Catholic Missionaries in the Evangelization of Livonia, 1185-1227

This essay provides an analysis of information given in the chronicle of Henry of Livonia concerning thirty-two named Catholic missionaries associated with the German mission in Livonia in the period 1185-1227. Even though the chronicle often provides little more than their names, the regions where they worked, and in some cases, their deaths, a prosopographical approach enables some trends to be discerned. Most missionaries seem to have been secular priests, but significant numbers were drawn from the Cistercian Order and the Sword Brethren. An investigation of their activities (and in many cases, deaths) illuminates the changing pattern of the Catholic mission.