Saint Anskar ( c 801-865) Feast Day 3rd of February

His name can be spelled Anskar, Ansgar or Anchar.
He was born in France. Of noble birth he entered the Benedictine abbey of Corbie in Picardy to be educated.
He became a monk and after 823 he taught in the local monastic school at Corvey.

In 826 he was dispatched Denmark by the Carolingian emperor, Louis 1 the Pious, to assist Harald, the exiled Danish king, in evangelising his savage Danes. Anskar laid the foundations of the church in Denmark and started a school to train Danish youths as priests. But in 827/8 Harald was driven out by the heathen.

Anskar , with his friend Witmar, made the dangerous journey to Sweden. They were robbed on their way to Brika, an island off the coast. They stayed there for 2 years.

In 831 Anskar became abbot of Corvey and the first bishop of Hamburg. For 15 years he founded monasteries, opened schools and teaching his congregations. In 834 Louis endowed him Turholt Abbey
Later he became archbishop of Iceland, Greenland and Scandinavia.

Things changed after the death of Louis1 in 1840. In 1845 Northmen destroyed Hamburg. Sweden and Denmark rejected Christianity and returned to paganism.

In 847, with Louis the German, king of the East Franks, on the throne Anskar became bishop of Bremen. He revived evangelism in both Sweden and Denmark - both kings were converted to Christianity. He even thwarted a pagan rebellion. In 854 he returned to Hamburg - there he devoted himself to his diocese and reducing the horrors of slavery.

He had wanted to die a martyr. His followers said his whole life had been a martyrdom of hardship, danger and self=sacrifice. Rimbert, his successor, wrote his biography. he proclaimed Anskar a saint. Pope Nicholas 1 agreed. Ansker was cannonized in 865, the year he died. (Rimbert or Rembert - different sources)

Sources used Britannica and The Church’s Year by Charles Alexander.