Lars was the name of the

Archbishop of Sweden The Archbishop of Uppsala (spelled Upsala until the early 20th century) has been the primate of Sweden in an unbroken succession since 1164, first during the Catholic era, and from the 1530s and onward under the Lutheran church. Historical ove ...

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 The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

monastery in

Enköping Enköping is a locality and the seat of Enköping Municipality, Uppsala County, Sweden with 30,000 inhabitants in 2018. Geography Enköping is situated near Lake Mälaren, about 78 km west of Stockholm. A comparably large number of S ...

. 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 Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including huma ...

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 Birger Jarl, also known as ''Birger Magnusson'' (21 October 1266), was a Swedish statesman, ''jarl'', and a member of the House of Bjelbo, who played a pivotal role in the consolidation of Sweden. Birger also led the Second Swedish Crusade, whi ...

. 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 Apostasy (; grc-gre, ἀποστασία , 'a defection or revolt') is the formal disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that ...

. 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 Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...

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 Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Located north of the c ...

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