Reference on Numbers of Saxons

[Cristian Mocanu]

I'd like to make a brief contribution as to the Anglo-Saxon and Irish
missionaries to the Continental Germans.
Among the Anglo-Saxon missionaries to Germany and the Lower Countries, the
most famous is, undoubtedly, St. Boniface, former Abbott of Exeter, apostle
of Thuringia and martyred by the Frisians around 754 AD. There were others,
including St.Willibrord and some whose name I cannot recall now.
    Concerning the Irish missionaries to the continent, they had an extreme
importance for the spread and maintenance of Christianity. St. Columban and
St. Gall were among the most important.
A lot of them were missionaries in the Saxon Kingdoms of England and
certainly learned their language. For the topic in discussion, the most
relevant case would be that of St. Fursey. Born in Tuam, Ireland, he spent
some years as missionary among the Saxons of East Anglia and was then
instrumental in the conversion of the Franks, being well received by Clovis
himself.
    As for St. Brendan, according to Martin Wallace's "Book of Celtic
Saints" (Appletree Press, Dublin, 1995), there is no evidence in Dutch
documents or tradition of his presence in the Lower Countries. However, the
well-known Mediaeval story known as "Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis" had,
according to the above-mentioned source, a very early version in Flemish.The
popularity enjoyed by St.Brendan and the "Navigatio" in the Lower Countries
is, by no means, separable from the presence of Irish monk-scholars at the
beginnings of the local Christianity.
Incidentally, a good website for biographies of Saints, including those in
the 2-nd half of the first millenium AD, which tend to be less known, is
that of the Catholic Encyclopaedia:
www.newadvent.com/cathen/

         Best regards,
          Cristian