Portal:Catholic Church/Patron Archive/June 14 2007

Saint Gottschalk or Godescalc (Latin: Godescalcus) (died 6 June 1066), a Prince of the Wends, a son of the Obotrite prince Udo, established a Slavic kingdom on Elbe in northeastern Germany briefly in the mid-eleventh century. His object in life seems to have been to collect the scattered tribes of the Slavs into one kingdom, and to make that Christian.

Udo was a poor Christian (male christianus according to Adam of Bremen whose own father, Mistiwoi, had renounced the new religion for the old paganism. Udo sent his son to be educated at the monastery of St Michael at Lenzen and later at Lüneburg. After Udo was murdered by a Saxon for cruelty, Gottschalk renounced Christianity and took over the leadership of the Lyutitzi to avenge his father. He killed many Saxons before he was defeated and captured by Duke Bernard II and his lands given to Ratibor.

Re-converted, he was released and sent to Denmark with many of his people to serve Canute the Great in his wars with Norway. He was sent to England with Canute's son Sweyn. He returned to Denmark in 1042 and participated in the wars of Magnus I of Norway, who defeated the Obotrites and Ratibor. Gottschalk married Sigrith, a Christian, perhaps the daughter of Canute, perhaps of Magnus. After the death of Ratibor and his sons, Gottschalk regained his former kingdom.

He subdued the Lyutitzi and the diocese of Bremen "feared him as king" and paid him tribute. He nurtured alliance with his Christian neighbours, Scandinavian and German, and joined in an alliance with Duke Bernard and King Magnus to defeat the Lyutitzi in battle.

"A pious and god-fearing man," Gottschalk effected the Christianisation of the Slavic tribes of the Elbe. He organised missions of German priests and founded monasteries at Oldenburg, Mecklenburg, Ratzeburg, Lübeck, and Lenzen, erecting the first three into dioceses. He himself often accompanied the missionaries on their work and augmented their message with his own explanations and instructions. In all this, he was supported by the efforst of Adalbert, Archbishop of Hamburg. He, along with many others, clergy and laity, died in a religious uprising (at Lenzen) brought on by reactionaries who detested the conversion of their fellow Slavs. His feast is the day of his death according to the Carthusians of Brussels in the martyrology of Usuardus. The primary sources for his life are Adam of Bremen and Helmold. "Had he lived, he would have brought all pagans to the Christian faith."
Attributes: Cloth of a prince with spear and palm
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