Les débuts du christianisme

Christianity reached Sweden and the other Nordic countries from several directions from the ninth century onwards. Missionaries came over the sea from the British Isles ; the influence of Byzantium came in from the East ; the German mission operated from the South. The first recorded organised mission reached Sweden in the ninth century when the monk Ansgar, later archbishop of Hamburg, visited Birka, close to Stockholm in central Sweden. The first Swedish king to be baptised and become a Christian was Olof Skötkonung around the year 1000. In 1164, Uppsala, just north of Stockholm, became the seat of the archbishop. It was during this early Christian period that the strong links between Church and State in Sweden were forged. The Christianisation of the country went hand in hand with the strengthening of a central power. From that very time the formation Sweden as a unified country emerged.