St Eysteinn

So, who knows anything interesting about the Norwegian bishop St Eysteinn, whose feast day is today? I do!

'Interesting' is relative, I suppose. But anyway, it's more interesting than anything in his wikipedia article...

My interesting fact is that Eysteinn was one of Thomas Becket's earliest fans - everyone was a fan of Thomas Becket in the 1180s, but Eysteinn took it pretty far. He was Archbishop of Nidaros from 1161, and he corresponded with Becket while the latter was Archbishop of Canterbury. Thomas Becket wrote a lot of letters - he corresponded with everybody! - but there were strong links between the English and Norwegian churches in this period, and Becket's murder in 1170 made almost as big an impression in Scandinavia as it did in England.*  Eysteinn was Archbishop at a period of civil war in Norway, and his support for King Magnus against the rival Sverre brought him into trouble. After a number of battles, Magnus was driven out of the country in 1180, and Eysteinn had to flee to England (pronouncing excommunication on Sverri as he did so).

He stayed in England for three years. We don't know exactly where he was all that time, but he spent nine months staying in the monastery of Bury St. Edmunds, from 9 August 1181 onwards - his stay is mentioned by the chronicler of that house, Jocelin of Brakelond, who was a monk there during Eysteinn's visit. (Jocelin calls him 'Augustine', a Latinising of his Norse name, and notes that he received ten shillings a day - which seems like an awful lot! - from the abbey's funds, at the command of the king).  Eysteinn was the author of a Vita of St Olaf, and perhaps brought it to England with him; a copy was preserved at Fountains Abbey.  He probably went to Canterbury too, to visit the shrine of Thomas Becket, and most likely he also visited Henry II - Henry (who was perhaps in the mood to be nice to persecuted archbishops) gave him support out of the royal coffers.

The parallel between Becket, who had spent time in exile from England because of his disputes with Henry, and Archbishop Eysteinn was fairly obvious. The English chronicler William of Newburgh finds space in his history for Eysteinn's story; he explains it by saying that Sverre, "having abjured the sacred order, and taken in marriage the daughter of the Gaut-king, wished to be solemnly crowned by the archbishop. But he, since he was a great man and not to be induced by prayers or threats to pour sacred ointment on an execrable head, was driven by Sverri from his fatherland." The English chroniclers had presumably got this information from Eysteinn himself (though one hopes he didn't describe himself as a 'great man'!). It was not Eysteinn's fate to be murdered at his own altar, though; he returned to Norway in 1183, was eventually reconciled with Sverre, and died peacefully enough on this day in 1188.

* This seems as good a place as any to note my favourite piece of evidence for northern veneration for Thomas Becket: the story of the Icelander Hrafn Sveinbjarnarson, who caught a narwahl and promised the tusks to St Thomas if the saint helped him bring it in.  His prayer was answered, so he travelled to Canterbury and left the tusks on Thomas’ shrine.  Part of me really hopes they still have a narwahl tusk in a cupboard somewhere in Canterbury Cathedral...