Berno, Apostle of the Obotrites

Berno, Bishop of Schwerin, also known as the Apostle of the Obotrites or Berno of Amelungsborn (died 14 January 1191) was a pre-eminent missionary to the Obotrites in the territory of Mecklenburg, Germany, and the first Bishop of Schwerin.

Berno was a Cistercian monk in Amelungsborn Abbey near Stadtoldendorf in the Weserbergland. In 1155 he began his mission to the territory of the Obotrites around Mecklenburg. Henry the Lion appointed him Bishop of Mecklenburg, after the failure of a previously planned mission by Bishop Emmehard (d. 1155), reporting to Hartwig von Stade, Archbishop of Bremen.

At the beginning of his evangelisation of the Obotrites they still adhered to the Wendish rites, and progress was slow and difficult. The inhabitants resisted conversion to the Christian faith, sometimes violently. In 1160, because of the constant danger from hostile groups, Berno moved the bishop's seat from Mecklenburg Castle to Schwerin. In the same year, with the consent of Henry the Lion, Archbishop Hartwig von Stade of Bremen subordinated the Bishopric of Schwerin to the authority of the Archbishop of Hamburg. From Schwerin Berno preached "...more powerfully the light of faith to the people who sat in darkness"

Henry the Lion had founded the town of Schwerin on the site of a Wendish settlement. The Statthalter and later the first Count of Schwerin, Gunzelin von Hagen, provided the necessary security, and Christian groups formed among the townspeople. Berno had other clerics with him by no later than 1164. He himself travelled throughout the country in order to advance the process of Christianity by founding churches, baptising and preaching, as far as Demmin.

Pribislav, prince of the Obotrites, after his defeat by Henry the Lion, had himself baptised, in order to make possible the survival of his dynasty. From then on, despite occasional outbreaks of revolt, the evangelisation of the country proceeded peacefully, so much so that by 1166 it was possible to extend the bishopric to the mouth of the Peene. The last significant cult centre of the Obotrites and all other remaining pagan Wends south of the Ostsee or Baltic Sea was located in the ancestral territory of the Rani on Rügen. For this reason in 1168 Berno took part with Pribislav, who as a vassal of Henry the Lion was obligated to do it, on an expedition for the destruction of the pagan cult sites under the leadership of Valdemar I of Denmark. The expedition ended with the submission of the Rügen princes to Danish feudal overlordship and the mass baptism of the people of Rügen. The area on the mainland north of the Ryck that formed part of this territory was put under Berno's diocese.

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