Walfridus

Walfridus (Walfrid or Wolfryt) was an inhabitant of Bedum, in the province of Groningen in the Netherlands, who lived in the 10th and perhaps the 11th century. He is honored as a martyr.

According to his vita, he brought Christianity to Bedum and set up a legal order. He also began the strengthening of the Wolddijk, the dike around Bedum. The oldest church in Bedum bears his name, and its founding is tied to his reburial between 1025 and 1050. He is said to have been killed together with his son, Radfridus, in a raid of the Norsemen. His family had to ransom Walfridus's body to be able to bury it, while the body of Radfridus was found in the neighborhood of Bedum. A chapel was raised on the site of their graves, and both were honored as martyrs. On a plot at Kapelstraat 2 in Bedum the remains of a chapel of Walfridus from about 1200 were found; another source mentions a chapel of Radfridus on the same street, with remains uncovered in 1934, but it is not clear whether the same chapel is meant.

The legend tells of various miracles at the grave of Walfridus, and through this pilgrimage Bedum became one of the greatest places of pilgrimage in the northern Netherlands. It is also said that he walked daily with his son to the church of Saint Martin in Groningen and that he built a bridge over the river Hunze, at the place of the later Noorderhoogebrug.

He is a local saint of the West; no Orthodox synodal canonization is known, and the source is largely legendary.