Vicelin

c.1090-1154. Missionary bishop and apostle to the Wends. Born at Hameln, Germany, he studied at Paderborn, was a canon and teacher at Bremen, and a student at Laon, France. In 1126 he was ordained and sent by Bishop Adalbero of Bremen as a missionary to the Wagrian Wends. His little success depended upon rare intervals of peaceful relations between the pagans and neighboring Christian princes. After several disappointments, he founded a monastery of Augustinian Canons* at Neumünster in Holstein (1141) on the German-Wendish border, the center of his missionary attempts. Unfortunately the devastation of Wendish lands by Holsteiners and a crusade against the Wends in 1147 swept away the results of many years' labor and destroyed any possibility of peaceful conversion of the Wends. Vicelin was consecrated bishop of Oldenburg beyond the German frontier (1149) and became embroiled in an investiture conflict. He died at Neumünster two years after he became completely paralyzed.