THE DESCRIPTION OF SAINT ANSGAR The Bishop and Apostle of Scandinavia Feast Day: February 3
"If I were worthy of such a favour 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."
On September 8, 801, Ansgar was born in Corbie, France, and was the son of a noble Frankish family. According to the Vita Ansgarii (Life of Ansgar), when the little boy learned in a vision that his mother was in the company of Mary, mother of Jesus, his careless attitude toward spiritual matters changed to seriousness. He was educated at the Bendictine monastery in Picardy, and later became abbot of New Corbie in Westphalia, Germany, where he became a teacher and preacher.
With the approval of Pope Gregory IV, he appointed as bishop of Hamburg in 831, he was given the mission of evangelizing Denmark, Norway and Sweden. His exceptional talent for preaching was accompanied by good luck.
The superstitious King of Sweden decided to cast lots as to whether the Christian missionaries should be admitted into his kingdom. Ansgar recommended the issue to the care of God, and the lot was favorable. He wore a rough hair shirt, lived on bread and water, and showed great charity to the poor.
When Ansgar died on February 3, 865 at the age of 63 in Bremen, the whole Northern Europe bewailed him. Being the first missionary in Sweden and the organizer of hierarchy in the Nordic countries, he was declared 'Apostle of the North'.
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.
