Skutki misji biskupa Ottona z Bambergu
The effects of the mission of bishop Otto of Bamberg

Summary/Abstract: Bishop Otto of Bamberg, during two missionary expeditions carried out in the years 1124–1125 and 1128, converted great crowds of Pomeranians to the One God, and this without martyrs or pagan bloodshed. In order to further strengthen the Christian faith, he founded fourteen churches in twelve towns, leaving one priest at each. In addition, during the second missionary expedition, he brought about the reconciliation of Wartislaw I with the Polish prince Boleslaw the Wrymouth, and the gift made on behalf of the Pomeranian land by Wartislaw I on the altar of St. Adalbert in Gniezno was later interpreted by historians as a formal submission of Pomerania to the authority of the Polish prince and recognition of the jurisdiction of the metropolis of Gniezno. Nevertheless, full missionary success – i.e. the establishment of the Pomeranian bishopric – had to wait as long as twelve years. And the reasons for this unexpected delay were of a political and ecclesiastical nature. This time, however, meant that the main characters of this work – Bishop Otto of Bamberg, Polish Duke Boleslaw the Wrymouth and Pomeranian Duke Warcisław I – did not live to see the completion of the mission. It was not until Pope Innocent II, with the papal bull Ex commissa nobis of 14 October 1140, that the Pomeranian bishopric, known as Wolin, was established with its first bishop Adalbert and the cathedral of St. Adalbert in Wolin, which in the following centuries wrote a beautiful page in the history of medieval Western Pomerania.

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