St. Otto of Bamberg

St. Otto of Bamberg was born around 1060 in Swabia, in what is now southern Germany, and died on 30 June 1139 at Bamberg. Of modest noble background, he rose through service in the imperial court and in 1102 was named Bishop of Bamberg, where he proved an energetic reformer, builder of churches and monasteries, and a skilled mediator during the bitter Investiture Controversy between the Holy Roman Emperor and the papacy.

He is best remembered as the Apostle of Pomerania. In two great missionary journeys in the 1120s he traveled into the pagan lands along the Baltic coast and, through patient preaching, generosity, and personal example rather than force, brought the Pomeranian people peacefully into the Christian faith, founding numerous churches among them. Widely revered for his humility and pastoral zeal, he was canonized by Pope Clement III in 1189.