JOHN OF MECKLENBERG, ST.

First bishop of Mecklenberg and martyr, of Anglo-Saxon ancestry; d. Nov. 10, 1066. The ancient historians of Iceland testify that he was one of several foreign missionaries who preached the faith in that country. John returned to the Continent at the request of Abp. adalbert i of Bremen-Hamburg, but it is not clear whether the archbishop sent him to Iceland in the first place. Although of advanced age, John was made the first bishop of Mecklenberg sometime after 1055 and was sent to the Slavic tribes (see slavs), including the Wends in Saxony. During an uprising there in 1066 he was captured with many other Christians. When he would not abjure the faith, his hands and feet were amputated; he was decapitated and his head, impaled on a spike, was offered to the tribal god Redigast. John of Mecklenberg is falsely called the first American martyr because the territory Viendland (land of the Wends) is erroneously identified as Vinland, the reputed Norse settlement in North America.

Feast: Nov. 10.

Bibliography: Acta Sanctorum November 4:564–566. Monumenta Germaniae Scriptores (Berlin 1825–) 29:413. j. fischer, "Kann Bischof Johannes aus Irland († 1066) mit Recht als erster Märtyrer Amerikas bezeichnet werden?" Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie 24 (1900) 756–758. k. schmaltz, Kirchengeschichte Mecklenburgs, 3 v. (Schwerin 1935–52) v.1. h. fuhrmann, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 5:1060.

[v. a. schaefer]