CONCERNING ST. NITHARD, PRIEST AND MARTYR, IN SWEDEN.
AROUND THE YEAR OF CHRIST 840
CommentaryNithard, Priest and Martyr, in Sweden (Saint)
G. H.
[1] Among the apostolic men who first went to Sweden for the sake of preaching the Gospel, are mentioned Gaudbert the Bishop, surnamed Simon, an assistant in the legation of St. Anschar, Archbishop of Hamburg, and his companion on the journey and nephew, St. Nithard, St. Nithard, companion of Bishop Gaudbert, the Protomartyr of that kingdom: whom, being about to treat shortly of St. Anschar, we record on this day, because his feast day is unknown. We treated of Gaudbert on February 2 among the Martyrs of Ebbeckestorp, chapter 4, and shall treat again below in the Acts of St. Anschar, chapter 6, where it is narrated at number 21 that he came to the regions of the Swedes, in the conversion of the Swedes, was honorably received by the King and the people, publicly preached the Gospel of the faith, and began to build a church there: but at number 23 it is said that the people of the Swedes, instigated by the devil, inflamed by the fervor of zeal, treacherously persecuted the aforesaid Bishop Gaudbert: whence it came about that a certain part of the people, by a unanimous conspiracy, for the purpose of plundering, burst into the house in which he was staying, and indeed killed his nephew, he is slain by the sword, named Nithard, by the sword, and striking him down out of hatred for the Christian name, made him a Martyr of God. But they bound Gaudbert himself with the other companions who were present with him, and plundering everything they could find among them, and subjecting them to insult and reproach, expelled them from their territory. In a popular conspiracy, This however was done not by royal command, but was perpetrated only by a popular conspiracy. Thus in the Acts of St. Anschar, which also exist as excerpts in Chesne, volume 3 of the Writers of the History of the Franks; where however Hithard is written.
[2] Adam of Bremen in book 1 of his Ecclesiastical History calls this man Gaudbert's chaplain, and thinks that several were killed along with him. "Then also, in the year 840: in the last year of Louis the Elder, Bishop Gaudbert was expelled from Sweden by the zeal of the pagans, and his chaplain Nithard was crowned with martyrdom along with others." Albert of Stade transcribed the same words in his Chronicle under the year 840, as did Krantz in book 1 of his Metropolis, chapter 33, where Vitardus is said through a typographical error. John Magnus, in his work on the Metropolitan See of Uppsala, book 1, wrongly supposed that Gaudbert too was martyred at that time. "After performing these and many other wonders in Sweden," he says, "Ansgar betook himself to the Church of Hamburg, leaving in his place at Birka the most holy man Bishop Simon and the venerable priest Nithard, not Bishop Gaudbert: who, as they preached the Christian doctrine with diligent piety and pious diligence to the hardened and faithless, endured the most grievous persecutions and at last happily completed their lives by a glorious martyrdom." And further: "After the holy Bishop Simon and the venerable priest Nithard were killed, a great part of Gothia relapsed into idolatry." Whether Gaudbert was martyred by the Norsemen in old age has been discussed on February 11. These men were not in the retinue of St. Ansgar but were sent by him into Sweden. After the killing of St. Nithard and the expulsion of Gaudbert, Sweden is reported to have been without a priest for nearly seven years, as is stated in number 25 of the Acts of St. Ansgar, by whom the anchorite Ardgar was then sent. When he returned, Ansgar himself, with the See of Bremen now united to the Archbishopric of Hamburg, set out with Erimbert, another nephew of Gaudbert, and by the public authority of King Olaf and the consent of the people erected a church and entrusted it to Erimbert the priest. John Vastovius in his Vitis Aquilonia writes that the martyr Nithard, in the time of King Olaf, during the savage storm of persecution raised by Amund, under which king? was crowned with glorious martyrdom along with certain other Christians. John Magnus above supposes that Ingevald, or Ingel, was then reigning, by whom Amund, or Anound,
seems to have been expelled from the kingdom; in whose fury it is probable this storm was also excited among the people. Concerning the kings of Sweden, the trading post of Birka, and the apostolic men sent to that kingdom, we treat in section 2 before the Acts of St. Ansgar.