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Faithfulness to Christ when it cost everything.

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June 1 · King, Martyr

St. Wistan

St. Wistan

Faithfulness to Christ when it cost everything.

Traditional feast

June 1
1914 / pre-1969 calendar, per Baring-Gould (1897)

Current feast

Not verified yet

Represents

King
Martyr

Their story

Adapted in modern English from Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints · little is known

Wistan was the son of Wimund, a Mercian prince. Because of the Danish wars he was passed over as a child, and Bertulph was placed on the throne. Wistan turned his thoughts to a heavenly kingdom, but Bertulph feared he might one day be called to the crown.

Bertulph's son Berfert invited Wistan to a meeting at the place later called Wistanostowe. As Wistan greeted him with a kiss of peace, Berfert drew a hidden sword and struck him on the head, and an attendant stabbed him through the body. Butler dates this to 1 June. Butler gives 849; Baring-Gould, the text on this page, gives 749. The sources differ.

Early life

The book says little or nothing about early life. This is how the account begins.

Thin entry · the 1897 book gives only 0 words. We have not filled the gap with invented detail.

What they represent

How they teach us to live

Drawn from themes in the original account

Learn from the kind of life it was. Faithfulness to Christ when it cost everything.

Keep their day. Remember them on June 1 with a short prayer, and ask for their help.

Read more

The full original · 0 words

Read Baring-Gould’s full account

Baring-Gould’s sources: Anglican Martyrologies. Authorities William of Malmesbury in his History and in his Gesta Pontificum. Also a legend given by Cap* grave.] • Witlaf, king of Mercia, had a son named Wimund, who had married Elfleda, daughter of Ceolwulf. Wimund died of dysentery before his father, and left a son, Wistan, who was still a child when his grandfather Witlaf died. Bertulf, the brother of Witlaf, at once seized on the throne, but it was necessary to put Wistan, the rightful heir, out of the way. Bithfar, the son of Bertulf, accordingly having gone in quest of the boy, asked him for a kiss, and whilst the child was kissing him, he struck him on the head with the haft of his dagger, and a follower ran him through with his sword. The body, it is pretended, was discovered by a columnof lightstanding over it, and it was removed to Repton and afterwards to Evesham. The place of the murder was afterwards called Wistanstow.

Feast days

Feast: June 1

Nine days · Free

Pray the novena
with us.

One short email a day for nine days. The day's prayer, a line from St. Wistan's story, and a nudge to keep going.

Also on June 1
R

St. Ron An

June 1 · Feast
C

St. Cuno

June 1 · Archbishop, Martyr
Sts. Pothinus and Others

Sts. Pothinus and Others

June 1 · Martyrs
← All 1726 saints in the library
Sources & notes

Feast-day sources

Story sources

Sources

Credits

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain.

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain in the United States. Reproduced unedited, except for short bracketed notes in grey that we added to explain names and terms (“S.” is the old abbreviation for Saint). Some history and judgments reflect 19th-century scholarship.