Albert (ALBRECHT), Bishop of Riga, Apostle of Livonia, d. 17 January, 1229. After the inhabitants of Livonia had twice lapsed from Christianity into paganism, and heroic measures were necessary to reclaim them, Albert organized a crusade. He sailed up the Diina (April, 1200), with twenty-three ships; conquered the land on both sides; founded the city of Riga (1201), of which he was made bishop; established the famous Order of Knights of the Sword (1202), which served as a standing army; completed the conversion of the country before 1206; and erected the dependent bishoprics of Semgall-Kurland, Dorpat, and Césel.
FRITZ in Kirchenlex.; Heinric chronicon Livonia in Mon. Germ, Script., XXIII, 231-232.
F. M. Rudge.