BERLIN -- Germany's television license fee collection agency GEZ apologized Monday for sending an angry letter demanding payment from an eighth century saint.
"It was quite embarrassing, but unfortunately mistakes happen," said Eckhard Ohliger, an official at the Cologne-based GEZ, which collects €6.5 billion ($6.8 billion) per year from viewers to pay for the public broadcasting service.
Father Karl Terhorst said the agency had sent letters demanding the monthly $16.80 fee to a woman named "Frau Walburga St." at the address of the Roman Catholic Church in Ramsdorf, 80 miles east of Cologne.
"At first I just ignored the letters," Terhorst said. "But after the last letter threatened the saint with legal action and a $1,050 fine, I figured it was time to write back."
St. Walburga, born in 710 in England, was an abbess and missionary who played an important role in St. Boniface's organization of the Frankish church. She was made a saint in 880.
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