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{{Distinguish|Catherine Rimbert|Patrick Rimbert}}{{Short description| (Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen (c. 830–888)}}
'''Saint Rimbert''' (or '''Rembert''') (''c.'' 830 - 11 June 888 in [[Bremen]]) was [[archbishop]] of [[Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen|Hamburg-Bremen]], in the northern part of the [[East Francia|Kingdom of East Frankia]] from 865 until his death in 888. He most famously wrote the life of Saint Ansgar, the ''[[Vita Ansgari]],'' one of the most popular [[Hagiography|hagiographies]] of the middle ages.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Palmer|first=James|date=2004|title=Rimbert's Vita Anskarii and Scandinavian Mission in the Ninth Century|journal=The Journal of Ecclesiastical History|volume=55|issue=2|pages=235–256|doi=10.1017/S0022046904009935|hdl=10023/1554|hdl-access=free}}</ref>

==Biography==
Little is directly known about Rimbert, much of the information available regarding his life comes from the ''Vita Rimberti'', a hagiography written by an unknown author, likely produced some time in the 10th century.<ref name=":0" /> While his place of birth is uncertain it is widely accepted by historians that Rimbert was Danish.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wickham|first=Chris|title=Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400-800|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2006|isbn=9780199212965|location=Oxford|pages=366|language=English}}</ref>  As a monk he trained in Turholt ([[Torhout]]), after which he shared a [[missionary]] trip to [[Scandinavia]] with his mentor [[Ansgar]], Bishop of Hamburg. Upon Ansgar's death in 865, Rimbert was unanimously elected Archbishop of [[Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen|Hamburg-Bremen.]] Upon his election, Rimbert travelled with Bishop Theodric of Minden and Abbot [[Adalgar|Adalgar of Corvey]] to the court of [[Louis the German]], who sent him to Archbishop [[Liutbert (archbishop of Mainz)|Liudbert of Mainz]] to receive his consecration, which he received with the aid of Luidhard of Paderborn and Thoedric.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Knibbs|first=Eric|title=Ansgar, Rimbert, and the Forged Foundations of Hamburg-Bremen|publisher=Routledge|year=2011|isbn=9781409428824|location=Surrey|language=English}}</ref>

Rimbert continued much of the missionary work that had begun under [[Ansgar]], despite the lack of royal or papal support for the missionary effort.<ref name=":1" /> As Archbishop, he maintained the poorhouse in [[Bremen]] that had been established by Ansgar and founded a monastery at [[Bücken]].<ref name=":1" /> He also continued to preach to the [[Danes]] at [[Hedeby]].<ref name=":0" /> Rimbert furthermore obtained market, coinage and toll rights for the city of Bremen in 888 from Emperor [[Arnulf of Carinthia]] and thus considerably improved the financial state of the archbishopric. In 884 he personally led a Frisian army against the Vikings, and following the victorious [[Battle of Norditi]] was able to drive them permanently out of [[East Frisia]].

It was also chronicled in the ''Vita Rimberti'' that Rimbert had performed numerous miracles, many of which are associated with his missionary work in [[Sweden]]. The miracles attributed to him include calming stormy seas, restoring sight to the blind and in one instance, performing an exorcism on the son of [[Louis the German]].<ref name=":1" /> While the ''Vita Rimberti'' claimed the importance of these miracles and the in the ''Vita Ansgari'', Rimbert claimed that his and Ansgar's missionary work was popular and successful, they nevertheless produced underwhelming results in converting the Scandinavians.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Winroth|first=Anders|title=The Conversion of Scandinavia Vikings, Merchants, and Missionaries in the Remaking of Northern Europe|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2012|isbn=9780300205534|language=English}}</ref>

Rimbert is revered as a [[saint]] particularly in [[Frisia]]. His [[Calendar of saints|feast day]] is 4 February. After Ansgar, known as the ''Apostle of the North'', Rimbert is revered as the ''Second Apostle of the North'', alongside the missionary [[Sigfrid of Sweden]].<ref>{{CathEncy|wstitle=Hamburg}}; Erik Gustaf Geijer, ''Geschichte Schwedens'' [Svenska folkets historia; German]: 6 vols., Swen Peter Leffler (trl., vols. 1-3), Friedrich Ferdinand Carlson (trl., vols. 4-6) and J. E. Peterson (co-trl., vol. 4), Hamburg and Gotha: Friedrich Perthes, 1832–1887, (Geschichte der europaeischen Staaten, Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren, Friedrich August Ukert, and (as of 1875) Wilhelm von Gieselbrecht (eds.); No. 7), vol. 1 (1832), p. 121. No ISBN.</ref>

==Connections with Ratramnus and Corbie==
In a highly notable letter from the controversial 9th century theologian, [[Ratramnus|Ratramnus of Corbie]], Ratramnus responded to a lost letter from Rimbert regarding the nature of [[Cynocephaly|cynocephali]]. In the letter, Ratramnus gave a response to an account received by Rimbert, while on a mission in [[Scandinavia]]. The account told of cynocephali living in the region and that they were living in organised communities.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last=Ottewill-Soulsby|first=Sam|title=City of Dog|journal=Journal of Urban History|year=2021|volume=47|issue=5|pages=1130–1148|doi=10.1177/0096144220910139|s2cid=216457690|doi-access=free|hdl=10852/107876|hdl-access=free}}</ref> Rimbert  had enquired if this in meant that the cynocephali were capable of reason and therefore are 'arose from the line of [[Adam]]' making them human and eligible for Christian conversion.<ref name=":3" /> In his response, Ratramnus broke with the traditional understanding of cynocephali as animals or monsters and instead declared that they were indeed human and therefore should be converted.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bruce|first=Scott|date=2005|title=Hagiography as Monstrous Ethnography: A Note on Ratramnus of Corbie's Letter Concerning the Conversion of the Cynocephali|journal=Insignis Sophiae Arcator: Medieval Latin Studies in Honour of Michael Herren on His 65th Birthday|pages=44–56}}</ref> This letter highlights the beginning of the change of perception of cynocephali and by extension, [[Vikings]], with whom they were intrinsically linked.

This understanding of cynocephali as human and therefore convertible had profound connotations for Rimbert. Not only was this continued justification for the conversion of his fellow Danes but also had profound prophetic implications. The [[Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius|apocalypse of pseudo-Methodius]] was one of the most widely read and popular accounts of the apocalypse in 9th century Europe, in which when all people had been converted to Christianity, the monstrous and barbaric people from the North would destroy the world.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Palmer|first=James|title=The Apocalypse in the Early Middle Ages|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2014|isbn=9781107449091|language=English}}</ref> The prophetic and apocalyptic implications of his work to convert Scandinavian people was not lost Rimbert.<ref name=":0" />

Furthermore, the letter is evident of political connection between the Ansgar and Rimbert and the monks of [[Corbie]]. Rimbert aligned himself with the monks at Corbie and sought patronage in [[West Francia|West Frankia]] with [[Charles the Bald]].<ref name=":0" /> Similarly, this alliance was underpinned by a common support for ideas of [[predestination]] and the ideas of the controversial monk [[Gottschalk of Orbais|Gotschalk of Orbais]].<ref name=":0" /> This however, bought Rimbert into an ideological conflict with [[Hincmar|Hincmar of Rheims]] who vehemently opposed both ideas of predestination, the humanity of the Cynocephali and questioned the value of the missionary work in Scandinavia.<ref name=":0" />

==Forged foundations of Hamburg-Bremen==
Prior to Rimbert's election as Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen the [[Episcopal see|archiepiscopal see]] of Hamburg-Bremen had not technically existed. Ansgar himself had forged the bishopric of [[Hamburg]], claiming that he had been granted the position by [[Louis the Pious]] after he died, a claim uncontested by [[Louis the German]].<ref name=":1" /> Ansgar later became an archbishop, though only a missionary archbishop, and such his episcopal see, Hamburg, was only that of a bishop not Archbishop. When Ansgar died and Rimbert assumed the archbishopric in 865, he understood that Hamburg was not large enough for an archiepiscopal see and the Archbishop of [[Cologne]] threatened to assert jurisdiction over Bremen, an area Ansgar had exercised some influence though to which he and Rimbert had no claim.<ref name=":1" /> This is apparent as several of the accounts that Rimbert gives of the earlier bestowals of the [[Diocese|archdiocese]] are at odds with surviving documentary evidence.<ref name=":1" /> Rimbert needed to provide believable context for the forged documents that he and Ansgar used to claim the episcopal justification over Bremen as well as Hamburg.<ref name=":2" /> As such, Rimbert wove together in the ''Vita Ansgari'' justification for the continuation of the missionary work in Scandinavia and the authority that Ansgar had over Bremen, legitimising the episcopal see of Hamburg-Bremen.<ref name=":1" />

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Literature==
* {{cite book |date=2014 |first=Ian |last=Wood |chapter=The Latin Hagiography of Mission from Rimbert to Bruno of Querfurt |pages=34-39 |title=The Cyril and Methodius Mission and Europe: 1150 Years Since the Arrival of the Thessaloniki Brothers in Great Moravia |isbn=978-80-86023-51-9}} OS LG 2023-08-18.

==External links==
* [http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/30_10_0830-0888-_Rembertus_Hamburgensis_Episcopus.html Opera Omnia by Migne Patrologia Latina with analytical indexes]

{{s-start}}
{{s-hou|||around 830 in Flanders|11 June|888 in Bremen}}
{{s-rel|ca}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Ansgar]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Archbishops of Bremen|Archbishop of Bremen-Hamburg]]|years=865–888}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Adalgar]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Portalbar|Saints}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:830 births]]
[[Category:888 deaths]]
[[Category:Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen]]
[[Category:Bishops in the Carolingian Empire]]
[[Category:9th-century Christian saints]]
[[Category:9th-century people from East Francia]]
[[Category:Saints from East Francia]]
[[Category:9th-century writers in Latin]]
[[Category:Writers from the Carolingian Empire]]