Ulfrid

Saint Ulfrid, also called Wulfrid or Wolfred, was an English missionary who preached the Gospel in Germany and then in Sweden and received the crown of martyrdom in 1028.

He was a man of great learning and virtue. Obeying, as the account tells, a divine inspiration, he left his homeland and preached the faith to pagans, first in Germany and then in Sweden, in the time of the pious King Olaf II, who was the first to take the title of king of Sweden. His mission bore fruit, and many came to Christ. In 1028, while preaching against the idol of Thor and hewing it to pieces with an axe in front of a crowd, he was slain by the furious pagans. They insulted his body and threw it into a marsh, until in better times Ulfrid was venerated as a martyr of Christ.

The old calendars commemorate him on 18 January. He is a saint of the undivided Church, commemorated on 18 January (new style).