Saint Ludger

The sign of God was upon this house, and it was seen early on what Ludger would one day become. His parents therefore placed him in the mona stery o Utrecht Place where Suitbert began his ministry. f Utrecht, and he made such progress there in sacred letters that he was sent to the sch York Principal episcopal see of Wilfrid. ools of York, wher e the Alcuin Famous abbot under whom Aldric began his monastic life. lessons of Alcuin attracted a great gathering of young people from foreign lands.

He spent four years there and returned to Frisia, with great knowledge and many books. He was then applied to the preaching of the Gospel in the district of Ostracha. But in the midst of the pagans, he did not forget his friends in England. While he was building an oratory, Alcuin addressed verses to him to be inscribed on the porch of the edifice. Around the same time, he received from one of his fellow students at York an epistle which began thus: Brother, brother cherished by this divine love stronger than blood, Ludger whom I love, may the grace of Christ save you. Priest honored on the western shores of the world, you are learned, powerful in word, profound in thought. While you grow in goodness, minister of God, remember me, and may your prayers recommend to heaven him who celebrated you in his all-too-short songs! And the poet finished, asking his friend for a staff of white wood, a humble gift for humble verses.

Ludger worked for seven years, at the end of which W Witikind Leader of the Saxons and persecutor of Christians. idukind having stirred up the Saxons, the pagans threw themselves into Frisia and drove out the preachers of the faith. Then Ludger went to Rome, and then t Mont-Cassin Reference monastery for the Benedictine Rule. o Monte Cassino, where he stopped to study the Rule of saint Benoît Author of the monastic rule adopted by Father Muard. Saint Benedict and to bring it back among the monks of his provinc e. Upon his roi Charles Emperor of the Franks and uncle of Saint Folquin. return, King Charles, who had just defeated the Barbarians, charged him with evangelizing the five cantons of East Frisia. Ludger traveled through them, overturning idols and proclaiming the true God. Then, having crossed to the island of Fositeland, he destroyed the temples that made it a place venerated by the nations of the North and baptized the inhabitants in the waters of a fountain they had worshipped. Around that time, as he was traveling from village to village, and one day he had received hospitality from a noble lady, while he was eating with his discip les, th Bernlef Blind singer miraculously healed by Ludger. ey presented to him a blind man named Bernlef, whom the local people loved, because he knew well how to sing the tales of ancient times and the battles of kings; the servant of God asked him to meet him the next day at a place he indicated. The next day, when he saw Bernlef, he dismounted from his horse, took him aside, heard his confession, and, making the sign of the cross over his eyes, asked him if he could see. The blind man first saw the priest's hands, then the trees and the roofs of the neighboring hamlet. But Ludger demanded that he hide this miracle. Later, he took him into his retinue to baptize the pagans, and he taught him the psalms to sing them to the people.

However, King Charles, learning of the great good that Ludger had done, established h im at Mimige Mimigernford City where the relics were transferred in 831. rnford, which later became Munster, in the canton of Suthergau, in Westphalia, and he was ordained bishop against his will. He then raised churches and in each one he placed a priest from among his disciples. He himself instructed every day those he destined for the holy altars, and from whom he had chosen several among the children of the Barbarians. He did not cease either to exhort the people, even inviting the poor to his table, in order to converse with them longer. His great alms emptied the church's treasures, to the point that he was accused before Charles of being a squanderer of the clergy's goods. He therefore went to the court, and, as he had begun to pray while waiting for the hour of the audience, an officer called him. The bishop continued his prayer and let himself be called three times, after which he obeyed. The prince reproached him for it: Lord, replied Ludger, God wished to be served before men and before you. This answer was enough for Charles to judge the bishop, and he would no longer listen to any complaint against him. By then all of Westphalia had become Christian, and the servant of God was meditating on bringing the Gospel to the Scandinavians, when he died in Munster, on March 26 of the year 809.

On the last day of his life, he preached two sermons, one at Kossfeld, the other at Billerbult, and celebrated the Holy Mass. The following night, he rendered his holy soul to God. According to his instructions, he w as bur Werden Monastery founded by Ludger and the site of his burial. ied at Werden, a monastery he had founded in the diocese of Cologne; he performed many miracles there.

It is from a monastery of regular canons that he had established in his episcopal city that the latter took the name of Munster. Saint Ludger is depicted supporting a church or leaning upon it: this symbol always recalls the founders of churches; — holding a book or having it at his side: this book recalls his rare love for study in his youth or, better yet, the circumstance of the breviary he was reading when he was summoned on behalf of Charlemagne. — Saint Ludger is the patron of Munster, Werden, East Frisia, Helmstadt, Deventer, Kaiserwerth, etc. Acta Sanctorum Acta Sanctorum Hagiographic collection cited as a source. .