1250th birthday of St.Ludgerus - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 1992 - 100 Pfennig

1992 is the 1,250th anniversary. The birthday of St. Ludgerus, the Apostle of the Frisians and Saxons. In 742 Ludgerus - also called Liudger - was born near Utrecht. He comes from old Frisian gender, who had become Christian early and supported Willibrord and Boniface in the missionary work. Ludgerus was a man of European education: he studied for twelve years at the St Martin's Abbey in Utrecht with Abbot Gregor for four and a half years at the famous theological college in York at Alchwine (Alcuin) and two and a half years in Rome and Monte Cassino. "He constantly looked at the Scriptures and especially studied what relates to worship and the Catholic doctrine". The spirit of Benedictine monasticism has deeply influenced him. In 767 he received the consecration of deacon in York and, in 777, the ordination to the priesthood in Cologne. He made three missionary missions in Friesland: 776 in Deventer as successor Liafwin (Lebuin), 774-784 in Ostergau as guardian of the Paul Church at Dokkum, where Boniface had found martyred in 754, and 787-792 in the Middle Frisian districts on the Ems estuary, were completely new mission country and from where it advanced to the island Helgoland. Ludgerus was committed to the ideal of far-reaching hiking mission. All three missions ended with riots. In the autumn months he led the Utrecht cathedral school and trained missionaries. He inspired them to love scripture and the song of the Psalms, to celebrate daily the Holy Eucharist as much as possible, to live poorly and modestly out of Benedictine piety, and to be missionary for Christ and his kingdom. To many young men from Friesland and Saxony he lived, as he understood the following of Christ as a missionary. To his teachers Boniface and Gregory he has set a literary monument that bears witness to his way of life. Alchwine (Alcuin), meanwhile "Minister of Culture" of Charlemagne, had alerted him to his pupil. Ludgerus rejected a call for the Trier bishops' chair in 791. He preferred to become active as a missionary of the Western Saxony. In 792/793 he came to Mimigernaford, where he "established to the Lord a stately monasterium of men who lived under canonical rule." From this foundation, the city of Münster derives its name and existence. He consecrated his cathedral and cathedral school to the apostle Paul, his great missionary model. His life's achievement is that after the baptism of Widukind and the Saxon people he won the hearts of the people for the Christian faith, founded parishes and trained missionaries and pastors. He could no longer realize missionary plans around Halberstadt. He declined the well-being of the Frankish clergy and advocated a peaceful campaign for evangelization: "Not wealth, happiness and security, but hunger, nakedness, hardship and persecution are the hallmarks of genuine Christ's succession" (B. Senger). After much hesitation and obstinate urgency, he received bishop consecration on 30.3.805; this is the founding day of the diocese of Münster. In 799 he was able to found a Benedictine monastery on family property in Werden on the border between Saxony and Franconia, which, as an imperial abbey, developed great activity until secularization. On March 26, 809, he preached in Coesfeld early in the morning and celebrated at 9 o'clock in Billerbeck his last mass sacrifice "ill body, but strong by his fiery love," before he died among his disciples. His body found its last rest in his monastery in Essen-Werden. His family, the Liudgeriden, spent 80 years serving the Gospel and the Church in Saxony, Abbots of Werden, bishops of Münster and Halberstadt. The dioceses Essen and Münster keep his worship alive. (Text: Dompropst F. Schulte Berge, Essen, and Dean of State Dr. H. Mussinghoff, Münster)