Lars was the name of the
Archbishop of Sweden 1255–1267.
Lars is a Swedish form for the Latin name Laurentius, which in English is Lawrence. This was the name Lars used as an archbishop. His birthname is unknown.
Lars was recruited from the recently established
Franciscan monastery in
Enköping. Since the monastery is unlikely to have had time to recruit Swedish monks, it is possible that he was foreign.
In 1255, when Lars had just recently been ordained (which he was in the
primate Lund
Lund (, , ) is a city in the southern Swedish provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, across the Øresund, Öresund strait from Copenhagen. The town had 91,940 inhabitants out of a municipal total of 121,510 . It is the seat of Lund Municipali ...
), a papal letter arrived. The Pope expressed his belief in the Swedish monarch
Birger Jarl. The situation in Sweden was still shaky. There was an ongoing struggle for the throne, which later forced the antagonists to tax the clergies to support their war.
Another papal letter in 1257 expressed the Pope's support for
crusade
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were i ...
s to the east, towards the Swedish parts of Finland that were either not yet Christianized, or had turned
apostate. The inspiration came from the crusades to Jerusalem.
Lars was dedicated to enforcing
celibacy
Celibacy (from Latin ''caelibatus'') is the state of voluntarily being unmarried, sexually abstinent, or both, usually for religious reasons. It is often in association with the role of a religious official or devotee. In its narrow sense, the ...
among priests. This was a problem that had still not been solved in Sweden, despite papal efforts and threats. The usual reason given was the low population in Sweden, which made it necessary for priests to marry and have children. Even though Lars was known for trying to uphold celibacy, in 1258 he had to send a request to the Pope about not having to
excommunicate those who broke the rule. We can imagine how common it was since this was necessary.
In 1258 the move of the archbishopric to its present location was decided. It would, however, not be realized for another decade. The reason was that the present location
Östra Aros had grown in significance.
When Lars died in early March 1267, he was buried among his brothers at the monastery in Enköping.
References
* Svea Rikes Ärkesbiskopar, Uppsala, 1935
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lars
1267 deaths
Roman Catholic archbishops of Uppsala
13th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Sweden
Year of birth unknown