Wulfric of Haselbury (Ulric of Haselbury, Ulfrick of Haselbury) (Wulfric of Somerset) (c.1080–1154), priest and hermit. The near-contemporary Life by John, abbot of Ford, is accurate and informative. Wulfric was born at Compton Martin (Somerset), eight miles from Bristol. The lord of the manor was William Fitzwalter, also lord of Haselbury. Wulfric trained to be a priest and first exercised his ministry at Deverill, near Warminster. He was much addicted to hunting with hawks and dogs, but was converted to a more austere life in the early 1120s, reputedly through a chance conversation with a beggar. He then ministered at Compton Martin as parish priest until 1125, when he settled as an anchorite at Haselbury Plucknett (twenty miles from Exeter) in a cell on the north side of the chancel of the parish church. He had no official episcopal authorization, but was supported by the neighbouring Cluniac monks of Montacute. His penitential regime included rigorous fasting with prostrations, the wearing of chainmail and frequent immersion in cold water. His gift of prophecy and second sight further increased his reputation for holiness.
Visitors to his cell, in which he was permanently enclosed, included Kings Henry I and Stephen. In 1130 Henry and Queen Adela obtained from him the healing of the knight Drogo de Munci from paralysis. In 1133 Wulfric prophesied the death of the king which took place in 1135. Stephen visited him with his brother, Henry of Blois, bishop of Winchester, when Wulfric greeted him as king even before his disputed accession; but on another occasion, Wulfric reproached him for misgovernment.
Wulfric worked at copying and binding books and made other articles for the services of the church. He persevered in his chosen calling until death, when the monks of Montacute unsuccessfully claimed his body, as did the Cistercians, for whom he had great affection, but to whose Order (in spite of contrary claims) he never belonged. They did, however, provide his biographer.
Wulfric's cult was slow to develop. Until 1169 no miracles were reported at his tomb, which, thanks to his disciple Osbern, was in his cell at Haselbury. But from 1185 till 1235 ‘innumerable’ miracles were reported and Haselbury became a popular place of pilgrimage. Wulfric was mentioned with respectful admiration by Henry of Huntingdon, Roger of Wendover, and Matthew Paris. William Worcestre and John Leland also mention his tomb, and John Gerard in 1633 recorded that his cell was still standing and his memory by no means extinct. There seems to be no trace of an early feast in his honour, but Martyrologies of the 16th century record him on 20 February, as does a French Cistercian menology of the 17th.
Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.
- M. Bell (ed.), Wulfric of Haselbury (1933, Somerset Record Society, t. xlvii); N.L.A., ii. 511–18; T. Arnold (ed.), Henry of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum (R.S., 1879), Introduction, pp. xxix– xxx; D. M. Stenton, English Society in the Early Middle Ages (1965), pp. 214–17
