Saint Rembert

He is better known for the book he wrote than for his own life. The 1912 Catholic Encyclopedia says historians are indebted to him for a biography of Ansgar "distinguished by valuable historical information and a faithful character sketch." ¹ His own Life, written by a monk of Corvey, is another matter: it is, the encyclopedia says, "while very edifying, poor in actual information; hence we know so little of his life." ¹

Butler, who also points to that Life of him "written soon after his death," gives a short entry. ² Charles Robinson, translating the Life of Anskar in 1921, draws on it and on the chronicler Adam of Bremen in his notes. ³ Between them they give the outline of a life, and little more.

Where he came from is not settled. The encyclopedia says it is uncertain whether he was a Fleming or a Norman. ¹ Butler makes him a native of Flanders, near Bruges, and Nominis says he was born near Bruges. ²⁶ All agree that he was formed at the monastery of Turholt, which Robinson places between Bruges and Ypres, near his birthplace, and says was built by Saint Amand. ¹²³

There Ansgar came to know him. ¹ Robinson quotes Adam of Bremen, who says in Latin that among the brothers at Turholt the holy Rimbert already shone as a boy, and that Ansgar adopted him as a son and foretold long before that he would rival his virtue and succeed him in the bishop's chair (the translation is ours). ³ The encyclopedia says Ansgar later made him his constant companion, and Butler that Ansgar called him to help in his missions. ¹²

The Life of Anskar was written in the name of "the sons and disciples" of Ansgar, and it does not name its author when he appears in it. ³ Robinson cites the Life of Rimbert, chapter 9, for the rule that wherever the book mentions a most faithful disciple, the reader should know it was Rimbert. ³

If so, he is the disciple who sat with Ansgar through his last illness in 864 and 865. ³ Ansgar grieved that he was dying of dysentery rather than as a martyr, as he had long expected, and he told his grief to "his most trusty disciple," who, Robinson notes, "almost certainly" was Rimbert. ³ The disciple argued with him again and again that his sufferings had earned him the name of martyr, and could not console him; Ansgar was comforted only when he heard a voice at Mass. ³

The book also sends to Sweden a priest named Rimbert, "whose ancestors were of Danish extraction," with Ansgar's order that his missionaries should seek no one's property and should work with their hands like Saint Paul. ³ Robinson says it is not clear that this is the same Rimbert, since Adam of Bremen has the author still a deacon at the time. ³

Butler gives Ansgar's last word on him. In his final sickness, Ansgar recommended him as his successor, saying: "Rembert is more worthy to be archbishop, than I to discharge the office of his deacon." ²

When Ansgar died in 865, he was chosen to succeed him, unanimously, Butler says. ¹² Pope Nicholas I sent him the pallium in December of that year. ¹ Because Ansgar's missions had been built on the Benedictines, the encyclopedia says, he became a monk of Corvey shortly after his consecration; the article on Bremen says he called the Benedictines from Corvey and joined the order himself. ¹⁴

He made missionary journeys to West Frisia, Denmark and Sweden, "but concerning these unfortunately we have no detailed information." ¹ Robinson counts several journeys to Denmark and Sweden over the twenty-three years of his episcopate. ³ Butler says he oversaw the churches of Sweden, Denmark and northern Germany and began the conversion of the Slavs. ² The Roman Martyrology says he extended his ministry to Denmark and Sweden. ⁵ The Bremen article credits him and his successor, Saint Adalgar, with great services to the conversion of the North. ⁴

It is the one thing every source remembers. When the Northmen took Christians captive, Butler says, he sold the sacred vessels of his church to redeem them, and gave the horse he was riding for the ransom of a young woman carried off by the Slavs. ² Robinson says he parted "even with the gold and silver vessels of his church and with the horse which he kept for his own use." ³ The Martyrology, in the Italian bishops' text, says that in the time of the Norman invasions he took care to ransom Christian prisoners, and Nominis repeats it. ⁵⁶

The encyclopedia adds that in 884 he drove off Norman raiders on the coast of Frisia, and that he was later held in special veneration there for it. ¹ Among his works as bishop it names the founding of a monastery at Bücken, near Bremen, and his care for the poor and the sick. ¹ Butler says he was careful never to lose a moment from his duties and from prayer, and never to let his outward work take his mind from God. ² Robinson notes that, according to his own biographer, he was believed to restore sight to the blind through the sacrament of confirmation. ³

Robinson says the Life "contains nearly all that is known" of Ansgar. ³ Butler admired it "both for the author's accuracy and piety, and for the elegance and correctness of the composition." ² Its opening greeting is addressed to the monks of Corbey, and it begins with his disciples' grief at losing their pastor. ³

The book had an odd history. Robinson says it was known to Adam of Bremen, lost soon after, and rediscovered in the middle of the seventeenth century; he quotes Baronius lamenting its loss. ³ Its oldest manuscript, at Stuttgart, dates from the tenth century. ³ Butler also mentions a letter of his to Walburge, the first abbess of Nienherse, urging humility and virginity. ²

No source used here names a patronage for Saint Rembert. ¹²³ The encyclopedia says only that he was held in special veneration in Frisia after driving off the Norman raiders there. ¹

Saint Rembert's feast is June 11, the day of his death at Bremen in 888. ¹⁵ The current Roman Martyrology lists him that day, and Nominis gives June 11. ⁵⁶ Butler says the Martyrology of his own day kept him on February 4, the day he was chosen archbishop. ²

Most of what he left is a portrait of somebody else. ¹³ He spent his gifts as a writer on his master, and the Life he wrote is what keeps Ansgar known. ³ His own biography, the encyclopedia says, has little to tell. ¹

If Robinson is right, he was also the friend who sat with a dying man who was sure he had failed, argued with him, and could not comfort him. ³ He wrote that down, too, including his own failure to help. ³

As archbishop he is remembered for one kind of act above the others: the chalices sold and the horse given away to buy back people who had been carried off. ²³⁵ It is a plain way to be remembered, and every source keeps it. ²³⁵⁶