WALFRID, ST.

Also known as Galfrido, Gualfredus, founder, first abbot of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Peter, Palazzuolo;b. Pisa, Italy; d. Feb. 15, c. 765. Walfrid, who was of the noble family of Gherardesca, and his wife, Thesia, decided to become religious under monastic discipline. Consequently he withdrew from secular life and with the aid of a kinsman, Gunduald, and a Corsican, Fortis, established a monastery for men (754) near Monte Verde, in Tuscany. A little later he made another foundation, some 18 miles away, for the wives of those who had become monks. There his wife and a daughter (Rattruda) took the veil. The Abbey of Palazzuolo flourished and later enjoyed the favor of the German Emperor and of the popes. Walfrid's priest son Ginfred, who had once defected from the monastery but returned penitent, succeeded his father as abbot. Gunduald's only son, Andrew, became the third abbot and wrote Walfrid's biography (Acta Sanctorum Feb. 2:843–847). Walfrid's cult was approved in 1861.

Feast: Feb. 15.

Bibliography: p. f. kehr, Regesta Pontificum Romanorum. Italia Pontificia, 8 v. (Berlin 1906–35) 3:274–276. a. m. zimmer-mann, Kalendarium Benedictinum: Die Heiligen und Seligen des Benediktinerorderns und seiner Zweige, 4 v. (Metten 1933–38) 1:215–217. l. h. cottineau, Répertoire topobibliographique des abbayes et prieurés, 2 v. (Mâcon 1935–39) 2:2176. j. l. baudot and l. chaussin, Vies des saints et des bienheureux selon l'ordre du calendrier avec l'historique des fêtes, ed. by the Benedictines of Paris, 12 v. (Paris 1935–56); v. 13, suppl. and table générale (1959) 2:349. a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, rev. ed. h. thurston and d. attwater, 4 v. (New York 1956) 1:341–342. j. h. zedler, Grosses vollständiges Universal-Lexikon, 64 v. (Halle 1732–50; repr. Graz 1961–) 52: 1593. Vita Walfredi und Kloster Monteverdi, ed. k. schmid (Tübingen 1991).

[m. j. kishpaugh]