Holy Bishop Rimbert of Bremen

The cathedral at Bremen, where Saint Rimbert served

On the fourth of February, in the Orthodox Church, we remember the feast of Saint Rimbert, a beloved saint among the Frisians and second apostle of the North after Saint Ansgar, whose companion in missionary labours he was, whose hagiography he wrote himself, and who was entrusted with the monastic rule of Bremen and Hamburg upon that saint’s repose.

Born in or near Bruges in Flanders, little is known of Rimbert’s early life before he joined a Benedictine community at Turholt. He was called upon by Saint Ansgar to serve as part of his northern missions, and before Saint Ansgar reposed in the Lord he recommended his brother Rimbert with these self-beshedding words of praise: ‘Rimbert is more worthy to be archbishop, than I [am] to discharge the office of his deacon.’

Saint Rimbert was thereupon chosen by all, in a moot held on the fourth of February in 865, to become archbishop of Bremen and Hamburg, and oversaw all of the churches in those two cities as well as the missions in Sweden and Denmark and among the Saxons. He also broadened his Christian witness and bore it among the Western Slavs (Sclavi and Vendeli). This was around the same time as Saints Cyril and Methodius were bearing the Gospel among the Rusin people and the Southern Slavs – now the Serbs and the Bulgarians. It must be noted here when considering the Orthodox remembrance of Saint Rimbert, that even though the Frankish (later German) and Byzantine Empires may have been in gæopolitical competition with each other even at this early date, the missions of the saints associated with West and East among the Slavic peoples were originally not in competition.

As with the later Saint Bernward, the threats to the Christianised Saxon people came as much from the East but from the West. The proud, spiteful and vengeful attitude of the sæcular Frankish conquerors toward the beaten Saxons actually hampered the missionary efforts of Saint Rimbert as it did those of Saint Bernward. Only through the gracious and peaceable witness of the churchmen were the souls of the Saxon folk spared from a relapse into heathenry. In addition, the Normans of northern Francia long continued to pester the Saxons on the continent with raiding and plunder, even after their conversion. Saint Rimbert even sold the chalice and ornaments of his cathedral church in order to ransom back innocent Saxons who had been taken as thralls or as gisels by raiding Normans. (In a similar story, Saint Rimbert traded the horse he rode on to redeem a young Saxon maiden who had been taken for wicked purposes by heathen Wends to the east.)

The good Benedictine Rimbert was always attentive and kept the offices of his monastic discipline with great regularity and seriousness. He was careful not to waste any of his time or attention when he kept the prayers and vigils of the Rule. He wrote down the life of his predecessor Saint Ansgar, which was noted for both its historical accuracy and for the great love which he bore for Ansgar. He reposed in the Lord on the eleventh of June, 888. Holy Father Rimbert, pray to Christ our God that our souls may be saved!