Saint Ludger
First Bishop of Munster
(† 809)
Saint Ludger was born in Friesland (the Netherlands) about the year 743. His father, a nobleman of the first rank, at the child’s own request, committed him very young to the care of Saint Gregory, Bishop of Utrecht, a disciple of Saint Boniface and his successor in the government of the see of Utrecht. Saint Gregory educated him in his monastery of Utrecht, and gave him the clerical tonsure.
Ludger, desirous of further religious studies, passed over into England, and spent four and a half years under Alcuin, Rector of a famous school at York. In 773 he returned home, and when Saint Gregory died in 776, his successor, Alberic, compelled Saint Ludger to receive the priesthood. Continue reading