Anschar, Ansgar, or Anschairius

Anschar, Ansgar, or Anschairius St., the first archbishop of Hamburg, bishop of Bremen, and so-called apostle of Sweden and Denmark. The most probable opinlion is that he was born in Picardy, Sept. 9, 801. In 821 he went from the abbey of Cormie, in Picardy, to that in Saxony. Having from his youth been desirous to labor in a missionary feild, he was sent in 826 to Denmark, and thence to Sweden, where he preached the Gospel with wonderful success. After this he was made bishop of Hamburg, which see he governed until the destruction of the city by the Normans in 845; four years after this, Louis, king of Germany, made him bishop of Bremen, where he died, Feb. 3, 865, regretting that he was not called to seal his profession by martyrdom. He wrote a life of St. Willehad (in Pertz, Monumenta German. 2, 683 sq.). For a glowing account of him, see Neander, Light in Dark Places, p. 264 sq.; comp. Neander, Ch. Hist. 3, 272, 284; Gieseler, Ch. Hist. 2, 29. See also Brit. and For. Evang. l Review, July, 1865. The first biography of Anschar was written by his successor, Rimbert (published by Dahlmann, in Pertz, Monum. Germ.; translated into German by Misegais, Bremen, 1826). See also Kruse, St. Anschar (Altona, 1823); Krummacher, St. Ansgar (Brem. 1828); Reuterdahl, Anegarius (Berl. 1837); Klippel, Lebensbeschreibung des Er'zbischnfs Ansgar (Brem. 1845); Cave, Hist. Litt. 1, 523; Bohringer, Kircheng. in Biogr. 2, 170.