Thorfinn of Hamar (died 1285) was the Bishop of the Ancient Diocese of Hamar in medieval Norway. [1] [2]
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Thorfinn of Hamar | |
|---|---|
| Bishop | |
| Born | 3.141529 |
| Died | 1285 |
| Venerated in | Catholic Church |
| Canonized | 202226 |
| Feast | 8 January |
Thorfinn of Hamar (died 1285) was the Bishop of the Ancient Diocese of Hamar in medieval Norway. [1] [2]
Thorfinn of Hamar | |
|---|---|
| Bishop | |
| Born | 3.141529 |
| Died | 1285 |
| Venerated in | Catholic Church |
| Canonized | 202226 |
| Feast | 8 January |
Thorfinn was born in Trøndelag, possibly in Trondheim, Norway, and may have been a Cistercian monk before becoming Bishop of Hamar. Although he achieved a fair amount of fame as a saint, comparatively few details of his life are clearly known. [3]
Thorfinn and many other bishops of the area disagreed with the sitting King Eric II of Norway regarding a number of issues, including episcopal elections. King Erik received the nickname "Priesthater" from his less than successful relations with the church. [4]
There had been an agreement, the Tønsberg Concord (Sættargjerden in Tønsberg) signed in 1277 between King Magnus VI of Norway and Jon Raude, the Archbishop of Nidaros confirming certain privileges of the clergy, the freedom of episcopal elections and similar matters. [5] In 1282, King Eric repudiated this agreement, and a fierce dispute between Church and state ensued. Eventually the King outlawed Archbishop Jon Raude, and his two chief supporters, Bishop Andres of Oslo and Bishop Thorfinn of Hamar. [6] Bishop Thorfinn, after many hardships including shipwreck, made his way to the abbey of Ter Doest (Abdij Ter Doest) at Lissewege, near Bruges, in the Flemish Region of Belgium. Torfinn died there on January 8, 1285 and was buried near the altar of the abbey church. The remains of Torfinn were later reinterred at a convent in Bruges during 1687. [7]
Walter de Muda, one of the monks at Ter Doest at the time, wrote a poem in Latin praising the character of Thorfinn. Father Walter remembered Bishop Thorfinn staying in the monastery and the impression he had made of gentle goodness combined with strength. His mild exterior covered a firm will against whatever he esteemed to be evil and ungodly. Father Walter had written the poem about him after his death and hung it up over his tomb. [8]
St. Thorfinn appears in The Axe, the first volume of Sigrid Undset's The Master of Hestviken . There he is depicted as the kindly and compassionate Bishop of Hamar, who makes great efforts to help the book's young lovers, denied the right to marry by malicious relatives.
Magnus Haakonsson was King of Norway from 1263 to 1280. One of his greatest achievements was the modernisation and nationalisation of the Norwegian law-code, after which he is known as Magnus the Law-mender. He was the first Norwegian monarch known to have used an ordinal number, although originally counting himself as "IV".
The Diocese of Hamar is a diocese within the Church of Norway. The Diocese of Hamar includes all of the churches in Innlandet county plus the churches in Lunner in Viken county. Administratively, the diocese is divided into 10 deaneries and 164 parishes in the diocese. The seat of the Diocese of Hamar is located at the Hamar Cathedral in the city of Hamar.
Jon Ingesson Kuvlung was a pretender to the Royal Crown during the civil war era in Norway. He was a rival of the reigning King Sverre of Norway.
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Theodoric the Monk was a 12th-century Norwegian Benedictine monk, perhaps at the Nidarholm Abbey. He may be identical with either Bishop Tore of the Diocese of Hamar or Archbishop Tore Gudmundsson, of the Archdiocese of Nidaros who both went under the Latin name Theodoricus in the Abbey of St. Victor, Paris.
For the current cathedral in Hamar, see Hamar cathedral.
Ingibiorg Finnsdottir was a daughter of Earl Finn Arnesson and Bergljot Halvdansdottir. She was also a niece of Kings Olaf II and Harald Hardrada of Norway. She is also known as Ingibiorg, the Earls'-Mother. The dates of her life are not known with certainty.
Finnr Árnason was a Norwegian nobleman and advisor to both King Olaf Haraldsson and King Harald III of Norway and later served King Sweyn II of Denmark. He was the feudal lord (lendmann) of Austrått.
Paul Thorfinnsson and Erlend Thorfinnsson were brothers who ruled together as Earls of Orkney. Paul and Erlend were the sons of Thorfinn Sigurdsson and Ingibiorg Finnsdottir. Through Ingibiorg's father Finn Arnesson and his wife, the family was related to the Norwegian Kings Olav II and Harald II. They are both described as "tall, handsome men, shrewd and gentle, taking rather more after their mother's side of the family. Their lives and times are recounted in the Orkneyinga Saga, which was first written down in the early 13th century by an unknown Icelandic author.
Margaret of Scotland was Queen of Norway as the wife of King Eric II. She is sometimes known as the Maid of Scotland to distinguish her from her daughter, Margaret, Maid of Norway, who succeeded to the throne of Scotland.
The Archdiocese of Nidaros was the metropolitan see covering Norway in the later Middle Ages. The see was the Nidaros Cathedral, in the city of Nidaros. The archdiocese existed from the middle of the twelfth century until the Protestant Reformation.
The former Norwegian Catholic diocese of Hamar existed from 1152 to 1542, when the Protestant Reformation turned it into a bishopric of the Lutheran state church. The cathedral see was at Hamar, and the diocese included the (modern) counties of Hedmark, Oppland, and the middle part of Buskerud. It also included some parts of Telemark.
Frants Berg was a Danish clergyman who served as the Bishop of Oslo.
Events in the year 1536 in Norway.
Hans Rev or Hans Reff was a Danish-Norwegian clergyman. He was the last Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oslo before the Protestant Reformation, and later became the first Lutheran Superintendent of the Diocese of Oslo within the Church of Norway.
Ter Doest Abbey was a Cistercian abbey in Belgium, in the present Lissewege, a district of Bruges, West Flanders.
Ten Duinen Abbey or the Abbey of the Dunes was a Cistercian monastery at Koksijde in what is now Belgium. It was one of the richest and most influential religious institutions in the medieval County of Flanders. It later relocated to the city of Bruges.
Events in the year 1537 in Norway.
Magnus Lagabötes landslov was a law covering the whole of Norway, issued by King Magnus VI of Norway between 1274 and 1276. The law was the first to apply to Norway as a whole and is one of the first examples of comprehensive national legislation from a central authority in Europe. The law is the reason that the king was given the name Lagabøte, "the one who improves the law".
Jon Raude, nicknamed the Steadfast, was Archbishop of Nidaros from October 1267 until his death in 1282. As Archbishop, Raude championed the rights and privileges of the Church against the temporal authority of the king. He developed a church law separate from King Magnus VI's state law and eventually secured royal approval of this law and a number of other privileges at the Tønsberg Concord of 1277, which marked the zenith of church power in medieval Norway. The concord fell apart after the death of King Magnus, as the regency council for the young King Eric II sought to restrict the church's privileges. Raude and his closest allies were declared outlaws in 1282 and forced to flee the country. He died in exile in Skara in Sweden later that year.
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