Saints Wulfhad and Ruffin (or Wulfhade, Wulfad) were legendary 7th-century Christian martyrs from the royal family of
Mercia.
They were said to have been baptized by Saint
Chad of Mercia, and their pagan father was said to have killed them at
Stone, Staffordshire, England.
Their feast day is 24 July.
Butler's account
The hagiographer
Alban Butler wrote the following account in his ''The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints'' (1833),
Legendary nature
The story of Wulfhad and Ruffinus, the supposed brothers of Saint
Wærburh, is almost entirely fictional and may have been composed after the
Norman Conquest (1066).
Walter de Whittlesey, a monk of
Peterborough Abbey, compiled and wrote an account of Saints Wulfhad and Ruffin, sons of King Wulfhere, who was supposed to have been the founder of Peterborough Abbey.
A foundation charter of Peterborough Abbey dated 664 is in fact a forgery from the 12th century.
Fabrications such as this to prove the ancient origin of a religious foundation were common at this time.
According to the legend, Wulfhere murdered his sons because they had become Christians, and then repented and founded several monasteries.
The brothers were said to be enshrined in the
Augustinian Augustinian may refer to:
*Augustinians, members of religious orders following the Rule of St Augustine
*Augustinianism, the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and his intellectual heirs
*Someone who follows Augustine of Hippo
* Canons Regular of Sain ...
priory of Stone founded under King
Henry I of England
Henry I (c. 1068 – 1 December 1135), also known as Henry Beauclerc, was King of England from 1100 to his death in 1135. He was the fourth son of William the Conqueror and was educated in Latin and the liberal arts. On William's death in ...
(r. 1100–1135) which may have replaced a church dedicated to Wulfhad.
A 14th-century ''Vita'' (Life) from the
Stone Priory claimed it was founded in Mercia in the early years of Christianity in England and said it held the relics of Wulfhad and Ruffinus, two sons of King
Wulfhere of Mercia.
However, Ruffinus is not a plausible name for a son of Wulfhere.
Wulfhad is not mentioned in any of the late Anglo-Saxon material that describes the family of Wulfhere and his wife
Eormenhild of Kent, and other early Mercian saints.
The
Domesday Book (1086) does not mention a minster at Stone.
The story seems to have been created from an account by
Bede
Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...
of two princes from the
Isle of Wight who were martyred at
Stoneham in Hampshire.
Notes
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wulfhad Ruffin
Mercian saints
7th-century deaths