CONCERNING ST. SIGFRID, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR, VINAMANNUS, UNAMANNUS, AND SUNAMANNUS, MARTYRS, AT VAXJO IN SWEDEN.
ABOUT THE YEAR 1045.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Sigfrid, Bishop, at Vaxjo in Sweden (Saint) Vinamannus, Martyr, at Vaxjo in Sweden (Saint) Unamannus, Martyr, at Vaxjo in Sweden (Saint) Sunamannus, Martyr, at Vaxjo in Sweden (Saint)
By G. H.
I. The sacred cult of St. Sigfrid. His arrival from England in Norway to St. Olaf the King.
[1] Smaland, or Smoland, is a province of the Goths in the kingdom of Sweden, bordering Scania and Blekinge to the south, situated between Westrogothia and Ostrogothia, at Vaxjo in Smaland to which it is usually reckoned, and by some called Southern or Austral Gothia. In this region is seen the ancient city called Vaxjo, Vixia, and Wexionia, formerly adorned with a Bishop's See, situated on the lake and river Salen, which thence runs through Blekinge St. Sigfrid Bishop is venerated on 15 February and empties into the Baltic Sea. While the orthodox faith flourished in Sweden, the memory of St. Sigfrid the Bishop was celebrated among the people of Vaxjo on the fifteenth of February; concerning whom the Martyrology printed at Cologne in the year 1490 states this: On this same day, St. Sigfrid, Bishop and Confessor. Molanus in the supplement to Usuard: At Vaxjo in Dacia, St. Sigfrid, Bishop, a man of outstanding sanctity, who converted Sweden to the Lord. Apostle of the Goths. Galesinius: At Vaxjo in Dacia, St. Sigfrid, Bishop. He recalled Sweden from impiety to the true worship of God, and performed other deeds divinely, on account of which he enjoys everlasting joy in heaven. The same is found in the German Martyrology of Canisius; but the city of Vaxjo is erroneously assigned to Denmark, which is called Dacia by many writers. More correctly, Ferrarius in the General Catalogue: At Vaxjo in Gothia, St. Sigfrid, Bishop, Apostle of the Goths. But he is adorned with a great eulogy in the Vitis Aquilonia of Johannes Vastovius and the English Martyrology. In the ancient Swedish Missal, a solemn office concerning him is recited, from which we publish here the Prayers and the Hymn commonly called the Sequence, with an additional Hymn appended from the Proper Offices of the Kingdom of Sweden.
[2] Hermann Greven in his supplement to Usuard at the sixteenth of February has this: and 16 February In Sweden, St. Sigfrid, Bishop and Confessor. He is recorded on both days in the manuscript Florarium, but assigned either to Denmark or to Norway; and perhaps the author supposed there were two: Teacher of the Norwegians. At the fifteenth day this is read: In Dacia, St. Sigfrid, Bishop and Confessor. But on the following day: In Norway, St. Sifrid, Bishop and Confessor. For he came first from England to St. Olaf the King into that kingdom, and thence proceeded into Sweden. These matters we have thought should be traced somewhat further back.
[3] St. Olaf, as is read in his Life to be illustrated on the twenty-ninth of July, having once discovered in England the sincerity of Evangelical truth, St. Olaf received the faith with his whole heart, and hastened with devout alacrity of spirit to the grace of baptism in the city of Rouen. Concerning his voyage to England, Adam of Bremen, Book 2 of the Ecclesiastical History among the Northerners, chapter 36, narrates the following: Svein, King of the Danes and Norsemen, or Norwegians, seeking to avenge the old injuries both of his slain brother and of his own repulsion, crossed over to England with a great fleet, having set out for England with the fleet of King Svein bringing with him his son and Olaf, son of Craccaben. Simeon of Durham records this first expedition in his history of the deeds of the Kings of the English at the year 993, and adds this concerning Anlaf, who is Olaf: Meanwhile, by order of King Ethelred, Alphege, Bishop of Winchester, in the year 993, and the noble Duke Ethelweard approached King Anlaf, and giving hostages led him with honor to the royal manor of Andover, where the King was residing. The King received him honorably, caused him to be confirmed by the Bishop, and converted to the faith, adopted him as his son, and bestowed upon him a royal gift. He promised King Ethelred that he would never again come to England with an army, and afterwards returned to his ships, and being conveyed home at the approach of summer, faithfully kept his promises. The Anglo-Saxon Chronologist, the chronicler of Worcester, and others have the same. But what was done thereafter, Adam briefly sets forth as follows: And so after a long time spent in very many battles against the English, Svein drove out the veteran King Ethelred and held the island under his own dominion, but for a short time. For in the third month after he had obtained the victory, he was overtaken by death and perished there, in the year 1014, as the aforesaid Durham and Worcester chroniclers and others indicate. Then Cnut, son of King Svein (Adam continues), returning home with the army, [after the death of King Svein in the year 1014, he is made King of Norway in the year 1015] again prepared war against the English. Olaf, elected by the Norsemen, that is, the Norwegians, as their Prince, was separated from the kingdom of the Danes; this was done in the year 1015. But the royal title had been attributed to him in his earlier deeds, by the writers cited above and others, by a certain anticipation, so that he might be distinguished from many others bearing the same name of Olaf.
[4] Which apostolic men St. Olaf received, summoned from England, the same Adam of Bremen records, He receives from England the Bishops John, who in his description of Norway toward the end of his history reports the following: Into Normandy there came first from England a certain Bishop John, who baptized the King together with his converted people; to him succeeded Bishop Grinkeil, Grinkel, who was then the legate of King Olaf to Archbishop Unwan. In the third place came that Sigfrid, St. Sigfrid, who preached equally among the Swedes and Norsemen. And he endured even to our own time, along with other priests of no little distinction among that people. The same Adam, Book 2, chapter 40, sets forth the apostolic mission of these same men as follows: King Olaf also had with him many bishops and priests from England, by whose counsel and teaching he prepared his heart for God and committed his subject people to their governance. Among these, distinguished for learning and virtue, were Sigfrid, and others, Grimkil, Rudolf, and Bernard. These, by the King's command, proceeding to Sweden and Gothia and to the other islands beyond Norway, preached the word of God and the kingdom of Jesus Christ to the barbarians. The King also sent envoys to our Archbishop with gifts, humbly requesting that he kindly receive his bishops He sends to Unwan, Archbishop of Bremen and send his own to him, who might strengthen the rude Norwegian people in Christianity. Thus Adam. Unwan sat as Archbishop of Bremen for sixteen years, having succeeded St. Libentius who died on the fourth of the Nones of January of the year 1013, on which day we have given his Life. Unwan died on the sixth of the Kalends of February of the year 1029. But St. Olaf, King of Norway, was driven from his kingdom by a conspiracy of the nobles with King Canute of the English and Danes in the year 1028, and two years later was unjustly slain by the Norwegians, He dies in the year 1030. as Durham, Worcester, and others relate.
II. The arrival of St. Sigfrid in Sweden.
[5] A distinguished testimony of St. Sigfrid's journey to the Swedes is found in Book 8 of the Revelations of St. Bridget, chapter 46, where the Virgin Mother of God, St. Sigfrid is called Archbishop -- was this an honorary title? Queen of Heaven, speaks to her spouse St. Bridget, saying: St. Sigfrid the Archbishop went forth from England and did the will of God in the kingdom of Sweden. So let that priest for whom you pray establish a Church, etc. The title of Archbishop here given to St. Sigfrid might seem to have been attributed on account of the eminence of his legation to the Kings of Norway and Sweden. Thus Drogo, Bishop of Metz, son of Charlemagne, because he was Archichaplain of the Emperor Louis the Pious his brother, was commonly called Archbishop. In the recently printed Lessons he is called only an English Bishop. Johannes Magnus, Book 17 of the History of the Goths and Swedes, chapter 18, writes that St. Sigfrid was both Archbishop of York and was summoned first to the Swedes, not the Norwegians, in these words:
[6] When Olaf, surnamed Skotkonung, following the custom of earlier Kings of Sweden who had been accustomed to form alliances with the English against the Danes, had joined a most sincere friendship with Mildred of England and had long maintained it unbroken, at the request of Olaf, King of Sweden? he at length through suitable legates petitioned him to arrange for some excellent men learned in the Christian law to be sent to him. This petition he, as if drawn from a pious affection, resolved to carry into the best effect with all speed. Accordingly Mildred, otherwise called Eldred, being most zealous in propagating the Christian faith, without any intervening delay assembled a council of all the Bishops and Prelates and laid before all of them the just and honorable petition of the King of the Swedes.
He urged them to choose from their number some suitable ministers for spreading the Christian faith, who would be willing to endure hardships and the perils of life and death for the glory of Christ. This pious business was conducted over a three-day council, and various opinions were expressed on all sides, now concerning the magnitude of the dangers and hardships, now concerning the severity of those peoples, now concerning the sweetness of a homeland to be exchanged for perpetual exile. Then the holy Archbishop of York, Sigfrid, considering that there were none or very few he himself formerly Archbishop of York who dared or wished to commit themselves to so many and such great perils, rose in the midst of all and delivered a long, learned, and most devout oration, at the end of which, offering himself voluntarily for so distant and difficult a pilgrimage, he showed by his own example that the one who is first in the pontificate ought to be first to endure martyrdom and persecution for the glory of Christ. The oration of that most holy Bishop was received he sought to set out for Sweden not only by the Bishops but also by the excellent King Mildred with the greatest congratulation; and thanks were rendered to him in the public assembly of the realm with singular words, because he had resolved to take upon his shoulders so great a burden of the enterprise. And so, after all things necessary for so glorious a pilgrimage had been arranged, two affections could be seen in the Bishops and nobles, and especially in the excellent King -- one of sorrow, the other of joy. They rejoiced that through so distinguished and most pious a Bishop a most welcome service was rendered to the divine will; but they grieved exceedingly that he would depart never to be seen by them again, that they would be deprived of the consolation of so great a Pastor, that he would exchange his sweetest homeland for perpetual exile, and was indeed a kinsman of the King of England? and that for the rest of his life he would live among harsh pagans in the greatest peril. Who also could doubt that the grief was very great in that King, when he suffered so close a kinsman to be torn from him, as it were the half of his own soul? But it was necessary for the King of the English to serve the will of the King of Angels.
[7] Thus Johannes Magnus in a magnificent style; yet these things do not immediately command full credence among other writers. And first, no mention of an Archbishopric of York conferred upon St. Sigfrid is found among the ancient writers; but on the contrary, there exists an accurate succession of those who were Archbishops of York at that time he was not Archbishop of York: when St. Sigfrid lived, from which Sigfrid seems necessarily to be excluded. For they were: St. Oswald, whose Life we give on the twenty-eighth of February, who was raised to the governance of that Church in the year 971 and died in the year 992; to him Aldulf, Abbot of Medeshamstede, succeeded, who died on the fourth of the Nones of May of the year 1002. His successor was Abbot Wistan, who died on the fifth of the Kalends of June, Tuesday, of the year 1023; his successor was Alfric, Provost of Winchester, who lived in that dignity until the year 1051. These matters are found most accurately written in Simeon of Durham in his History of the Deeds of the Kings of the English and in his Letter concerning the Archbishops of York, and in other writers of English affairs. The author of the English Martyrology, who cites Johannes Magnus and Molanus in the margin, thinking that St. Sigfrid could not be called Archbishop of York, changed that title, and perhaps from mere conjecture, into the title of Archdeacon. Vastovius in the Vitis Aquilonia later published the same: was he perhaps made Bishop from Archdeacon of York? who, having transcribed from Johannes Magnus the embassy of Olaf, King of the Swedes, adds that Blessed Sigfrid, a man of royal birth, distinguished in learning and authority, had voluntarily offered himself for that pilgrimage and had been made Bishop from being Archdeacon of York.
[8] These matters are there stated without the testimony of ancient writers; which also seems to be required if undoubted credence is to be given to the embassy of Olaf the Swede to England and the three-day council held there, as reported by Johannes Magnus. For it is to be feared that what Adam of Bremen and others transmitted concerning St. Olaf, King of the Norwegians, may have been transferred by error to Olaf, King of the Swedes, When did Olaf, King of the Swedes, live? especially if, as the same Johannes Magnus asserts at the end of Book 17, Olaf the Swede, that great counselor and preserver of peace, departed this life about the year of Christ 1018, when St. Olaf had reigned among the Norwegians for only three or four years. But that after the death of this Olaf, which we said occurred in the year 1030, the Swedish Olaf still survived, we believe with Vastovius, who conjectures that he lived until the year 1036 and counts him among the Confessors of Scandinavia. Adam of Bremen, after narrating in Book 2, chapter 40, that by order of King St. Olaf of the Norwegians, as we said above, St. Sigfrid and others had gone to Sweden and Gothia and had preached the word of God and the kingdom of Jesus Christ to the barbarians, adds this in chapter 41: He embraced the Christian religion. With a similar zeal for religion, the other Olaf is said to have flourished in Sweden. Desiring to convert his subject peoples to the Christian faith, he labored with great effort that the temple of the idols at Uppsala, which is situated in the middle of Sweden, should be destroyed. The pagans, fearing his intention, established a compact with the King that if he wished to be a Christian, he should hold by his own right whatever region of Sweden he wished, and establishing a church and Christianity there, he should compel no one of the people to depart from the worship of the gods, unless one who wished voluntarily to be converted to Christ. The King, delighted by such a compact, soon in Western Gothia, which is nearest to the Danes or to the Norsemen, founded a Church and an Episcopal See dedicated to God. This is the greatest city of Skara, He erects an Episcopal See at Skara. in which, at the request of the most Christian King Olaf, Thurgot was the first to be ordained bishop by Archbishop Unwan. And he, strenuously carrying out his mission among the nations, won two noble peoples of the Goths for Christ by his labor. Through that bishop, therefore, King Olaf sent magnificent gifts to the Metropolitan Unwan. Thus far that passage.
[9] After the death of Archbishop Unwan of Bremen in the year 1029, Libentius II, nephew of the other Libentius, was appointed and sat for nearly four years. He appointed as successor to Thurgot, Gottschalk, Bishop of Ramsola. For in those days, the most blessed Bishop Thurgot, remaining a long time at Bremen with the Archbishop on account of the labor of preaching, was struck by the most severe disease of leprosy, awaited the day of his calling with great patience, and at length, having reached a good end, was buried in the basilica of St. Peter. But there were then present with the Archbishop renowned preachers: St. Sigfrid confers with Libentius, Archbishop of Bremen: Odinkar the younger, Sigfrid from Sweden, and Rudolf from Norway, Bishops, reporting to him what great things the Lord had done for the salvation of the nations, who were daily being converted to the Lord. Our Pontiff, as was fitting, dismissed them with honor and sent them again to preach. Thus Adam, chapters 45 and 46. In his description of Norway, he says from his return to Sweden he lives a long time that St. Sigfrid, as we noted above, endured among the Swedes and Norsemen even to his own time along with other priests; and after their death, at the petition of the Norwegian peoples, Tholf was ordained in the city of Trondheim, and Sigvard in the same regions. These two bishops were ordained by Adalbert, Archbishop of Bremen, who succeeded Alebrand, who died on the seventeenth of the Kalends of May of the year 1043. In the twenty-fourth year of this Adalbert, the year of Christ 1067, Adam indicates that he became a canon at Bremen, in Book 3, chapter 5. From this it can be determined concerning the time when St. Sigfrid lived among the Norwegians and Swedes. He came to Norway when St. Olaf was reigning there, therefore after the year 1015; indeed, in the third place after John and Grinkel, at what time precisely did he labor there? perhaps about the year 1020 or later. He was sent by St. Olaf into Sweden, therefore before the year 1028, when Olaf was driven from his kingdom. Finally, he survived until approximately the time of the See of Adalbert, who consecrated his successors. But King Ethelred of England, called above Eldred and Mildred, by whom St. Sigfrid is said by others to have been sent to Olaf, King of Sweden, died on the ninth of the Kalends of May of the year 1016, after various disasters received from the Danes.
III. The Eucharistic Miracle. The Baptism of the King of the Swedes. The Springs of St. Sigfrid.
[10] Some part of the labors undertaken by St. Sigfrid in Sweden is narrated by the above-mentioned Johannes Magnus in the same Book 17 of the History of the Goths and Swedes; and in chapter 19 he reports the following: In this manner, therefore, the glorious Bishop of Christ, Sigfrid, having left his homeland and the most ample prosperity which his happy homeland could have promised him, St. Sigfrid erects a church at Vaxjo: having crossed the paths of a most long and perilous sea voyage, came to Southern Gothia, where the Cathedral Church of Vaxjo is now seen, which he then, forewarned by an angelic vision in his sleep, took care to erect. Meanwhile, while he tarried a short while in that place with his tents pitched, the royal Prefect, having investigated as best he could the condition of the strangers, hastened at top speed to the King, who was established among the West Goths in the city of Skara. Being ordered to report something concerning the customs of the pilgrims, he replied that they were peaceable men and were devising no plots; that an elder presided over them, conspicuous for his venerable countenance and grave authority, he is honored by his own people: who wore a linen and most white garment reaching to his ankles; to him all rose, and bending their knees prostrated themselves at his feet.
[11] Furthermore, he said, I saw a certain table or board covered with the whitest cloths, and a white and very small piece of bread placed upon it, together with a small vessel into which a drink was sparingly poured by one of the bystanders. With these things thus arranged, now he murmured in a low voice, now he cried out in a louder one. Meanwhile, that elder, wondrously clothed from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head, He celebrates Mass, with a boy appearing in the host: took that bread into his hands after many murmurings and raised it up, and it seemed to me that he was raising up a small boy, exceedingly beautiful, who smiled at that same elder. Then King Olaf from the report of that pagan soldier wisely concluded that these were the English whom he had long since petitioned Mildred to send to him. Accordingly, having promptly dispatched a solemn embassy to them, he caused them to be brought to him with the greatest honor; and he went out to meet them as they arrived and omitted nothing by which he could testify his supreme love toward them. He instructs the King. Nor did he long delay to take himself to the sacraments of the true faith. For having heard through an interpreter the sermons of the eminent and most learned Archbishop Sigfrid, which he delivered concerning the faith in God Almighty and His Son, whom He had sent to earth for the redemption of the human race, soon, with divine clemency cooperating, he was fully persuaded and confirmed in the faith, and immediately having received through the hands of the Bishop the sacrament of Baptism, he ordered the royal fortress of Husaby, He baptizes: which was in that same place, to be consecrated as a church; in which the holy Bishop of Christ, embracing a long stay, He converts Westrogothia. converted all of Westrogothia, which is the third part of the Gothic kingdom, to Christ, and bathed the converts in the water of holy baptism.
[12] Thus Johannes Magnus; these matters are set forth with the addition of companions of the journey in Vastovius, in the Life of St. Sigfrid, as follows: Therefore, having left his homeland, having crossed the most long and most perilous sea voyages, he came with his three nephews and Blessed Aeschillus his kinsman to Southern Gothia, His companions are St. Aeschillus and three nephews: where the Cathedral Church of Vaxjo is now seen. In which place, while he offered the sacrifice of the Mass to God under pavilions, he was seen by the Royal Prefect at the elevation of the host to have raised up a boy. The King, informed by the same Prefect of his arrival and of the miracles, soon went out to meet him as he approached, and believed the man of God as he preached the words of salvation, as did all the people. Rejoicing in this prey acquired for Christ, Sigfrid spread the signs of the Christian faith in every direction through Gothia, and as a faithful and prudent servant distributed the talent entrusted to him, not without hope of much increase. The same Vastovius in the Life of Olaf, King of the Swedes, adds this: While Olaf listened to St. Sigfrid the Bishop preaching, he both surrendered himself to Christ and was initiated into the saving washing of baptism in a certain spring in Westrogothia, which on account of the frequent brilliance of miracles, especially in curing diseases, is held to be most celebrated to this day and is frequented by many who wish to attend to their health, and is commonly called the Spring of St. Sigfrid. The same King soon converted the fortress of Husaby into a magnificent temple for ecclesiastical uses, He receives from the King the fortress of Husaby: which he assigned to Sigfrid and the Christians as a most secure station.
[13] Johannes Loccenius, in his history of Swedish affairs compiled from very many Swedish manuscripts, treating of this King Olaf, writes the following: By Sigfrid, who was afterwards Bishop of Vaxjo, the King was baptized in the waters of the sacred washing in a spring of Westrogothia near Husaby, which, famous for miracles of curing diseases, where there is a spring of St. Sigfrid famous for miracles: received the name of Sigfrid's Spring. Thence the King attempted to destroy the shrine at Uppsala. But not a few opposed, etc., as we have reported above from Adam. But from this the order of events established above is confirmed, and the forewarning of the same Loccenius appended to the chronology of Jacob Gislo is approved. The older chronology, he says, is very slippery and uncertain in Swedish history, the ancients being more observant of events than of dates. Therefore, lest I studiously impose upon the reader, it has pleased me to weave no chronology at all, rather than an uncertain one, at the margin of the Annals, until the age of St. Eric should be reached, from whom he began Book 2 with the year 1150 placed in the margin. Concerning St. Anschar, Archbishop of Hamburg and the primary Apostle of the Danes and Swedes, we have treated on the third of February, where in section 11 we showed that his first mission to the Swedes corresponds to the year of Christ 829, and not 816, as Johannes Magnus, Jacob Gislo, and other Swedish writers report. By a similar error, or even a graver one, they go astray in the years of St. Sigfrid and King Olaf. Michael O Wexionius, in his epitome of the description of Sweden, published at Abo in the year 1650, Book 10, chapter 10, asserts that the founder and first Bishop of the See of Vaxjo is reckoned to be St. Sigfrid; but in Book 7, chapter 41, he says that St. Sigfrid, the first Bishop, founded the Cathedral Church at Vaxjo about the year of Christ 909. He repeats the same chronological error when in Book 10, chapter 3, he writes that St. Sigfrid was summoned from England by King Olaf in the tenth century from the birth of Christ. These assertions have been more than sufficiently refuted. The same Michael O, in Book 1, enumerates springs on various occasions, another spring of St. Sigfrid in Uppland and in chapter 4 says that in Uppland innumerable ones are more celebrated -- those of St. Eric at Uppsala, and of St. Sigfrid at Swingarn; and in chapter 10, that Smaland abounds in springs, and those of St. Sigfrid are among the famous ones, along with others.
IV. The Companions of St. Sigfrid's Labors: SS. Aeschillus and David. Also the Three Nephews. Their Martyrdom. The Death of St. Sigfrid.
[14] The above-mentioned St. Aeschillus, kinsman of St. Sigfrid and companion of his pilgrimage from England to these northern regions, St. Sigfrid has St. Aeschillus as his chaplain, is venerated on the twelfth of June. He, says Vastovius in his eulogy, went to Sweden with St. Sigfrid, whose chaplain he served as, certain that he would approach heaven the more closely the farther he withdrew from his native soil for the sake of God. Grace grew in him with years, and justice with age, and he did all things according to the pattern which had been shown him on the mountain, namely in St. Sigfrid, the mirror of virtues, whose most holy life he strove to imitate. And since he preached the Christian faith with indefatigable spirit among the Goths and Swedes, and breathed forth a good odor to all... he was consecrated as Bishop by Blessed Sigfrid. and he creates him Bishop. These matters are read more fully in the Lessons of the Second Nocturn in the Proper Offices of the Kingdom of Sweden. Johannes Magnus, Book 18, chapter 11, and other writers of Swedish affairs also treat of him, and he is commonly held to be the first Bishop of Strangnas, or rather the founder of the See, where, like Stephen of old, he was buried under stones for his zeal for the faith and defense of the truth and migrated to heaven as a Martyr.
[15] Other companions of St. Sigfrid's pilgrimage were his three nephews, three nephews who were also crowned with martyrdom at Vaxjo; concerning whom Johannes Magnus, Book 17, chapter 20, writes the following: Meanwhile, while these things were being happily conducted among the West Goths, certain nobles, nobler in blood than in morals, cruelly killed the three nephews of St. Sigfrid -- Vinamannus, Unamannus, and Susamannus -- to whom he had entrusted the Church of Vaxjo to guard; He grieves over their cruel murder: and having killed them, they plundered them of many precious things which they had brought with them from England. Moreover, having cast their bodies into a neighboring swamp so that they might not be found, they placed their heads in a basin and, having attached a great stone, submerged them in the nearest lake. When the holy Archbishop heard this, he was vehemently grieved; nor was the sorrow less that seized the King, who immediately, having taken the Archbishop with him, went down to those lands, He implores the King on behalf of the killers: intending to take condign punishment upon such atrocious murderers; for whom the most benign Bishop also prayed that they should not be killed. And it came about through his prayers that they redeemed with money the life which they would justly have lost. When the King wished to give this money to the Bishop who had been so remarkably wronged, the Bishop himself magnanimously rejected and despised it, and meanwhile, casting himself wholly upon divine Providence, he awaited all consolation from above.
[16] Nor did God fail His Saint laboring in such great grief. For when one night he was walking around the lake adjacent to the Church of Vaxjo, praying and weeping, three lights shining forth he saw from afar three lights divinely gleaming, borne toward him over the waters. When these approached the shore, suddenly kindled with immense desire, he leapt into the waters and beheld a stupendous thing worthy of everlasting wonder: for he saw an urn tied to a very large stone floating to the surface, in which beholding the heads of his most dear nephews still suffused with rosy blood, He discovers their heads and hears them speaking: he said weeping: May God avenge this. To which one of the heads immediately replied: It shall be avenged. The second then said: When? The third then added a most dreadful word, saying: Upon the children of their children. And this is experienced today as so truly predicted, that from those noble families whose ancestors perpetrated so nefarious a crime, those querulous voices are commonly heard:
The offspring still feels what the parents committed.
[17] Thus Johannes Magnus; the same things are related almost identically in the Life of St. Sigfrid as found in Vastovius, for whom the name is Vivamannus rather than Vinamannus as in Johannes. The mention of their slaughter is found in the Life of St. David the Abbot, briefly collected by Vastovius from the Swedish Annals and ancient Breviaries. St. David, he says, He receives St. David, who had been stirred by their martyrdom, born of noble and Christian parents in England... after he had been informed of the murder of the holy Martyrs, the nephews of St. Sigfrid, desiring himself also to become a partaker of martyrdom for Christ, betook himself to Sweden, and by the counsel of St. Sigfrid established his seat He assigns him a place of preaching: at the Church of Snevingen in Westmanland (the place is today called Munktorp), where, constantly proclaiming the word of God, he endured many injuries and persecutions. The same is read in the Proper Offices of the Kingdom of Sweden at the fifteenth of July, on which St. David is venerated. Loccenius, named above, also asserts that he, like SS. Sigfrid and Aeschillus, came from England to Sweden under Canute, King of the Swedes. The three Martyr nephews, together with their uncle -- or perhaps rather maternal uncle -- Sigfrid, we record on this fifteenth of February, on which day their memory is indicated to have formerly flourished among the Swedes in their ancient Calendar as preserved in Michael O, who in Book 3, chapter 4, treating of the Runic Staff, reports that an axe depicted in that Calendar indicates the feast of St. Sigfrid, Bishop of Vaxjo, because his nephews were struck there with an axe. Thus three ears of grain indicate the feast of St. Eric the King, a turnip indicates St. Botolph, a battle-axe or the axe of the Amazons indicates St. Olaf the King, and a house indicates St. Bridget.
[18] Concerning the final labors, death, and burial of St. Sigfrid, Johannes Magnus in the same chapter 20 writes the following: After his nephews were killed, the holy Confessor of Christ, Sigfrid, commended his cause to be judged by the just God. Persevering in propagating the faith, Nor meanwhile did he relax his spirit from propagating the faith of Christ and daily proclaiming His holy Gospel; who at length, after manifold labors and continuous pursuits of the most holy life, commended his happy spirit to God, He dies in sanctity, and was buried in the Church of Vaxjo, and at last, illustrious for many miracles, was most worthily enrolled in the number of the Saints, and with an annual festival was deservedly honored by all the Goths and Swedes and other northern regions down to these our unhappy times. Thus far Johannes Magnus. Vastovius added a few details to these: first, that St. Sigfrid, visiting now the Goths and now the Norwegians with indefatigable zeal and winning over very many, everywhere made the Church of God flourish with joyful growth; then that, full of days, he migrated to God, whom he had faithfully served, about the year of human salvation one thousand and thirty. He was enrolled among the Saints by Adrian IV. But we have said above that it is better attested that he lived fifteen or twenty years later. Finally, he reports that he was enrolled in the number of the Saints by Adrian IV about the year 1158.
V. The Ecclesiastical Office of St. Sigfrid.
[19] There exists a votive Missal of the Kingdom of Sweden, printed perhaps a hundred and fifty years ago or even earlier (for the year of printing is nowhere added), in which the Office of the Mass for St. Sigfrid is arranged roughly in this manner: Introit, "The Lord established for him." Collect: Almighty and everlasting God, who art ever everywhere present, everywhere glorious and admirable in Thy Saints, by the merits of Blessed Sigfrid, Thy Confessor and Bishop, we beseech Thine immeasurable clemency, that just as Thou didst confer upon him unspeakable
glory, so Thou wouldst cause us to be aided by his prayers to obtain Thy mercy. Through our Lord, etc. Epistle, "Behold a great priest"; with which words the Gradual also begins. Then after the Alleluia, this verse: O Sigfrid, reverend Pastor and Patron, ask for us the gifts of grace, good Father. Then this Sequence, as they call it, is added:
[20] With bright praise let the company applaud, With sweet voice the air, To the praise of the eternal King, Who governs all things, Whom the lights of heaven acclaim, The sun, moon, and stars, The sea, the earth, and rivers, And all created things. Who brought Sigfrid to these shores Once from England, Concerning his apostolate and the conversion of the nations That the nations of the peoples He might wash with the sacred water. Seduced by the deceit of demons, Rendered idolatrous, In contempt of the Redeemer, Through the byways of errors; Called to the worship of God By the teaching of Sigfrid, If you honor the heavenly footsteps For his merits; You are now made the bride of Christ, With grace cooperating; Barren, you are made fruitful, And rejoice in illustrious offspring. Rejoice now, O Christian Church of the Swedes: Exalted by so great a Father; Praise the merits of Sigfrid. Whose feast now devoutly Celebrate, O consecrated ones, and concerning the celebration of his feast. By observing its solemnities. Now, O blessed Sigfrid, Deign to commend us In the palace of heaven. Where may we be worthy to praise God, And to love Him, Through eternal ages. Amen.
[21] The Gospel is from Matthew: "A certain man going on a journey." Offertory, "My truth." Secret Prayer: O God, rewarder of the souls of the faithful, grant, we beseech Thee, that by the prayers of Blessed Sigfrid, Thy Confessor and Bishop, whose venerable festival we celebrate, we may obtain pardon. Through our Lord.
Communion, "Blessed is that servant." Final Prayer: O God, who didst give to Thy people Blessed Sigfrid as a faithful preacher, mercifully grant that by the intercession of so great a Bishop and Teacher and by the defense of Thy loving-kindness, we may everywhere be freed from all adversities, and in tranquil prosperity may continually rejoice in Thy praise. Through our Lord.
[22] The Proper Offices of the Holy Patrons of the Kingdom of Sweden, which now exist, reprinted many times by the Plantin and other presses, drawn from the ancient Breviaries of that same kingdom, and at the instance of Sigismund III, King of Sweden and Poland, recognized and approved by Apostolic authority by the Sacred Congregation of Rites -- In the Offices of the Kingdom of Sweden in these, the feast of St. Sigfrid, Bishop and Confessor, is prescribed to be celebrated with the rank of Double, whose Lessons of the Second Nocturn, with the Swedish Annals cited, are largely drawn from Johannes Magnus. Lessons concerning St. Sigfrid. A double Hymn composed in his praise is added, one to be recited at Vespers, the other at Lauds; omitting the former, we give the latter.
Inflamed by the Holy Spirit And touched by the word of God, Sigfrid, setting aside his native land, Proceeds to Sweden. Hymn at Lauds There he found the King with his people Drinking from the cup of deceit, And grieved That this nation worshipped false gods. Soon he preaches the one God, Thus he speaks to the King and declares: He who shall believe shall be saved, And shall have been baptized. Watered by the word of faith, Olaf becomes a worshipper of God: Offering his heart to the holy teaching, He submits his neck to baptism. Sigfrid, called the standard-bearer, And the true soldier of God, Laid low the enemy of wickedness, Baptizing the nation of Sweden. To God the Father be glory: And to His only Son With the Spirit, the Paraclete, Unto everlasting ages, Amen.
Concerning the royal lineage of St. Sigfrid, these words are found in the former Hymn:
He, an Englishman, born of Noble parentage, As his ancestry attests -- The royal line of the English Kings.