HE was a native of Flanders, near Bruges, and a monk in the neighboring
monastery of Turholt. St. Anscharius called him to his assistance in his
missionary labors, and in his last sickness recommended him for his
successor, saying: "Rembert is more worthy to be archbishop, than I to
discharge the office of his deacon." After his death, in 865, St.
Rembert was unanimously chosen archbishop of Hamburg and Bremen, and
superintended all the churches of Sweden, Denmark, and the Lower
Germany, finishing the work of their conversion. He also began the
conversion of the Sclavi and the Vandals, now called Brandenburghers. He
sold the sacred vessels to redeem captives from the Normans; and gave
the horse on which he was riding for the ransom of a virgin taken by the
Sclavi. He was most careful never to lose a moment of time from serious
duties and prayer, and never to interrupt the attention of his mind to
God in his exterior functions. He died on the 11th of June, in 888, but
is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on the 4th of February, the day
on which he was chosen archbishop. His life of St. Anscharius is
admired, both for the author's accuracy and piety, and for the elegance
and correctness of the composition. His letter to Walburge, first abbess
of Nienherse, is a pathetic exhortation to humility and virginity. The
see of Hamburg being united to Bremen by St. Anscharius, this became the
metropolitan church of all the north of Germany: but the city becoming
Lutheran, expelled the archbishop in the reign of Charles V. This see
and that of Ferden were secularized and yielded to the Swedes by the
treaty of Westphalia, in 1648. See his life written soon after his
death, in Henschenius, p. 555. Mabillon, Act. Bened., &c.