Thorfinn of Hamar (died 1285) was the

Bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

of the Ancient Diocese of Hamar in medieval Norway. St Torfinns kirke Hamar

Biography

Thorfinn was born in

Trøndelag Trøndelag (; sma, Trööndelage) is a county in the central part of Norway. It was created in 1687, then named Trondhjem County ( no, Trondhjems Amt); in 1804 the county was split into Nord-Trøndelag and Sør-Trøndelag by the King of Denma ...

, possibly in

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

, and may have been a Cistercian

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

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. 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. There had been an agreement, the

Tønsberg Tønsberg , historically Tunsberg, is a city and municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county, eastern Norway, located around south-southwest of Oslo on the western coast of the Oslofjord near its mouth onto the Skagerrak. The administrative c ...

Concord Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony) * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...

(''Sættargjerden in Tønsberg'') signed in 1277 between King

Magnus VI of Norway Magnus Haakonsson ( non, Magnús Hákonarson, no, Magnus Håkonsson, label= Modern Norwegian; 1 (or 3) May 1238 – 9 May 1280) was King of Norway (as Magnus VI) from 1263 to 1280 (junior king from 1257). One of his greatest achievements was the ...

and

Jon Raude Jon Raude (died 21 December 1282), 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 ki ...

, the Archbishop of Nidaros confirming certain privileges of the clergy, the freedom of episcopal elections and similar matters. 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 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 ...

and Bishop Thorfinn of

Hamar Hamar is a town in Hamar Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. Hamar is the administrative centre of Hamar Municipality. It is located in the traditional region of Hedmarken. The town is located on the shores of Mjøsa, Norway's largest lake ...

. Bishop Thorfinn, after many hardships including shipwreck, made his way to the abbey of Ter Doest (''Abdij Ter Doest'') at Lissewege, near

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the country by population. The area of the whole city a ...

, in the

Flemish Region The Flemish Region ( nl, Vlaams Gewest, ),; german: Flämische Region usually simply referred to as Flanders ( nl, link=no, Vlaanderen ) ; german: link=no, Flandern is one of the three regions of Belgium—alongside the Walloon Region and t ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. 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. 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.''St. Thorfinn'' (Catholic Online)
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In literature

St. Thorfinn appears in ''The Axe'', the first volume of

Sigrid Undset Sigrid Undset () (20 May 1882 – 10 June 1949) was a Norwegian- Danish novelist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928. Undset was born in Kalundborg, Denmark, but her family moved to Norway when she was two years old. In 1924 ...

's ''

The Master of Hestviken ''The Master of Hestviken'' is a tetralogy about medieval Norway written by Sigrid Undset. It was originally published in Norwegian as two volumes ''Olav Audunssøn i Hestviken'' and ''Olav Audunssøn og Hans Børn'', from 1925 to 1927. 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.

References

Other sources

*Attwater, Donald and Catherine Rachel John. ''The Penguin Dictionary of Saints''. 3rd edition. New York: Penguin Books, 1993. .

External links

website of St. Torfinn Catholic Church in Hamar
Year of birth missing 1285 deaths People from Trøndelag Norwegian Cistercians Norwegian Roman Catholic saints 13th-century Christian saints 13th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Norway {{Saint-stub