Wilfrid's Gift


Chalk cliffs on the south coast of the Isle of Wight*
Chalk cliffs on the south coast of the Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight has a number of spectacular cliffs, especially in the west, but 1300 years ago they were the scene of multiple tragedies as desperate people threw their children to their deaths before jumping themselves rather than face the slow agony of death by starvation. There had been no rain for three years but though the sea around the island was teeming with fish, the Saxons who had settled on the island came from an inland part of Germany and it simply didn't occur to them to try fishing!

As happens even today, into this disaster came a Christian, providentially driven out of his homeland by a political tensions. Wilfrid of Rippon was one of the great characters of the English church but his strong personality clashed with the king of Northumbria. Wilfrid must have regarded it as a personal and ecclesiastical set-back when he was exiled, but in the providence of God he arrived on the Isle of Wight just in time to ...

Well, watch the film to find out what he did and how it all ended happily.