He was educated at the Benedictine monastery in Picardy and later became abbot of New Corbie in Westphalia.
In 832, Ansgar was appointed Bishop of Hamburg and given the mission of evangelizing Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.

His exceptional talent for preaching was matched by divine providence. When the superstitious King of Sweden decided to cast lots to determine whether the Christian missionaries would be allowed into his kingdom, Ansgar entrusted the outcome to God—and the result was favorable.

A man of deep humility and asceticism, Ansgar wore a rough hair shirt, lived on bread and water, and showed great charity to the poor. He died in 865, mourned by the whole of Northern Europe.

As the first missionary to Sweden and the organizer of the ecclesiastical hierarchy in the Nordic countries, St. Ansgar was declared Patron of Scandinavia.