Life of St. Richard

St. Richard the Pilgrim or Richard of Wessex was the father of the West Saxon saints Willibald, Winnibald, and Walpurga. He led his family on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land but died en route in Lucca (modern Italy), where he was buried in the church of Saint Fridianus. The earliest source of his life, the 8th-century Hodoeporicon (Itinerary) of Hygeburg, predates this work by the Frankish scholar, Alcuin of York. This work of hagiography tries to grant details into his saintly cult, which was growing among both Anglo-Saxon and Frankish churches in the 9th century.