Fr. Karl Halfdan Schilling (9 June 1835 - 2 January 1907) was a Norwegian Barnabite cleric venerated by the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Biography

Schilling was born in

Christiania, Norway Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

. He was an atheist (nominally

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

) convert to

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, which he first came into contact with when he was nineteen years old and studying art in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

. He was received into the Catholic Church on 11 November 1854. Gradually, as he spent more and more of his time in prayer and charity work, he gave up his painting. He was ordained a priest at

Bourges Bourges () is a commune in central France on the river Yèvre. It is the capital of the department of Cher, and also was the capital city of the former province of Berry. History The name of the commune derives either from the Bituriges, t ...

, France, on 18 December 1875.Kevin Connolly
"Sigrid Undset and the Modern Apostolate"
/ref> Schilling became a spiritual director in the Barnabite Order (Clerics Regular of St Paul). He worked mainly in France, Italy and Belgium. His last years were spent in

Mouscron Mouscron (; Dutch and vls, Moeskroen, ; Picard and Walloon: ''Moucron'') is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the Belgian province of Hainaut, along the border with the French city of Tourcoing, which is part of the Lille metropoli ...

, Belgium, where his evident holiness led people to call him "the tall saint" (because of his height) or "the saint of Mouscron". Shortly after his death people began to flock to his grave, and on 24 March 1936 his body was moved to the Barnabite Church, where it was placed in a side chapel. His grave is still frequently visited by pilgrims. He is the only post-

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

Norwegian cleric to be officially considered for sainthood by the Catholic Church. He has been declared

Venerable The Venerable (''venerabilis'' in Latin) is a style, a title, or an epithet which is used in some Western Christian churches, or it is a translation of similar terms for clerics in Eastern Orthodoxy and monastics in Buddhism. Christianity Cathol ...

Books

* Undset, Sigrid, ''A Priest From Norway - The Venerable Karl Schilling'', translated by the Barnabite Fathers.

References

External links

Schilling biodata

(archived) 1835 births 1907 deaths 20th-century Belgian Roman Catholic priests Converts to Roman Catholicism from atheism or agnosticism Members of the Barnabite Order Norwegian emigrants to France Place of birth missing Place of death missing 19th-century French Roman Catholic priests 19th-century venerated Christians {{RC-clergy-stub