Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of His Holiness, celebrated Mass in St. Ansgar’s Cathedral in Copenhagen, Denmark’s capital, in commemoration of the 1200th anniversary of the beginning of the saint’s evangelizing mission in Denmark.
St. Ansgar, now remembered as the Apostle of the North, “faced enormous opposition and seemed to fail, but success was not what he sought,” Cardinal Parolin preached.
The saint’s life, the prelate said, shows that the Church grows “not primarily in numbers, but in men and women who live lives of faithfulness, perseverance, and love: the mission begins with transformed hearts.”