Maynard von Segeberg

Maynard accepted monasticism at the Augustinian monastery in Holstein , in the city of Segeberg , from which he received his name - Maynard von Segeberg.

It is believed that the monk Vitzelin , who was the first to begin missionary work among them, inspired a Christian sermon among the pagan Balts of Maynard.

Prince of Polotsk permission to preach

Maynard arrived in Livonia along with merchants who traded with the Livs , and in 1184 he asked Polotsk Prince Vladimir for permission to preach on his vassal lands - from the Livs, and received such permission. The historian A.P. Pyatnov believes that Prince Vladimir did this because his own sister, Sofia, was the wife of the Danish King Valdemar I the Great (1157–1182) ^[1] .

In the “ Chronicle of Heinrich of Latvia ” it is said about this: “Having received permission, and together with gifts from the king of Polotsk, Vladimir, to whom the Livs, still pagans, paid tribute, the named priest boldly embarked on God's work, began to preach to the Livs and build a church in the village of Ikeskole ". ^[2]

Maynard built the first small wooden chapel on the Daugava in the town of Ikskül ( Üxküll , in Livonian and modern Estonian , this literally meant üx , üks - alone, the first and küll , küla - the village) and became the first preacher of Western Christianity who tried to convey the word of God through the way beliefs, and not fire and sword, for which he won the glory of the "Livonian Apostle." However, the pagans converted to Christianity were not peaceful, because of which Maynard was repeatedly threatened with death.

In the winter of 1184-1185, Maynard and the Livas fed by him survived the Lithuania raid, which resulted in heavy damage, and many people were taken into slavery. Maynard rebuked the Livs that they had no fortifications, promising them to build a castle on condition that they were baptized. ^[2]

Therefore, already in 1185, on the site of a wooden chapel, masons invited from the island of Gotland built a stone church and a small fortress. Before laying the Livs, they again promised to be baptized and some did it, the rest promised to be baptized when the fortress was finished, but both of them broke their oaths: those already baptized returned to paganism, and those who promised remained in it.

The newly built fortifications were tried to be pulled into the river by the neighbors of the Zemgale , but they could not destroy the castle fastened with cement with ship ropes, and they were also fired from the walls, suffering considerable damage.

Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the neighboring settlement resorted to the tricks used by the iksküls, and also received a stone fortress with the help of Maynard ^[2] downstream of the Daugava, in the area of ​​the present Salaspils - Holm ^[3] .

Establishment of a diocese

The construction of stone fortresses impressed the Livs, according to Henry of Latvia : six men were baptized by Maynard.

For the successes achieved, the Archbishop of Bremen Hartwig II in 1186 elevated Maynard to the rank of bishop and created the first diocese in Livonia under his leadership. On October 1, 1188, Pope Clement III approved Maynard of the "bishopric of Ikskul in Russia" (in Ruthenia), subordinating him to the Bremen bishopric and his head Hartwig II ^[4] .

In 1188, due to unpaid debts in Gotland, Russian merchants were imprisoned, due to which trade between Novgorod and the western Baltic was temporarily stopped. And trade on the Baltic Sea was restrained by the conflict between Novgorod and Sweden . As a result, in the lower reaches of the Daugava, sea trade stopped, but a land route to Pskov appeared . The fortresses created by Maynard became strongholds on this trade route, which allowed him to receive support from the merchants.

In 1190, Pope Clement III allowed Maynard to accept all the orderly monks and priests. In April 1193, the newly elected Pope Celestine III in his letter expressed even greater support for the mission, allowing the monks to abandon the strict restrictions on food and clothing (henceforth they could use the products provided by the Gentiles) and giving all members of the mission absolution (indulgences) ^[2] . At this time, Theodoric , a monk from Lokkum Monastery, who began to preach in Turaida, joined the mission.

At the end of the XII century, most Livs refused to fulfill this promise to be baptized, Maynard had a conflict with the Libyan aristocracy. His authority fell, which is why the bishop decided to seek military help. However, before leaving, he again received assurances of Livs in friendship and remained in Ikskile. Having survived the betrayal again, Maynard planned to get to the merchant camp in the north (in the territory of present-day Estonia) to move to Germany from there, however, he received a warning from the Turaida elder Anno about the impending assassination and took refuge in Ikskule .

The bishop died on October 12, 1196, and was buried in the church he built. In the XIV century, his relics were reburied in the Riga Dome Cathedral , where they are located to this day.

Maynard's successor as bishop, Bertold Schulte , was killed in 1198 in a battle with pagan Livs. This murder prompted Theodorich to go to Rome to help Pope Celestine III . This was the beginning of the Baltic Crusades .

On September 8, 1993, during a visit to Latvia, Pope John Paul II canonized Maynard as the first Latvian apostle, bishop and saint ^[5] .

Near the church built by Maynard, a stone was erected in memory of him, which for a long time served as a place of pilgrimage for believers. The church itself was destroyed, but its remains are currently fortified and protected from precipitation. And in Ikskile itself, near the Riga-Ogre road, on September 24, 2010, a monument to Maynard was erected ^[6] . Its author is the sculptor Viktor Sushkevich, and the ideological mastermind is academician Janis Stradins . The monument was financed by the president of Itera Latvija , philanthropist Juris Savickis .

“The monument to Maynard on this historic site is a sign that it is necessary to return to Christian values ​​and honor them. This is a very important place. Guided by faith, missionaries traveled to distant lands, often risking their lives to help people in the most important thing - in search of a path to eternity. To realize that a person’s goal is to live with God, and He can be found by cleansing from sins and relying on the Lord in one’s heart, ”Cardinal Janis Puyats said at the opening ceremony of the monument ^[7] .

• Northern Crusades
• Campaigns of Russian princes against the Order of the Swordsmen
• Order of the Swordsmen
• Livonian Order
• Vladimir, Prince of Polotsk
• Livonia

• " Chronicle of Livonia " by Henry of Latvia . Introduction, translation and commentary by S. A. Anninsky. 2nd edition. Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow - Leningrad, 1938
• Riga: Encyclopedia = Enciklopēdija "Riga" / Ch. ed. P.P. Eran. - 1st ed .. - Riga: Main Edition of Encyclopedias, 1989. - P. 458. - 880 p. - 60,000 copies. - ISBN 5-89960-002-0 .