CONCERNING BLESSED TORPHIMUS, BISHOP OF HAMAR IN NORWAY, at Bruges in Flanders.
Year of Christ 1284.
CommentaryTorphimus, Bishop of Hamar in Norway, at Bruges in Belgium (B.)
[1] Thosanum, or Dustanum, was formerly a celebrated monastery of the Cistercian order in the territory of Bruges in Flanders. Hacketus, a monk of Dunes who had been Dean of St. Donatian's, was its first Abbot. To this place Torphimus, Bishop of Hamar, driven from his homeland, betook himself, The monastery of Thosanum. and there died a most holy death. Molanus writes the following about him in the Feast Days of the Saints of Belgium.
[2] "At Bruges, the death of Torphimus, a Bishop, in the Thosanum episcopal monastery, which in Flemish is called Doest: where he has this epitaph, though in a plain style, Here Blessed Torphimus died in exile. in a raised sarcophagus: 'Here lies the Lord Torphimus, from the kingdom of Norway, Bishop of the city of Hamar, who, exiled from his land for the rights of the Church and shipwrecked at sea, finally coming here poor and weakened, having been sick for thirty weeks, lodging as a guest and mercifully sustained for the love of Christ, rested in a holy end, in the year of the Lord 1284, on the 6th day before the Ides of January. His soul, etc.' No mention of him is made in the divine office. However, about seventy years ago, when the Abbot wished to level his tomb to the surface of the rest of the floor, When his tomb was touched, a sweet odor burst forth. upon the touching of the coffin a most sweet odor is said to have filled the church. After which, they desisted from the undertaking." Nearly the same things are reported by William Gazaeus in the Ecclesiastical History of Belgium, who calls him a Saint.
[3] His life from Chrysostomus Henriquez. Chrysostomus Henriquez in the Fascicle of Saints of the Cistercian Order, book 2, distinction 10, chapter 5, writes somewhat more fully about him: "In the territory of Bruges, Blessed Torphimus, a Bishop. He was a Dane by nationality and shone forth from his very youth with a great reputation for sanctity, and serving the Most High in the sacred Cistercian order, he radiated with a wonderful splendor of virtues. When the fragrance of his good example spread itself in every direction, lest so great a lamp remain hidden under the bushel of regular enclosure, he was assumed to the Episcopate and set over the Church of Hamar as its Bishop and Pastor. When, inflamed with the zeal of the Lord, fearing the power of no Princes, he defended the ecclesiastical rights and the sacred and ecclesiastical liberty against its violators and despisers, he suffered many tribulations on this account. Though harassed by these, he nevertheless persevered immovably. When, however, the impiety of his adversaries prevailed, and the holy man was almost overwhelmed by so many labors, abandoning his own See and kinsmen for Christ's sake, he landed in Flanders, and in the Cistercian monastery of Dustanum, formerly built not far from the city of Bruges but now entirely destroyed, having been humanely received, he lived there for some time in the greatest sanctity. At length, with a great reputation for virtue, he departed from this life, in the year of the Lord 1284. In the course of time, however, a certain Abbot of that same place, moved by the sanctity of so great a man, resolved to open his venerable relics. When, however, they began to move the sarcophagus, they were divinely prohibited. Moreover, from the tomb of the most holy Bishop there emanated an odor of divine sweetness, which, spreading itself through the entire church, turned all to wonder; for the body of the venerable Father had rested there for a hundred years." He then subjoins the epitaph which we have already cited from Molanus.
[4] The same Chrysostomus mentions him with a distinguished eulogy in the Cistercian Menology at January 8, and adds in the Notes that the opening of the tomb — which he himself mentions in the Fascicle and Molanus in the Feast Days — was done in the year 1345; but at that time his relics had not yet lain there for 100 years. The account of Molanus seems to us much more probable. Ferrarius in the General Catalogue of Saints: "In Norway, of St. Torphimus, Bishop of Hamar." Hamar was formerly an episcopal city in Norway under the Archbishop of Nidaros. It is said now to be under the care of the Bishop of Oslo. Torphimus is also mentioned in the Gallo-Belgic Martyrology, which calls him a Saint; Hugo Menardus calls him Blessed: but in this a typographical error is to be corrected, where he is said to rest in the territory of Bruges. Andreas Saussaius in the Gallic Martyrology: "On the same day there passed to Christ Torphimus, of blessed memory, Bishop of Hamar in the kingdom of Norway, who, because he attacked the violators of ecclesiastical liberty with sacerdotal zeal, was expelled from his See. He came to Bruges in Flanders, to the Cistercian monastery of Dustanum, of which he had been a pupil from boyhood: where, having resided as a guest for 30 weeks, attacked by illness, he rested in a happy end. From his tomb, opened a hundred years after his death, there flowed an odor of divine sweetness, with whose fragrance the entire church was filled." Antonius Sanderus in the Hagiology of Flanders calls him Torphinus.