Driven out of his see, Wilfrid spent a considerable time travelling in various parts and also went to Rome. When he returned to Britain, the hostility of King Egfrid made it impossible for him to return to his own province or diocese, but nothing could deter him from preaching the Gospel. He therefore made his way to the province of the South Saxons, which stretches west and south from Kent as far as the land of the West Saxons, and covers an area of seven thousand hides. As the province was still pagan, Wilfrid preached the Christian Faith there, and administered the baptism of salvation. Ethelwalh its king had been baptized in the province of the Mercians not long previously under the influence of King Wulfhere, who was present at his baptism and became his godfather at the font. In token of their relationship, Wulfhere gave him two provinces, the Isle of Wight and the province of the Meanwaras1 in the territory of the West Saxons. With the king’s approval and greatly to his satisfaction, the bishop batpized the leading thegns and soldiers of the province. The remainder of the people were baptized either then or subsequently by the priests Eappa, Padda, Burghelm, and Oiddi. Queen Eabae, who had already received baptism in her own province of the Hwiccas, was the daughter of Eanfrid, brother of Aenheri, both of whom were Christians, as were their people. Otherwise the whole South Saxon province was ignorant of the Name and Faith of Christ. There was, however, an Irish monk named Dicul, who had a very small monastery at a place called Bosanham,2 surrounded by woods and the sea, where five or six brothers served the Lord in a life of humility and poverty: but none of the natives was willing to follow their way of life or listen to their-preaching.
By preaching to these folk, Bishop Wilfrid not only delivered them from the penalty of eternal damnation, but also saved them from a cruel and horrible extinction in his life. For no rain had fallen in the province for three years prior to his arrival, and a terrible famine had ensued, which reduced many to an awful death. It is said that frequently forty or fifty emaciated and starving people would go to a precipice, or to the edge of the sea, where they would join hands and leap over, to die by the fall or by drowning. But on the very day that the nation received the baptism of faith a soft but ample rainfall refreshed the earth, restoring greenness to the cornfields and giving a happy and fruitful season. Having once abandoned their earlier superstition and rejected idolatry, ‘the heart and flesh of all cried out for the living God’, and they came to understand how He who is true God, had of his divine mercy granted them both spiritual and material blessings. For when Wilfrid had first arrived in the province and found so much misery from famine, he taught the people to obtain food by fishing; for although fish were plentiful in the sea and rivers, the people had no knowledge of fishing and caught only eels. So the bishop’s men collected eel-nets from all sides and cast them into the sea, where, by the aid of God’s grace, they quickly caught three hundred fishes of various kinds. These they divided into three portions, giving a hundred to the poor, a hundred to those who had lent their nets, and retaining a hundred for their own needs. By this good turn the bishop won the hearts of all, and the people began to listen more readily to his teaching, hoping to obtain heavenly blessings through the ministry of one to whom they already owed these material benefits.
At this time, King Ethelwalh granted the most reverend Bishop Wilfrid eighty-seven hides of land so that he could maintain his exiled companions. This land lay at Selsey, which means the seal’s island, a place surrounded by the sea on all sides except to the west, where there is an approach about a sling’s cast in width. A place of this description is known as a peninsula by the Latins, and as a chersonese by the Greeks. Bishop Wilfrid accepted this land, and having built a monastery there, established the regular life, most of the monks being his own companions: his successors are known to occupy the place to this day. Until the death of King Egfrid five years later, Wilfrid performed the duties of a bishop in word and deed in these parts, and was held in high esteem by all. And since the king had given him not only the land but all the property and inhabitants on it, Wilfrid instructed and baptized them all in the Faith of Christ. Among them were two hundred and fifty male and female slaves, all of whom he released from the slavery of Satan by baptism and by granting them their freedom released them from the yoke of human slavery as well.