ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN FEBRUARY Saints celebrated on the 3rd of February WELCOME! SAINT ANSGAR - THE “APOSTLE OF THE NORTH” [Saint Anscharius.] “The ‘Apostle of the North’ was one of the most influential of the early medieval Christian evangelists. He took the faith north into areas that were still pagan – and dangerously so – at the time. Born in 801 in Amiens, part of the Christian Frankish Empire which a year earlier had set itself as the successor to Rome when Charlemagne was crowned emperor, he was bereaved at an early age when his mother died. He was raised in Corbie Abbey in Picardy, where he showed unusual academic talent. According to a later biography it was while at the school that he had a vision in which he saw his mother who was in the company of the Virgin, and he became far more devout. Throughout his life he would be guided by visions, and often make decisions based on them. GUIDED BY VISIONS Unusually for men who Christianised Germany and Scandinavia, Ansgar was