Leofdag of Ribe

Leofdag of Ribe was the first bishop of the Danish diocese of Ribe, in southern Jutland, in 948, and a martyr. He was honored as a regional saint.

His name points to a Frisian or south Jutland origin, and he may have been a monk at Fulda. In 948 Archbishop Adaldag of Hamburg consecrated him bishop, and in June of the same year he took part in the synod of Ingelheim. According to Adam of Bremen, he also preached in Sweden and Norway and worked miracles there, probably before his consecration as bishop.

At Ribe, at an unknown date, not long after his installation, he was attacked with weapons, as the Chronicle of the church of Ribe tells. He fled, but his pursuers overtook him on the river Ribe Å, where he used to baptize, and killed him with lance thrusts. He was buried in the cemetery of the church of Saint Mary in Ribe, and at his tomb many healings of the sick took place, and a wooden chapel was raised over it. In the 12th century Bishop Ralph of Ribe tried to obtain his canonization, but the attempt failed because the relics were destroyed in a fire of the church in 1176. In Scandinavia he was nevertheless honored as a saint until the Reformation.

He is a saint of the West, of the undivided Church; no Orthodox synodal canonization is known.