Auðunn rauði Þorbergsson (c. 1250 – 28 January 1322) was bishop of Iceland's northern diocese of

Hólar Hólar (; also Hólar í Hjaltadal ) is a small community in the Skagafjörður district of northern Iceland. Location Hólar is in the valley Hjaltadalur, some from the national capital of Reykjavík. It has a population of around 100. It is t ...

1313–22. Auðunn was a Norwegian and was for a while a priest of

Trondenes Church Trondenes Church () is the northernmost medieval stone church of Norway and the world's northernmost surviving medieval building. It is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Harstad Municipality in Troms county, Norway. It is located on the n ...

Hålogaland Hålogaland was the northernmost of the Norwegian provinces in the medieval Norse sagas. In the early Viking Age, before Harald Fairhair, Hålogaland was a kingdom extending between the Namdalen valley in Trøndelag county and the Lyng ...

(not far from the present-day town of

Harstad Harstad may refer to: Places *Harstad (town) Harstad (; ) is a List of towns and cities in Norway, city in Harstad Municipality in Troms county, Norway. The city is also the administrative centre of Harstad Municipality. The city has a populati ...

in northern Norway). He later became a canon of

Nidaros Cathedral Nidaros Cathedral () is a Church of Norway cathedral located in the city of Trondheim in Trøndelag county. It is built over the burial site of Olav II of Norway, King Olav II ( 995–1030, reigned 1015–1028), who became the patron saint of th ...

, and became one of the foremost of their number, for example in their disputes with Archbishop Jǫrundr of Nidaros. Auðunn was well travelled and more than once visited the

Pope The pope is the bishop of Rome and the Head of the Church#Catholic Church, visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the po ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. He won the esteem of the Norwegian king and was for a long time a retainer of

Haakon V of Norway Haakon V Magnusson (10 April 1270 – 8 May 1319) (; ) was King of Norway from 1299 until 1319. Biography Haakon was the younger surviving son of Magnus the Lawmender, King of Norway, and his wife Ingeborg of Denmark. Through his mother, ...

. Auðunn was consecrated Bishop of Hólar on 25 November 1313. He arrived in Iceland in the summer of 1315 (at Seleyri í Borgarfirði) and rode north to Hólar. As bishop he exerted control firmly, both regarding finances and discipline among the clergy. He soon got into disputes with the major clerics of his diocese, events which are recounted particularly by '' Laurentius saga''. Major achievements during his episcopate were his translation of the relics of Bishop

Guðmundur Arason Guðmundur Arason (; 1161 – March 16, 1237; ) was an influential 12th and 13th century Icelandic saintly bishop who took part in increasing the powers of the Catholic Church in medieval Iceland. His story is recorded in several manuscrip ...

, helping to establish his feast within the northern Church. In 1318 he had the ''máldagar'' (property records) of his diocese collected in a book, providing a major historical record of the diocese's (then) ninety-eight churches. He brought with him a timber building from Norway which was erected at Hólar in 1316–17, later called Auðunarstofa, which stood until 1810 and was reconstructed in 2002 under the guidance of the then suffragan bishop of Hólar, Bolli Gústavsson. In the summer of 1320, Auðunn sailed to Norway, amongst other things to protect his interests in his dealing with the Icelanders, and died in Nidaros on 28 January 1322. He was buried at Church of St Mary in Trondheim. He was succeeded by

Lárentíus Kálfsson Lárentíus Kálfsson (medieval Icelandic Laurentius Kálfsson; 10 August 1267 – 16 April 1331) was bishop of the northern Icelandic diocese of Hólar 1324–31. Laurentius studied first with Þórarinn kaggi, his maternal uncle, in Vellir in ...

. Auðunn had at least one daughter, Ölöf, whose son Eysteinn rauði became a prominent cleric under the tutelage of his grandfather and Laurentius.Erika Ruth Sigurdson, 'The Church in Fourteenth-Century Iceland: Ecclesiastical Administration, Literacy, and the Formation of an Elite Clerical Identity' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Leeds, 2011), pp. 160, 179-81; http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/2610

Sources

* Þorsteinn Gunnarsson et al., ''Um Auðunarstofu'' (Reykjavík: Hólanefnd, 2004), pp. 167–211. {{DEFAULTSORT:Thorbergsson, Audunn raudi 14th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Iceland, Audunn raudi Thorbergsson Year of birth uncertain 1322 deaths Audunn raudi Thorbergsson