Wulfram of Sens

Wulfram of Sens or Wulfram of Fontenelle (also Vuilfran, Wulfrann, Wolfran; ; or Vulphran; c. 640 – 20 March 703 ) was the Archbishop of Sens. His life was recorded eleven years after he died by the monk Jonas of Fontenelle. However, there seems to be little consensus about the precise dates of most events whether during his life or post mortem.

Wulfram is depicted in art as baptising a young king or the son of King Radbod. Sometimes the young king is near him and sometimes Wulfram is shown arriving by ship with monks to baptise the king. There are two churches dedicated to him in England, at Grantham, Lincolnshire, and Ovingdean, Sussex, and two in France, one at Abbeville, in the département of Somme, the other in Butot, in the département of the Seine Maritime. As a patron saint, he protects against the dangers of the sea.

Early life

Wulfram was born in the diocese of Meaux, at Mauraliacus, an insecurely identified place near Fontainebleau, probably Milly-la-Forêt, Essonne. He was the son of a certain Fulbert, a knight attached to the court of Dagobert I, king of the Franks. King Dagobert's kingdom was divided on his death, and it was close to the court of his partial successor, Clovis II, king of Neustria and Burgundy that Wulfram is likely to have been born a little after Dagobert had died in 639.

Wulfram was educated at Clovis' court and showed a gift for academic learning. He took holy orders and seems to have intended a quiet life but was called to the court of Theodoric III (Thierry III) of Neustria. This seems to have propelled him into greater prominence since, in 692, he was elected Archbishop of Sens. There are various versions of the date for this, the earliest being in 682. However, by 693 he was in the post as he attended an assembly of bishops at Valenciennes. places it at Fontenelle in the extreme north of the département of Aisne.

The mission in Friesland

It is said that when Boniface withdrew from his missionary work in Friesland, in order to visit Rome for the second time, Wulfram stood in for him in Friesland. However, Boniface was a younger contemporary, his first and abortive mission in Frisia began in 716 or so, probably after Wulfram had died.

Whatever the order of these events, in Frisia, Wulfram converted the son of King Radbod and was allowed to preach.

Wulfram's death and after He retired to Fontenelle, where he died in 703. His year of death is sometimes given as 720, but his interred body is said to have been moved in 704. Regardless of the exact year, Saint Wulfram's feast day is kept on 20 March.

After the building at Crowland was damaged by fire, there was no longer a suitable place for keeping the relic, so it went to Grantham for safe-keeping. In pre-Reformation times the church contained a shrine of St. Wulfram. For two or three hundred years, the reliquary was kept in the crypt chapel below the Lady Chapel, where the pilgrims helped to wear the hollow, now to be seen in stone step before the altar. Later, towards 1350, the arm went to the specially added chapel above the north porch. At some stage in the long process of the English Reformation, this relic was lost.

There is a second church dedicated to Wulfran in Ovingdean; St. Wulfram's in Dorrington is no longer in use.