The Royal Road of the Holy Cross (3)

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The Royal Road of the Holy Cross (3)

Take up your cross, therefore, and follow Jesus, and you shall
enter eternal life. He Himself opened the way before you in carrying
His cross, and upon it He died for you, that you, too, might take up
your cross and long to die upon it. If you die with Him, you shall
also live with Him, and if you share His suffering, you shall also
share His glory.
--Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Book 2, Chapter 12

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January 26th – St. Eystein Erlandsson B (RM)

Born in Norway; died at Nidaros (Trondheim), Norway, on January 26,
1188. Saint Eystein, born of a noble family, was educated at
Saint-Victor, Paris. When he returned to Norway, he served as chaplain
to King Inge of Norway and, in 1157, was appointed second archbishop
of Nidaros (Trondheim). At that time the metropolitan see had been in
existence for only five years. In 1152, the Norwegian Church had been
reorganized into 10 sees (including Iceland, Greenland, the Orkneys,
and the Shetlands) under the archbishopric of Nidaros by an English
legate of the Holy See, Cardinal Nicholas Breakspeare, who later
became Pope Adrian IV. Eystein's appointment violated the regulations
for canonical appointments established by Breakspeare, but he proved
to be the man chosen by God for the work.

Upon his appointment as bishop, Eystein went on a pilgrimage to Rome
to be consecrated by Pope Alexander III, who gave him the pallium and
made him a papal legate a latere. He returned from Rome late in 1161.
Eystein labored to strengthen the ties between the Norwegian Church
and Rome, implement the Gregorian Reform, and to free the Church in
Norway from interference by the nobles. He brought to the Norwegian
Church the practices and customs of the churches of Europe at that
time, though celibacy for the clergy was largely unobserved in his
country. Perhaps this is the reason he established communities of
Augustinian canons regular to set an example for the parochial clergy.

He crowned the eight-year-old child Magnus as king of Norway at Bergen
in 1164, and was closely associated with the boy's father, Jarl Erling
Skakke, who approved Eystein's code of laws. Most of Eystein's
activities as they have come down to us are matters of the general
history of Norway and were directed towards the free action of the
spiritual power among a unified people. This set him on a collision
course with Magnus's rival for the throne, Sverre. Eystein was forced
to flee to England in 1181 when Sverre claimed the throne on the
grounds that he was the illegitimate son of King Sigurd and the
rightful heir; from England Eystein excommunicated Sverre.

In England he stayed at the abbey of Saint Edmundsbury (a.k.a., Bury
St. Edmunds), and it was probably there that he wrote his account of
St. Olaf, The passion and miracles of the Blessed Olaf, of which a
manuscript was discovered in England. He helped them to obtain from
Henry II the free election of Abbot Samson. It is probable, too, that
he visited the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury, to whose memory he
was very devoted, which later became common in the Norwegian Church.
(Eystein may have met Saint Thomas during the Englishman's exile and
saw in him another who struggled to free the Church from secular
control.)

Eystein returned to Norway in 1183 and was aboard a ship in Bergen
Harbor when Sverre's fleet defeated Magnus, causing the king to flee
to Denmark. The following year Magnus was killed in battle, Sverre
became king, and Eystein made peace with him. Eystein enlarged Christ
Church cathedral, where Saint Olaf was buried; some of his
improvements remain to this day.

After his death, his body was enshrined in Nidaros cathedral.
Immediately after his death Eystein was considered a saint, but
various papal inquiries were unfinished. Eystein was proclaimed a
saint by a Norwegian synod in 1229. Many miracles occurred at his tomb
(Attwater, Attwater2, Coulson, Delaney, Farmer, Walsh).


Saint Quote:
O God, enlarge within us the sense of fellowship with all living
things, our little brothers to whom Thou hast given this earth as
their home in common with us. May we realize that they live not for us
alone, but for themselves and for Thee, and that they love the
sweetness of life even as we, and serve Thee better in their place
than we in ours."
--St. Basil the Great, 370 A.D.

Bible Quote:
But the wise took oil in their vessels with the lamps. And the
bridegroom tarrying, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight
there was a cry made: Behold the bridegroom cometh, go ye forth to
meet him. (Matt 25:4-6)


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O Fathers of Our Ancient Faith

O Fathers of our ancient faith,
With all the heav’n, we sing your fame
Whose sound went forth in all the earth
To tell of Christ and bless His Name.

You took the Gospel to the poor,
The Word of God alight in you,
Which in our day is told again,
That timeless Word, forever new.

You told of God, Who died for us
And out of death triumphant rose,
Who gave the Truth which made us free
and changeless through the ages goes.

Praise Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
Whose gift is faith that never dies,
A light in darkness now, until
The Day-Star in our hearts arise.

O Fathers of Our Ancient Faith is written by the Benedictine Nuns of
Stanbrook Abbey. In the Divine Office it is sung at Morning Prayer in
the Common of Apostles. It is set to the anonymous tune associated
with the 7th century Latin hymn, Creator Alme Siderum.