Saint William of York

He is also known as William FitzHerbert, and Edwin Burton, writing for the Catholic Encyclopedia in 1912, adds a third name, William of Thwayt. ¹ Burton reports only a tradition about his family: that he was a nephew of King Stephen, whose sister Emma was believed to have married Herbert of Winchester, treasurer to Henry I. ¹ Franciscan Media says he was born into a powerful family about 1090, and that his uncle was next in line for the English throne, though a dynastic struggle complicated things. ³

He became a priest, and by about 1130 he was a canon and the treasurer of York. ¹

The see of York fell vacant in 1140. ² Franciscan Media says William was nominated that year; Burton has him elected in 1142, at the king's wish, against the candidacy of Henry Murdac, a Cistercian monk. ¹³ Franciscan Media notes that the local clergy were less enthusiastic than the king. ³

His opponents charged simony and royal interference, and Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, refused to consecrate him while an appeal went to Rome. ¹³ Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Burton says, used his powerful influence against William and for Murdac. ¹ In 1143 the pope ruled that William might be consecrated if he could clear himself of the charge of bribery, and if the chapter could show there had been no undue royal pressure. ¹ Burton says he proved his innocence so conclusively that the papal legate consecrated him at Winchester on September 26, 1143. ¹

Franciscan Media tells this part differently. It says a neighboring bishop performed the consecration three years after the nomination, but without the approval of Pope Innocent II, and that Innocent's successors likewise withheld it. ³

For a while things went well. Burton says William began at once to reform his diocese, and that his gentleness and charity soon made him popular. ¹ But he neglected to collect the pallium that Pope Lucius II had sent with a legate the encyclopedia calls Cardinal Hincmar, and Lucius died before William received it. ¹

The next pope, Blessed Eugenius III, was himself a Cistercian, and the English Cistercians renewed their complaints, with Bernard's support. ¹ The legate took the pallium back to Rome. ¹ In 1147, Burton says, William had to go there for it, and raised the cost of the journey by selling treasures and privileges belonging to York, which gave his opponents fresh grounds for complaint. ¹ The pope suspended him on the ground that he had enthroned the Bishop of Durham without the pledges the previous pope had required. ¹

William took refuge with his friend the King of Sicily. ¹ In England his supporters took what Burton calls an unwise revenge, destroying Fountains Abbey, of which, Burton says, Murdac was now prior. ¹ That inflamed his enemies further, and in 1147 the pope deposed him and, when the chapter failed to elect a successor, consecrated Murdac in his place. ¹² Franciscan Media says simply that William was deposed and a new election ordered. ³

He went to Winchester and, in Burton's words, "devoted himself to prayer and mortification" there until 1153, when Eugenius III and Saint Bernard had both died. ¹ He then appealed to the new pope, Anastasius IV, for his see, and the death of Murdac that October made it easier to grant. ¹ Burton's list of the archbishops of York records the restoration under 1153. ²

Franciscan Media dates it to 1154, fourteen years after he was first nominated, and says that when he entered York that spring, after years of exile, the city gave him an enthusiastic welcome. ³

Back in York he received the pallium and showed, Burton says, "the greatest kindness to the Cistercians who had opposed him", promising full restitution to Fountains Abbey. ¹ Franciscan Media says he showed no resentment toward his opponents. ³

His death came within a few weeks, in Burton's account, and within two months in Franciscan Media's, so suddenly that poison was suspected. ¹³ Franciscan Media says he probably was poisoned, and that his administrative assistant was a suspect, though no formal ruling was ever made. ³ It gives the date as June 8, 1154. ³

Miracles were reported at his tomb, and in 1227 Pope Honorius III canonized him. ¹³ The 1897 English edition of the Roman Martyrology enters him on June 8 as "St. William, archbishop and confessor, who, among other miracles wrought at his tomb, raised three persons from the dead." ⁴ It adds that he "was placed in the calendar of the Saints by Honorius III." ⁴

His relics were moved to a shrine behind the high altar of York Minster, where they remained until the Reformation. ¹ Burton dates the translation to 1283 in his article on William and to 1284 in his article on the see of York, where he writes that William's pontificate "gave another saint to York." ¹²

None of the sources consulted for this page names a patronage for Saint William of York, so none is given here. ¹³⁴

Saint William's feast is kept on June 8, the day Franciscan Media gives for his death. ³ Burton wrote in 1912 that his festival was observed in England on that day, and the 1897 Roman Martyrology enters him on it, at York. ¹⁴

His story is mostly a story of other people's quarrels. A king wanted him, a party of Cistercian monks did not, and one of the great saints of his century, Bernard of Clairvaux, took the other side. ¹ Holiness was not neatly distributed between the parties, and the sources do not pretend it was.

He was not blameless either. Burton records the pallium he neglected to collect and the treasures of York he sold to pay for his journey, and his own supporters destroyed an abbey on his behalf. ¹ What came after was six years at Winchester given to prayer and penance. ¹ The sources do not say what he thought there, only what he did when he came back.

What he did was to be kind to the men who had worked to remove him, and to promise to repair what had been done to them. ¹³ He died within weeks of making it. ¹ Franciscan Media reads his life as a lesson in waiting, and it is that; it is also the story of a reconciliation begun in the last weeks of a life. ³