Saint Wera of Utrecht

Wiro of Roermond, also Wiro or Wera of Utrecht (and possibly also the same as Vira of Northumbria; d. c. 700) is a Christian saint of the 8th century. His feast day is May 8. A native of Northumberland, Anglo-Saxon England, Wiro seems to have been associated with Saint Willibrord and to have been appointed the second bishop of Utrecht about 741. Between 746 and 747, Wiro was one of eight bishops, along with St. Boniface, who wrote a letter to Æthelbald, King of Mercia, to reprove him for various dissolute and irreligious acts including stealing ecclesiastical revenue, violating church privileges, imposing forced labour on the clergy and fornicating with nuns. The letter implored Æthelbald to take a wife and abandon the sin of lust: Wiro was an itinerant missionary and preached in the region of the Maas and the Rhine, where his legend associates him with the priest Plechelm and the deacon Otger. Later, he founded St. Peter's Abbey on land given to him by Pippin II in the present Sint Odilienberg near Roermond in the Netherlands with Otger. Wiro is buried there. He may be identical with the missionary bishop Vira from Northumbria, mentioned by Alcuin among others. The Basilica of Saints Wiro, Plechelm and Otger at Sint Odilienberg is dedicated to Wiro and his companions. Veneration of Wiro and his two companions began early in Roermond. The legendary life story was written at the end of the 10th century. The monastery he founded was transferred to Roermond, in 1361, accompanied by his relics, which were lost during the Reformation. They were re-discovered later in the 16th century, and a feast day was celebrated for some years to commemorate the rediscovery. In 1881 the original grave was found in the former abbey, and most of the bones were returned to it. Wiro's feast day is 8 May but in Roermond 11 May. Since the Middle Ages, his skull has been in Utrecht, where he was the patron saint of the bishopric. Pilgrimages are still made to his grave, in Roermond.