Willibrord was yet another of those saints from Britain and/or Ireland who followed a call to convert the idolatrous, heathen people living in present-day Germany. And, in the 19th and 20th centuries, the Evangelical United Brethren Church (originally comprised of German immigrants) in America set their missionaries to Sierra Leone, reflecting a Euro-American Christian view that sub-Saharan Africa represented the fields of the Lord that most needed the Gospel (centuries after the Germans had widely adopted Christianity, of course).

Willibrord also traveled beyond present-day Germany. He set up shop in Utrecht (currently part of the Netherlands), and he sailed back and forth via the North Sea to various ports-of-call to spread Christianity. On one journey, though, Willibrord ended up shipwrecked on an island. This was an island that the (then-pagan) Danes controlled. What’s more, the Danes considered the island holy to their god, Forseti (carelessly rendered by Butler as “Fosite”)–their god of justice and reconciliation.

The Danes revered this island dedicated to their god of justice and reconciliation, and, accordingly, forbade any killing of living creatures on this island, did not allow persons to eat anything that grew upon this sacred isle, and required that water never be drawn from a sacred spring on the island without the observation of ritual silence. Such powerful, life-affirming religious practices on this island!

So what does Willibrord do? He decided to teach these ignorant Danes a lesson!! Willibrord started by killing off some of the animals on this land and fed the meat to his fellow shipmates for dinner! Willibrord then followed this up by performing not one, not two, but three baptisms in their holy spring, proclaiming LOUDLY the words of the Christian rite.

Butler supposedly explains what happened after this gross sacrilege:

The idolaters expected to see them [these unexpected Christian guests on their holy island] run mad or drop down dead: and seeing no such judgment befall them, could not determine whether this was to attributed to the patience of their god, or to his want of power.

And for leaving these people disoriented in the name of Christ, Willibrord is honored with his own entry on the Calendar of Saints.