MARCH 26TH, FERIA OF PASSIONTIDE
Month in honor of Saint Joseph, Hope of the Sick.
Among the Saints recalled today by the Roman Church is Saint Ludger of Utrecht. One fact about him to meditate on is that he is tbe fruit of the preaching of Saint Boniface, who came from England , where his family had been evangelized by Saint Augustine of Canterbury, who had been sent there by Pope Saint Gregory I.! The fidelity of each man in the chain, however small or large his contribution, was necessary to give us Saint Ludger. Think on these things.
Ludger was born around AD743 at Zuilen, Friesland (modern Netherlands). He was the son of Thiadgrim and Liafburg, wealthy Frisian nobles, and brother of Saint Gerburgis and Saint Hildegrin. He witnessed Saint Boniface preach in AD 753, and was greatly moved. He first studied at Utrecht, Netherlands under Saint Gregory of Utrecht, and then studied three and a half years in England under Blessed Alcuin, after which he was ordained a Deacon.
Ludger returned to the Netherlands in 773 as a missionary. Sent to Deventer in 775 to restore a chapel destroyed by pagan Saxons, and to recover the relics of Saint Lebwin, who had built the chapel, he then took on the task of teaching at the school at Utrecht. Destroyed pagan idols and places of worship in the areas west of Lauwers Lake after they were Christianized. In AD 777, he was ordained a priest at Cologne, Germany, and became a Missionary to Friesland, mainly around Ostergau and Dokkum, from 777 to 784, returning each fall to Utrecht to teach in the cathedral school. However, Ludger left the area in 784 when pagan Saxons invaded and expelled all priests.
He thus decided to become a pilgrim to Rome in 785, and there met with Pope Adrian I., and the two exchanged counsel. He lived as a Benedictine monk at Monte Cassino, Italy from 785 to 787, but did not take vows. At the request of the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne, he returned to Friesland as a missionary. It was a successful expedition, and he built a monastery in Werden, Germany to serve as a base. At that time, he is reported to have cured the blindness of, and thus caused the conversion of, the blind pagan bard Berulef.
When offered to him, Ludger refused the bishopric of Trier, Germany in 793, and instead turned his attention to being a missionary to the Saxons. For this purpose, he built a monastery at Mimigernaford as the center of this missionary work, and served as its abbot. The word monasterium led to the current name of the city that grew up around the house - Münster. He alos built several small chapels throughout the region. In 804, be became the first bishop of Münster, being consecrated at Westphalia.
Ludger's health failed in later years, but he never reduced his work load. No matter how busy or dangerous his outside life, he never neglected his time of prayer and meditation, it being a source of the strength to do everything else. The man's life can be summed up in two facts: he was reprimanded and denounced only once during his bishopric - for spending more on charity than on church decoration; on the day of his death, he celebrated Mass, twice.
St. Ludger died in the evening of Passion Sunday, 26 March 809 of natural causes, and was buried at Werden, Germany. His relics are also kept at Münster and Billerbeck, Germany.