Richard is particularly venerated at Heidenheim and Lucca. The Saint’s sons helped their uncle, St. Boniface, the apostle of Germany, to evangelize the Franks. His daughter became abbess of Heidenheim and ran a school for the children of Frankish nobles.

PRAYER:

Lord God, You alone are holy and no one is good without you. Through the intercession of St. Richard help us to live in such a way that we may not be deprived of a share in Your glory.

In our Lord Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen