Saint of the day June 07 St. Robert of Newminster. Robert of Newminster, Saint, Abbot, (Benedictine) Cistercians (1100-1159) A priest from North Yorkshire who took the Benedictine habit at Whitby and obtained permission to join some monks of York who were attempting to live according to a new interpretation of the Benedictine rule at Fountains abbey (1132). Fountains soon became Cistercian and one of the centres of the White Monks in N. England. Newminster abbey in Northumberland was founded from it in 1137, and Robert became its first abbot. He is described as gentle and merciful in judgement. St. Willibald, 786 A.D. Bishop and missionary. A native of Wessex, England, he was the brother of Sts. Winebald and Walburga and was related through his mother to the great St. Boniface. After studying in a monastery in Waitham, in Hampshire, he went on a pilgrimage to Rome (c. 722) with his father, who died on the way at Lucca, Italy. Willibald continued on to Rome and then to ...