First missionary bishop of the newly founded church of Livonia (1186-1196).
Born between 1130 and 1135 and initially an Augustinian canon in the monastery of Segeberg in Holstein, Meinhard was the first known missionary to settle in Livonia (around 1184). He had previously visited the region on a seasonal basis several times, in the company of German merchants from Lübeck. It seems reasonable to assume that this mission had been planned for some time and masterminded by the ecclesiastical leadership of the archbishopric of Hamburg-Bremen.
Meinhard settled in the village of Üxküll (mod. Ikšķile, Latvia) and obtained permission from the Russian prince Vladimir of Polotsk to begin the process of preaching and baptizing the local population along the river Düna. In the early winter of 1185 Üxküll was attacked by marauding Lithuanians. As a consequence, Meinhard promised the Livs in Üxküll and nearby Holme that he would have stone castles built for their protection. In return, they were to accept baptism. In the spring of 1186 masons from Gotland began constructing the first stone castles in the country. At the same time Meinhard was formally appointed as bishop by Hartwig II, archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen, and Üxküll became the seat of the first diocese of Livonia.
However, the process of Christianization was not unopposed. On several occasions over the next decade, hostility from the local pagans was so strong and violent that Mein- hard seems to have been prepared to give up his work and return to Germany. According to the chronicler Henry of Livonia, he only agreed to stay in Üxküll because he was promised the help of German and Scandinavian crusaders. This army never seems to have materialized, and Meinhard died sometime during the late summer or autumn of 1196, more or less trapped in his fortified church in Üxküll.