Birka
Trading town of the Swedes on an island in Lake Mälaren, where Ansgar preached in about 829 and again some twenty years later. Rimbert says that the town’s prefect built a church here.
Rimbert calls Birka a port of the Swedes, with a king’s prefect and its own assembly. There Ansgar was given leave to preach, found Christian captives, and baptized the prefect Herigar, who built a church on his own land (Rimbert, Life of Anskar 11). On his second visit an assembly held in the town agreed that priests might remain (Rimbert, Life of Anskar 26–27). Its site is on the island of Björkö in Lake Mälaren, west of Stockholm.
What happened here
- AD 829 to AD 831, estimated dateAnsgar’s Mission to Scandinavia
The monk Ansgar is sent from the Frankish court to the Danes and then to the Swedish trading town of Birka, and becomes the first archbishop of Hamburg. His churches are few and fragile, and depend on the leave of kings.
Primary sources
Life of Anskar
- Rimbert, Life of Anskar 11sourcebooks.fordham.edu
- Rimbert, Life of Anskar 26–27sourcebooks.fordham.edu