Ethelwald of Ripon

Saint Ethelwald of Ripon (Æthelwold, Ethilwald), the hermit of Farne, was a priest and monk of Ripon Abbey and a hermit in the second half of the seventh century. Little is known of him, mostly from the writings of Saint Bede the Venerable. Desiring solitude, he took over the small hermitage of Saint Cuthbert on Inner Farne after Cuthbert's death in 687 and lived there twelve years. The dwelling was so draughty that he had to repair it with a calfskin.

The best-⁠known story about him tells that the future abbot Guthfrith visited him on the island with two monks of Lindisfarne and, on the way home, was saved from shipwreck by his prayers. He died on 23 March 699 (not 720, as is sometimes said). He was buried with Saint Cuthbert and, like him, was enshrined in Durham Cathedral. He is a saint of the undivided Church, commemorated on 23 March (new style; 5 April in the old style).