ENGLISH SPEAKING SAINTS AUGUST 13 St. Wigbert, St. William Freeman English martyr

ENGLISH SPEAKING SAINTS AUGUST 13 St. Wigbert, 738 A.D. Abbot and missionary. Originally an English monk, he traveled to Germany, where he accepted the invitation of St. Boniface, who wanted his help in the missionary field and who named him abbot of Fritzlar, near Cassel, France. After a number of years, he was transferred to Ohrdruf, in Thuringia, Germany, but Boniface gave him permission to return to Fritzlar, where he died. St. William Freeman, 1595 A.D. English martyr. Born in East Riding, Yorkshire, he studied at Oxford and was converted to Catholicism in 1586 by the martyrdom of Blessed Edward Stransahm at Tyburn. He went to Reims, France, where he was ordained in 1587. He went back to England the following year, and labored for the English mission in Worcestershire and Warwickshire until arrested in early 1595. Seven months later he was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Warwick on August 13. William was beatified in 1929.