Vita Anskarii – Rimbert (2021)

Rimbert, the author of the source Vita Anskarii, was born in an unknown year in Flanders. The Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen, Ansgar, persuaded his parents to provide him with an education that enabled him to become a priest. This education drew from the traditions of the Carolingian Renaissance. He personally knew the hero of his biographical work from a young age and could utilize conversations he had with him, a wealth of testimonies from his fellow monks at the monastery in Corvey in Saxony, as well as important sources of official provenance. He himself participated in missions in Scandinavia at Ansgar's urging, which were initiated by the Bishop Ebo of Reims and further developed by Ansgar, specifically in present-day Denmark and Sweden. In 865, when Ansgar died, he also became his successor at the archiepiscopal see in Hamburg-Bremen. He died in 888. His Vita Anskarii is indeed a legend, but above all, it is a significant historical source about what missionary work looked like in the territory of the Normans in the 9th century, during an age when the Viking Age was at its peak in Europe, but when the Christianization of our Great Moravia was also taking place. It contains the history of the Hamburg-Bremen archbishopric and occasionally quotes directly from official documents. His work is remarkable for the author's knowledge of the thinking of the Norman 'pagans' as well as the early Christians in the area, bringing forth...