Saint Sigfrid of Sweden

Saint Sigfrid of Sweden (Swedish: Sigfrid, Latin: Sigafridus, Old Norse: Sigurðr, Old English: Sigefrið/Sigeferð) was a missionary-bishop in Scandinavia during the first half of the 11th century. Originally from England, Saint Sigfrid is credited in late medieval king-lists and hagiography with performing the baptism of the first steadfastly Christian monarch of Sweden, Olof Skötkonung. He most likely arrived in Sweden soon after the year 1000 and conducted extensive missions in Götaland and Svealand. For some years after 1014, following his return to England, Sigfrid was based in Trondheim, Norway. However, his position there became untenable after the defeat of Olaf Haraldsson. While in Norway, Sigfrid continued to participate in the Christianization of Sweden, to which he devoted the remainder of his life. According to Swedish and Icelandic tradition, he retired to Värend. Sigfrid later died in Växjö on an unknown date within the life-time of Adam of Bremen. Sigfrid's burial-place in Växjö became the centre of a cult. According to a statement by Johannes Vastovius, an antiquarian writing in the 17th century, Sigfrid was canonized by Pope Hadrian IV c. 1158. His feast day is 15 February. Sigfrid is remembered in the Church of England with a commemoration on 15 February. In the ninth century, Anskar, 'Apostle of the North', had already made a missionary journey to Sweden and found Christians among those in captivity there. Subsequently, archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen, as Anskar's successors, and on the basis of papal documents which are now considered of varying degrees of authenticity, regarded themselves as likewise charged with the evangelization of the Far North. Attempts to bring Christianity to Sweden continued sporadically through the ninth and tenth centuries with a considerable measure of success, as is attested particularly by the archaeology of Västergötland.