ON SAINT BRYNOLPH, BISHOP OF SKARA IN SWEDEN
Year of Christ 1317.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Brynolph, Bishop of Skara in Sweden (Saint)
By G. H.
[1] Adam of Bremen, in his description of Sweden appended to his Ecclesiastical History, relates that among the peoples of Sweden itself, the nearest neighbors of the Danes are the Goths, of whom some are Eastern at Skara, a city of Sweden, and others Western. He says that the region of the latter, Westrogothia, borders on the Danish province of Scania, from which they say it takes seven days to reach the great city of the Goths, Skara. Then Ostrogothia extends along the sea called the Baltic as far as Birka. And below, when treating of Sweden, he adds that by land the journey is from Scania through the peoples of the Goths and the city of Skara, then Telge and Birka, and after a full month one reaches Sigtuna. We have treated of Birka, Telge, and Sigtuna on the third of February in the Life of Saint Ansgar, section 2, no. 43. The same Adam writes the following about the first church built at Skara, in book 2 of his History, chapter 41: "King Olaf, in Western Gothia, an episcopal See erected: founded a Church and an Episcopal See dedicated to God. This is the city of Skara, the greatest, in which, at the request of the most Christian King Olaf, Thorgot was the first Bishop ordained by Archbishop Unwan; who, vigorously carrying out his mission among the peoples, first Bishops: won the two noble peoples of the Goths for Christ by his labor." King Olaf, or Olaus, is treated on the fifteenth of February in the Life of Saint Sigfrid. Unwan presided over the Church of Bremen from the year 1013 to the sixth of the Kalends of February in the year 1029. Godescalcus succeeded Thorgot, and Adalward succeeded him, whom the same Adam records as having been illustrious for miracles of virtue. John Vastovius, in his Vitis Aquilonia, numbers these three among the holy Confessors of great Scandinavia, whose feast day we have not yet found anywhere in the sacred Calendars.
[2] In the same city of Skara, which in later times was called Scara and Scarae, Saint Brynolph, Bishop, flourished, whose death Vastovius in his Vitis Aquilonia records as having occurred on the sixth of February, Saint Brynolph is venerated on February 6. and after him Abraham Bzovius at the year of Christ 1317, no. 39, where he is said to have been perfected on the eighth of the Ides of February. On this day our Balinghemius in the Marian Calendar says: "In the year 1317, Blessed Brynolph Vastonius, Bishop of Skara in Sweden, is born to heaven." But whence "Vastonius"? Perhaps he meant to say "in Vastovius the writer." The same Balinghemius reports on the seventeenth of April on the seventeenth and twenty-seventh of April, that Saint Brynolph was placed in the number of the blessed in heaven; which Vastovius writes took place on the fifth of the Kalends of May, that is, the twenty-seventh of April. In many Martyrologies he is listed on the thirtieth of July. and July 30: On that day the manuscript Florarium of the Saints: "Likewise of Brunulf the Bishop, and Helen the soldier-woman." Molanus in his Additions to Usuard: "In Sweden, of Saint Brunolph, Bishop and Confessor of Skara. Likewise in Sweden, of Blessed Helen." Nearly the same things appear in Hermann Greven, Galesini, Canisius, and Ferrarius, who places Helen on the following day; to whom we suspect Saint Brynolph was joined, because his feast day was unknown, he wrote the Lives of Saints Aeschylus and Helen: on the grounds that he composed the Life and miracles of Saint Helen, as the same Vastovius attests, who also records that the Life of Saint Aeschylus, Bishop and Martyr, was written by the same Brynolph. Saint Aeschylus is venerated on the twelfth of June.
[3] Saint Brynolph flourished in the episcopal office under Magnus II, King of Sweden, surnamed Ladulaus, who was substituted for his brother Waldemar (whom some make the founder of Stockholm) in the year 1277 and lived until the year 1290. Against him, on account of a sister married to a certain Ingemar the Dane, a very great rebellion is reported to have been stirred up by the Swedish nobility, and in it both Ingemar was slain and the castle of Joenkoeping was seized by the leading Dukes of the Folkung family. descended from the Folkung family, These Dukes, however, lured by a trick to the King, were all wretchedly beheaded, or forced to redeem their lives by having all their goods confiscated for the royal treasury. From this illustrious Folkung stock, his father being Algot Sture, Saint Brynolph was descended; he studies and teaches at Paris, sent to France, he spent eighteen years at Paris with great praise, both absorbing and teaching sacred literature to others, as John Magnus writes in book 3 of the Lives of the Bishops of Uppsala, under Jacob Erlandi, the tenth Archbishop, and John Vastovius, who adds that Brynolph, returning to his homeland from his rich harvest of studies, was enrolled in the ecclesiastical order and adorned first with a Canonry of Skara, then with the Deanery of Linkoeping, and not long afterward, at the desire of the whole people, was elected Bishop of Skara; in which office, he becomes Bishop: as he was most fully equipped with every kind of learning and piety, he willingly endured many labors in the vineyard of the Lord and produced outstanding works of sanctity.
[4] John Magnus, in book 20 of the History of the Swedes, chapter 7, writes the following about King Magnus and Saint Brynolph: "King Magnus was borne toward the clergy and the liberty of the Church with a pious and most upright zeal, striving with the utmost effort to make the Christian priesthood throughout all the boundaries of his empire so prosperous that neither the Danes, nor the Germans, nor any other lands could have appeared more generous toward the Church of Christ. he incurs the hatred of the King: It must be admitted, however, that a grave controversy once arose between him and the holy Brynolph, Bishop of Skara, born of the illustrious Folkung family. But when the King had considered by many proofs his sanctity and the integrity of his life, he prostrated himself at his feet and humbly obtained pardon." Olaus Magnus narrates the same events somewhat more precisely in book 16 of his History of the Northern Peoples, chapter 29: "Very often," he says, "the Kings and Princes of the North are accustomed to receive back into their grace and favor Bishops and Prelates whom they have offended, on account of the sanctity of their lives and their admirable constancy of faith, lest the injuries inflicted be avenged by God; just as the most powerful King Magnus of Sweden, surnamed Ladulaus, he is reconciled with him: and the most holy Bishop Brynolph of Skara, who by the machinations of seditious persons had been regarded as an enemy and repeatedly sought for death, most swiftly, to the admiration and congratulation of all, came to terms. For on the day dedicated to the Assumption of the most Blessed Virgin, around the year of the Lord 1285, having heard the Solemn Pontifical Mass, and having laid aside all arms, both his own and those of his attendants, prostrating himself before the feet of the altar and the Bishop, he most humbly sought pardon for his criminal purpose under the discipline of the Church and obtained it, leading the Bishop honorably to his royal castle to dine with him; and from this it followed that the conscience of the King became more serene, and greater tranquility was everywhere given to the Bishop and his clergy. Which example, as both Kings and Bishops, setting aside slanderers, have more often followed in returning to mutual favor when necessity arose from circumstances, their respective governments are all the more quietly and pleasantly consolidated and grow." So writes Olaus. After the death of King Magnus around the year 1290, his son Birger succeeded, between whom and his brothers there was a ruinous and protracted discord, in which the subjects suffered many adversities from one side or the other.
[5] Concerning the death and miracles of Saint Brynolph, Vastovius writes the following: "He founded and endowed from his hereditary goods five ecclesiastical benefices at Skara, and when he was daily undertaking greater things for the salvation of the Church of God and his country, he at last completed the present life in a happy course on the eighth of the Ides of February, he dies in 1317, illustrious for miracles. in the year 1317, having sat in the episcopate for thirty-eight years, illustrious for miracles both in life and after death." And John Magnus in book 20 of the History of the Swedes, chapter 24: "Nor should it be passed over in silence that in the year of Christ 1317, that most holy Bishop of the Church of Skara, Brynolph, after many labors and outstanding works of sanctity, completed this transitory age in a happy course. Buried in his church of Skara, and at last illustrious for miracles, he was most worthily enrolled in the number of the Saints."
[6] At the time Saint Brynolph died, that extraordinary ornament of Sweden, Saint Bridget, was growing up, the Virgin Mother of God reveals his sanctity to Saint Bridget: and in her Revelations there is found abundant praise of this Brynolph; for in chapter 108 of the Extravagant Revelations, under the title "Concerning Blessed Brynolph, Bishop of Skara, how acceptable he was to God and the Virgin Mary," the following is read: "It happened that when, on the day of the Purification, Blessed Bridget was in the church of Skara, she perceived a most sweet and unusual fragrance. Wondering at this, she was immediately caught up in spirit and then saw the Blessed Virgin Mary, and with her a man of marvelous beauty, clothed in pontifical vestments. Then the Virgin Mary said to her: 'Know, daughter, that this Bishop honored me in his life and confirmed that honor by his works. How acceptable his life was to God was shown by the fragrance you perceived. Now, although his soul is in the sight of God, yet his body lies here on earth without honor. And so this pearl, dear to me, has been placed among swine.'" Concerning the same Bishop (as is added in the same place), there is a passage in the second book, chapter 30, where, without his name being expressed, the title reads: "The supplication of the Mother of God to the Son for the bride and for another Saint"; for whom Mary then speaks to the Son, saying: "This Saint, when he lived in time, was in the holy faith and petitions Christ her Son for the elevation of his body: like a stable mountain, which no adversity broke, nor any delight drew back. He was also pliant to your will, like the mobile air, wherever the impulse of your Spirit drew him. He was moreover ardent in your love, like a fire warming the cold and consuming the wicked. Now his soul is with you in glory, but the vessel of his instrument has been depressed and lies in a more lowly place than befits it. Therefore, my Son, give to his body a higher elevation: honor that which honored you to the measure of its power; raise up that which raised you by its labor, as best it could."
[7] The Son responded: "Blessed are you, who leave nothing untouched that pertains to your friends. he for the time being refuses it on account of the sins of the living. It is not fitting, Mother, as you see, that the finest food be given to wolves; it is not proper that a sapphire, which preserves the healthy members and strengthens the weak, be placed in the mud; nor is it fitting that a light be lit for the blind. For this man, just as he was stable in faith and most fervent in charity, so also in continence he was most excellently disposed to my will; therefore he tasted to me like the finest food, he compares Saint Brynolph to food, most perfectly prepared with all patience and tribulation: sweet and good in good will and affection, better in striving and manly progress, and best and sweetest in a praiseworthy consummation. Therefore it is not fitting that such food be exalted before wolves, whose cupidity knows no satiety, whose delight shrinks from the herbs of virtue and thirsts for putrid flesh, and whose cunning voice is harmful to all. He was also like a sapphire to a sapphire, in a ring, through his fame and the clarity of his life, through which he showed himself to be the bridegroom of his Church, the friend of his Lord, the preserver of the holy faith, and the despiser of the world. Therefore, dearest Mother, it is not fitting that so great a lover of charity should be touched as a worldly bridegroom by such unclean ones, nor that so great a friend of humility should be handled by lovers of the world. to a light: He was also, thirdly, like a light placed upon a lampstand, through the execution of all my commandments: through this he fortified those who stood, lest they should fall; through this he raised up those who had fallen; through this also he stirred up those who would come after him toward me. This light those blinded by their own love are unworthy to see; this light those who have the film of pride know not how to discern; this light those with scabious hands cannot handle, because this light is too hateful to the covetous and those who love their own will. Therefore, before it is raised up, it is just that those who are unclean should be purged, and those who are blind should be illuminated."
[8] These are the words of Christ concerning Saint Brynolph. Moreover, Vastovius says it is established from the Chronicle of the Bishops of Skara afterward his body was elevated: that things came to pass just as had been revealed to Saint Bridget in that vision. For eighty years later, his bones were raised from the tomb by another Bishop of Skara of the same name and also an emulator of his life, Brynolph, and placed in a worthy location. Finally, as we said above from John Magnus, he was most worthily enrolled in the number of the Saints. Vastovius says this was done at the Council of Constance, on the fifth of the Kalends of May in the year 1416, he himself was canonized. with Eric XII, King of the Swedes, and the entire senate of the kingdom earnestly and persistently urging the canonization. This Eric is the Pomeranian who was simultaneously King of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, adopted by his great-aunt Queen Margaret, whom he succeeded after her death in the year 1412; and he is considered the author of the Chronicle or Historical Narrative of the Kings and People of the Danes, which, after Adam of Bremen, was first published by Lindenbrog and subsequently reprinted by others.
Michael O. Wexionius, in book 10 of his Epitome of the Description of Sweden, chapter 7, reports a catalogue of the Bishops of Skara and inserts the following: "XXII. Saint Brynolph, son of Sir Algot Sture, Knight and Lawman of Westrogothia; who, after having studied most diligently at Paris for eighteen years, and having served as Canon of Skara and Dean of Linkoeping, was at last hailed as Bishop of Skara; which post he adorned laudably for thirty-three years, erected five prebends, and composed the history of Saint Aeschylus and Blessed Helen of Skoede. He died in the year 1317. Ninety-nine years later he was enrolled in the catalogue of Saints at the Council of Constance."