St. Ansfrid of Utrecht

  Posted on May 3, 2020  by admin  No comments

Born: c.940 in the Brabant region 

Died: 3 May 1010 in Amersfoort, Netherlands of natural causes 

Feast: 3 May

Count of Brabant. Married to Hilsondis; father of one daughter; after the girl’s birth, Ansfrid and Hilsondis, lived as brother and sister. Courtier and knight in the service of Holy Roman Emperor Otto III and Saint Henry II. After many years of this life he realized a call to religious life, and in 974 he gave up his life as a soldier. In 992 he founded a convent at Thorn, Netherlands, which his wife and daughter entered; his daughter eventually became abbess. He founded a Benedictine monastery at Heiligenberg, Germany, and planned to enter it as a monk, but in 994, in the face of local opposition, he was named bishop of Utrecht, Netherlands by Otto. Late in life his eyesight began to fail, and by 1006 he was blind; though he kept the title of bishop, he was finally able to retire to the Heiligenberg abbey where he spent his remaining days as a prayerful monk. There is a single church dedicated to Saint Ansfrid; it is located in Amersfoort, Netherlands.