This is a statue of Ansgar and it sits on the Trostbrücke in the old part of Hamburg. He was an archbishop for Bremen and Hamburg in the 9th century and it was his job to bring christianity to Scandinavia. He had some successes and managed not to get killed in his thirty-odd years of work in the north so he was venerated. Hence the Saint portion in the title of this photograph.
I suppose spending your life trying to get vikings to give up Thor and Valhalla without getting killed was enough for sainthood. Well, that and he wore a hair shirt. Those always weirded me out.
For what it's worth, it was another few hundred years before christianity really managed to get a strong grip in Scandinavia.
Camera: NIKON D90 Lens Type: AF-S DX Nikkor 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED Focal Length:
10 mm
35mm Focal Length: 15 mm Exposure:
1/160 sec
Aperture:
f 4.5
ISO:
100
Views:
2060 Taken: 2013-10-31 12:26:04 Posted:
2016-03-20 | 23:41
Saint Ansgar
This is a statue of Ansgar and it sits on the Trostbrücke in the old part of Hamburg. He was an archbishop for Bremen and Hamburg in the 9th century and it was his job to bring christianity to Scandinavia. He had some successes and managed not to get killed in his thirty-odd years of work in the north so he was venerated. Hence the Saint portion in the title of this photograph.
I suppose spending your life trying to get vikings to give up Thor and Valhalla without getting killed was enough for sainthood. Well, that and he wore a hair shirt. Those always weirded me out.
For what it's worth, it was another few hundred years before christianity really managed to get a strong grip in Scandinavia.
