Mor Frideborg

Mor Frideborg (Mother Frideborg) or only Frideborg (died circa 851), was a Swedish woman in Birka at the time of the first Christian mission there made by Ansgar in 829-831. She is described in the Vita Ansgari. Frideborg is arguably the first historical woman in Sweden whose name is known.

Frideborg are described as an independent wealthy widow in Birka with an adult daughter, Katla. When Ansgar and his assistant Witmar arrived in Birka as the first Christian mission in Sweden in 829, she offered to house them. They accepted her offer and described her as a friendly and motherly figure who took good care of them. When Ansgar founded his church, the first Christian church in Sweden, Frideborg and the kings stewart Hergeir were his first converts in a congregation largely consistent of foreign slaves which were already Christian in their home countries.

Frideborg are described as famed for her piety: after her baptism, she reportedly decided to give her property to the poor, but as they were no powerty in Birka, she had to have her gift sent far away to find some poor people to which she could distribute her gifts. Soon after this, Ansgar and Witmar left Sweden. The only possession Frideborg kept was reportedly enough wine to be given holy communion at her deathbed, which she asked her daughter to keep.

Twenty years later, in 851, Asngar had the hermit Ardgar sent to Birka to give Frideborg and Hergier the holy communion before their death. Reportedly, they both died soon after.

According to another version, Frideborg distributed her gifts after her death: upon her deathbed, she asked her daughter Katla to distribute her inheritance among the poor. Unable to find poor people in Birka, Katla travelled to Dorestad in Friesland, where she performed her mothers wish. According to the chronicle, a miracle occurred afterward, when she found that she had as much money in her purse after having given away her inheritance, as she had before. There are theories that Frideborg was in fact originally from Friesland, which would mean that she was already Christian at the time of Ansgar's visit, and that her daughter thereby returned to her mother's birth country, if she did indeed visit Dorestad.^[1]

References

• Heidenstam, Verner von, Svenskarna och deras hövdingar: berättelser för unga och gamla, Stockholm, 1908
• Erik Thyselius, Göran Lindblad, Vem är det?: Svensk biografisk handbok, Volym 20. P. A. Nordstedt and Söners., 1946
• Klintberg, Bengt af, Namnen i almanackan, 1. uppl., Norstedts ordbok, Stockholm, 2001
• Christensson, Jakob (red.), Signums svenska kulturhistoria. Medeltiden, Signum, Lund, 2004
• Från forntid och medeltid., Thule, Stockholm, 1939
• Nilsson, John, Kyrka och folk i Sverige. D. 1, Missionstid och medeltid, Stockholm, 1954
• Hallström, Gunnar, Mälaröarnas historia: en bok om forntid och medeltid, Bokförl. Mälaröarnas historia, Ekerö, 1969