St. Ansgar
(801-865)
The “apostle of the north” (Scandinavia) had enough
frustrations to become a saint—and he did. He became Benedictine at Corbie, France,
where he had been educated. Three years later, when the king of Denmark became
a convert, Ansgar went to that country for three years of missionary work,
without noticeable success. Sweden asked for Christian missionaries, and he
went there, suffering capture by pirates and other hardships on the
way. Fewer than two years later, he was recalled, to become abbot of New
Corbie (Corvey) and bishop of Hamburg. The pope made him legate for the
Scandinavian missions. Funds for the northern apostolate stopped with Emperor
Louis’s death. After 13 years’ work in Hamburg, Ansgar saw it burned to the
ground by invading Northmen; Sweden and Denmark returned to paganism.
He directed new apostolic activities in the North, traveling
to Denmark and being instrumental in the conversion of another king. By the
strange device of casting lots, the king of Sweden allowed the Christian
missionaries to return.
Ansgar’s biographers remark that he was an extraordinary
preacher, a humble and ascetical priest. He was devoted to the poor and the
sick, imitating the Lord in washing their feet and waiting on them at table. He
died peacefully at Bremen, Germany, without achieving his wish to be a martyr.
Sweden became pagan again after his death, and remained so
until the coming of missionaries two centuries later.
Stories:
One of his followers was bragging about all the miracles the saint had wrought.
Ansgar rebuked him by saying, "If I were worthy of such a favor from my
God, I would ask that he grant me this one miracle: that by his grace he would
make of me a good man."
Comment:
History records what people do, rather than what they are. Yet the courage and
perseverance of men and women like Ansgar can only come from a solid base of
union with the original courageous and persevering Missionary. Ansgar’s life is
another reminder that God writes straight with crooked lines. Christ takes care
of the effects of the apostolate in his own way; he is first concerned about
the purity of the apostles themselves.
source: http://www.americancatholic.org/
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