Editing Ansfried of Utrecht

{{Infobox Christian leader
| type        = Bishop
| honorific-prefix = 
| name        = Ansfried
| title       = Bishop of Utrecht
| image       = Huy 051027 (38).JPG
| alt         = 
| caption     = St. Ansfridus. Small fine bronze of the fountain "Li bassinia"  ([[Huy]]).
| church      = [[Catholic Church]], [[Eastern Orthodox Church]]
| archdiocese = 
| diocese     = [[Archdiocese of Utrecht (695–1580)|Archdiocese of Utrecht]]
| see         = 
| term        = 995–1010
| predecessor = 
| successor   = 
<!--   Orders   -->
| ordination     = 
| ordained_by    = 
| consecration   =
| consecrated_by = 
| cardinal       =
| rank           = 
<!--   Personal details   -->
| birth_date    = 
| birth_place   = 
| death_date    = 3 May 1010
| death_place   = 
| previous_post = 
| nationality   = 
}}

'''Saint Ansfried ('''also''' Ansfrid, Ansfridus) of Utrecht''' sometimes called '''Ansfried the younger''' (died 3 May 1010 near [[Leusden]]) was Count of [[Huy]] and the sword-bearer for [[Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor]]. He became Bishop of Utrecht in 995.  He appears to have been the son or grandson of [[Lambert (advocate of Gembloux Abbey)|Lambert, a nobleman]] of the Maasgau, the area where he later founded the Abbey of Thorn. He also appears to have been related to various important contemporaries including the royal family.

==Life==
The principal source of information regarding Ansfried is the ''De diversitatem temporum'' by the Benedictine Albert of Metz, written around 1022.<ref name=Butler>[https://books.google.com/books?id=7f1CnVuWceQC&dq=Heiligenberg%2C+Utrecht&pg=PA20 Butler, Alban and Burns, Paul. ''Butler's Lives of the Saints'', Vol. 5, A&C Black, 1997] {{ISBN|9780860122548}}</ref>

Ansfried had the same name as a paternal uncle (''patruus''), [[Ansfried the elder, count in Lotharingia|Ansfried the elder]], a count who supposedly held 15 counties.<ref name=Fichtenau>[https://books.google.com/books?id=to2D97xD1f4C&dq=Ansfried+of+Utrecht&pg=PA190 Fichtenau, Heinrich. ''Living in the Tenth Century: Mentalities and Social Orders'', University of Chicago Press, 1993] {{ISBN|9780226246215}}</ref> The young Ansfried studied secular and clerical subjects under another paternal uncle, [[Ruotbert|Robert, Archbishop of Trier]], before attending the cathedral school at [[Cologne]]. 

In 961, Otto I took Ansfried into his personal service and made him his swordbearer. When Otto was in Rome the following year to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor, he directed Ansfried to keep close at hand with the sword as a precaution against any unforeseen eventualities.<ref name=Leyser>[https://books.google.com/books?id=M3ivAwAAQBAJ&dq=Ansfried+of+Utrecht&pg=PA149 Leyser, Karl. ''Communications and Power in Medieval Europe: The Carolingian and Ottonian Centuries'', Bloomsbury Publishing, 1994] {{ISBN|9780826446954}}</ref> Karl Leyser describes this as a valuable lesson in practicality.

Because of his Christian commitment, he was highly respected and an important knight of the emperor's circle, holding rich possessions along the [[Meuse]], in [[Pagus of Brabant|Brabant]] and [[Gelderland]]. Possibly all or some of his counties were inherited from his paternal uncle of the same name. As Count, he had considerable success in suppressing piracy and armed robbery.<ref name=Butler/> In 985, [[Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor|Otto III]] granted Ansfried the right to mint coins at [[Medemblik]],<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ztG4wu93m-8C&dq=Ansfried+of+Utrecht&pg=PA89 Henstra, Dirk Jan. ''The Evolution of the Money Standard in Medieval Frisia'', Uitgeverij Verloren, 2000] {{ISBN|9789036712026}}</ref> on the north-south shipping route through the Vlie, as well as, the income from tolls and tax collecting.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=3fz05KJb5B4C&dq=Ansfried+of+Utrecht&pg=PA23 Lodewijckx, Marc. "Bruc ealles well: archaeological essays concerning the peoples of North-West Europe in the first millennium AD'', Leuven University Press, 2004] {{ISBN|9789058673688}}</ref>
  
[[File:Abdijkerk Thorn - Ramen H-Ansifridus H-Hilsonidis.jpg|thumb|right|Ansfridus and Hilsondis. Stained glass windows in the abbey of Thorn, 1956.]]
He was married to Heresuint or Hilsondis. They had one child, Benedicta.  He founded a Romanesque abbey church on his wife's estate at [[Thorn Abbey|Thorn]] under the patronage of St. [[Saint Michael in the Catholic Church|Michael]]. The abbey itself had a double cloister that housed both men and women. Ansfried planned it as a place of retirement for himself and his family after he left public service. Under his control, the abbey and lands, of about 1.5 square kilometers, was [[Imperial immediacy|reichsunmittel]], making it subject only to the Emperor. Hereswitha was to be the first abbess but died on her way there; and Benedicta took her place.<ref name=Akker>[http://www.heiligen.net/heiligen/05/03/05-03-1010-ansfried.php van der Akker SJ, Dries. "Ansfried of Utrecht", Heiligen.net]</ref>

After his wife's death, Ansfried wanted to become a [[monk]]. However, in 995, Emperor Otto III and Bishop [[Notker of Liège]] persuaded the reluctant Ansfried to assume the then vacant see of Utrecht. Ansfried objected that as he had borne weapons as a knight, he was unworthy of the office, but the emperor prevailed. The elderly count laid down his sword on the altar of Saint Mary in Aachen and was ordained priest and consecrated eighteenth [[Archdiocese of Utrecht (695–1580)|Bishop of Utrecht]] in the same ceremony.<ref name=Akker/> Bishop Ansfried never took a commission in the royal army, in contrast to Notger and the Bishop of Cologne.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=O_gxBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA59 Selderhuis, Herman. ''Handbook of Dutch Church History'', Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2014] {{ISBN|9783525557877}}</ref>

In 1006 Bishop Ansfried founded the abbey of [[Heiligenberg (Leusden)|Heiligenberg]], also under the patronage of Saint Michael.<ref>This was later moved into Utrecht as [[St. Paul's Abbey, Utrecht|St. Paul's Abbey]].</ref> Toward the end of his life he became increasingly weakened through fasting, and retired there as a monk,<ref name=Akker/> caring for the sick, although almost blind himself.

Upon his death, townsfolk from Heiligenberg took possession of his body, while the people of Utrecht were extinguishing a not coincidental fire. The abbess of Thorn mediated and Ansfried was buried in the Cathedral of Saint Martin in Utrecht.<ref name=Butler/>

==Veneration==
His feast day was 3 May but was later moved to 11 May.

===Patronage===
St. Ansfried is the patron saint of [[Amersfoort]].

===Iconography===
Ansfried is portrayed holding a small church building (as a founder); as a knight with weapons at his feet, because he renounced the knighthood; with a bishop's miter and staff; or as a Benedictine monk.

The stained glass windows in St. John's Cathedral in Den Bosch depicting the seven sacraments. The sacrament of Holy Orders portrays St. Ansfried.

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150322031054/http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0511.shtml Saints of May 11: Ansfrid]

{{S-start}}
{{s-rel|ca}}
{{s-bef|before = [[Baldwin I (bishop)]]}}
{{s-ttl|title = [[Archdiocese of Utrecht (695–1580)|Bishop of Utrecht]]|years=995–1010}}
{{s-aft|after = [[Adalbold II of Utrecht]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Subject bar |portal1= Biography |portal2= Catholicism |portal3= Netherlands}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ansfried of Utrecht}}
[[Category:1010 deaths]]
[[Category:Bishops of Utrecht]]
[[Category:10th-century German bishops]]
[[Category:11th-century German bishops]]
[[Category:11th-century Christian saints]]
[[Category:Burials at St. Martin's Cathedral, Utrecht]]
[[Category:Medieval Dutch saints]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]