ON S. HENRICUS, MARTYR, BISHOP OF UPPSALA IN SWEDEN.
Around the year MCL.
PrefaceHenricus, Bishop of Uppsala in Sweden, Martyr (S.)
From various sources.
[1] The holy Henricus was the seventh Bishop of the Church of Uppsala, and the Apostle and Patron of all Finland; whose extraordinary piety was consecrated by public veneration. So Ioannes Magnus the Goth, book 1, on the lives of the Bishops of Uppsala, who was himself also Bishop of that See. Uppsala is the metropolis of the Swedes, S. Henricus, Bishop of Uppsala, formerly the residence of the Kings, who now live at Stockholm, not far from there. Finland, called Finningia by others and by Pliny himself (although most copies read Einingia), is a vast peninsula, encircled by the Baltic Sea where it faces Livonia to the south and Sweden to the west; inhabited by the Finns, or Fenni, a warlike people.
[2] His feast. S. Henricus is venerated with a double office on 19 January, as is evident from the old Swedish Missal in our possession, in which a proper Mass exists, and in it before the Gospel a rhythmic hymn about him, which they call a sequence. Molanus in his Additions to Usuardus writes of him: In Sweden, B. Henricus, Archbishop of Uppsala and Martyr, in the year 1151, who converted the Finns. He is also mentioned by the Cologne Carthusians in their Additions to Usuardus, the English Martyrology, Canisius, Ferrarius, and Galesinius; but an enormous error in the latter must be corrected: At Uppsala in Sweden, he says, S. Henricus, Bishop and Martyr. Galesinius corrected. He was English, made Bishop of the Church of Uppsala, and having set out with Henricus, King of Sweden, a most holy man, into Belgium for the purpose of propagating the faith, he was murdered on that account by a certain wicked man. What region of Europe was then more flourishing in the praise of Christian piety than our Belgium, whose various dynasts were carrying victorious arms through Syria and other provinces of the East? Galesinius meant to write Finns, and S. Ericus the King, not Henricus.
[3] The MS. Florarium marks the feast of S. Henricus on 20 January: The birthday of S. Henricus, Archbishop and Martyr of Uppsala. And again on 13 December: In Sweden, the deposition of S. Henricus, Bishop. But on 18 June in the aforesaid Swedish Missal his Translation is observed with a double office. The Translation of S. Henricus. He was buried, says Ioannes Vastonius in his Vita Aquilonia, in a place in Finland called Nousis, whose cenotaph Bishop Ioannes Petri of Abo had greatly adorned around the year of our Lord 1370. Relics. The head and arms, however, are displayed at Abo, now enclosed in iron, formerly also in silver, by Bishop Olaus Tunasa of Abo. He was enrolled among the Saints by Adrian IV in the year 1158, at which time an episcopal See was established by the same Pontiff, whereas before, the Church of Revelamici had been the principal one. Abo, or Aboa, commonly called Abo, is an episcopal city of Finland on its southern coast, where it turns toward the west. Nousis is on the same western side, but more to the north.
[4] Ioannes Magnus complains, in the aforesaid book on the Bishops of Uppsala, that the tomb of S. Henricus, in which his most sacred relics had been deposited, violated by heretics, was removed and profaned in his time, with the most holy Martyr's ashes most indecently cast out, in which the Holy Spirit had deigned to dwell; from which divine eloquence had flowed into that province; from which so many virtues and miracles had been performed. He inveighs at length against the ingratitude and impiety of the Finns.
[5] The Life. Our Rosweydus had transcribed the life of S. Henricus from a manuscript of the monastery of S. Paulus in the forest of Sonia, or of Rougeval, of Canons Regular; from which Ioannes Vastonius had received and published it in his Vita Aquilonia. The author was not a contemporary of Henricus, since in no. 10 he mentions the Order of Friars Minor. Baronius treats of S. Henricus in volume 12, year 1148. Thomas Bosius, On the Signs of the Church, book 4, chapter 1. Olaus Magnus, book 4, chapter 18. Ioannes Magnus, History of the Goths, book 19, chapter 3.
LIFE
From the manuscript of the monastery of Rougeval.
Henricus, Bishop of Uppsala in Sweden, Martyr (S.)
BHL Number: 3818
From manuscripts.
[1] During the reign of the most illustrious King S. Ericus in Sweden, the venerable Bishop B. Henricus, a native of England, S. Henricus, Bishop of Uppsala, conspicuous for the holiness of his life and distinguished for the integrity of his morals, was governing the Church of Uppsala. By these two, as by two great luminaries, the people of that land were continually being more and more illuminated and instructed in the true knowledge and worship of God. S. Ericus the King. The holy King embraced the distinguished Bishop, preeminent in life and morals and in the summit of ecclesiastical dignity, with the affection of true love, and honored him greatly with a special grace of intimacy.
[2] Happy the country which the Divine Majesty had granted to be governed at that time by the guidance of such and so great rulers. There was then no need to fear that a kingdom divided against itself would be ruined by its own division; since the heads of the people so harmoniously agreed for the glory of God and the just and peaceful governance of their subjects. The Church was being built at that time, growing into a temple of God: useful to the kingdom. Laws were being corrected which the simple antiquity had either not quite rightly enacted, or which the perversity of the wicked had distorted: peace and justice for the subjects were being cultivated: rapacious wolves did not dare to sharpen their venomous teeth against the innocent, when the King, sitting on his throne, by his gaze dispelled all evil, and the good shepherd manfully kept watch over the care of his flock.
[3] He preaches to the Finns, conquered by S. Ericus. When the people of Finland, then a blind and cruel pagan nation, were inflicting grave harm on the inhabitants of Sweden, the holy King Ericus, taking with him from the Church of Uppsala the Blessed Bishop Henricus, gathered an army and directed an expedition against the enemies of the name of Christ. Having powerfully subjected them to the faith and his own dominion, and having baptized very many, and having founded churches in those parts, he returned to Sweden with a glorious victory. The Blessed Henricus, however, considering that he had been divinely appointed as cultivator and guardian of the Lord's vineyard, boldly remained behind to irrigate the new plantings of the neophytes with the rain of heavenly doctrine, and to strengthen the worship of God in those parts; not regarding the fact that he was exposing himself to every kind of adversity, so that he might extend the glory of God. O how great a fervor of faith, how great an ardor of divine love had set aflame the golden altar of the most devout Bishop; who, having set aside the wealth of possessions and the consolation of friends, and the lofty seat of the Archbishopric of Uppsala, for the salvation of a few poor sheep exposed himself to many dangers of death; imitating, of course, that shepherd who, leaving the ninety-nine sheep in the desert, diligently sought the one that was lost, and having found it, carried it back to the fold upon his own shoulders.
[4] While he was prudently and faithfully laboring at the edification and confirmation of the Church of Finland, He is killed because of ecclesiastical censure directed against a murderer, it happened that he wished to correct a certain murderer with ecclesiastical discipline on account of the enormity of that crime, lest excessive ease of pardon should provide incentive for sinning. This remedy of salvation the man of blood despised, and turned it into the increase of his own damnation, hating the one who salutarily rebuked him. Against the minister of justice therefore, and the zealot of his own salvation, the wicked man sprang, and cruelly murdered him. And so the Priest of the Lord, an acceptable victim offered to the divine sight, falling for the sake of justice, entered the temple of the heavenly Jerusalem, happily crowned with the glorious palm of triumph.
[5] Afterwards that criminal, the murderer of the man of God, taking from the head of the holy Bishop the biretta which he had been accustomed to wear, placed it on his own head: His death divinely avenged. and returning home, and boasting presumptuously about the crime he had committed, that he had laid low a bear (by which he meant the killing of the blessed man), he rejoiced that he had done evil, and exulted in the worst things. But when he tried to remove the biretta which he had placed on his head, the skin and flesh adhered to the biretta, and he was removing them together from the skull of his head. A fitting vengeance of divine retribution indeed; that he should be miserably tormented by such a punishment, who had not feared to savagely attack the Lord's anointed, and to despoil the slain.
[6] Relics discovered. The ring finger was missing from the holy body, wickedly amputated by that criminal while inflicting random wounds: nor could it easily be found because of the abundance of snow (for he had committed the crime in the winter season), even when effort was made. But in the spring, when the snow and ice had melted all around, by the indication of a croaking crow, a bird otherwise most eager for carrion, so that the power of this miracle might shine more brightly, it was discovered and reverently raised from the earth and preserved.
[7] A dead person raised by his merits. In the village of Kaysalum, when a father and mother brought forth a dead son, and were preparing to wrap him, they invoked the patronage of B. Henricus. And when they had made a vow to the Saint on his behalf, the one who lay dead immediately came back to life.
[8] Also other miracles. Lucia, the daughter of Anthon de Banio, when she was being mourned by her parents as dead, at the invocation of B. Henricus was suddenly restored to life and health.
[9] An illness dispelled. A certain woman, held for three years by a grave illness, invoked S. Henricus: and without delay she fully recovered.
[10] A certain Brother of the Order of Friars Minor, a Priest and Preacher by office, A headache. for six years suffered a severe headache. On the day before the feast of B. Henricus he made a vow that if he were freed from that affliction, he would hang a head made of wax before the body of the Saint as a sign of the grace done to him, and would always hold the Martyr in greater reverence: and he was immediately freed from his long illness.
[11] A crippled woman healed. A certain woman who had one foot grievously contracted made a vow to visit the relics of B. Henricus on foot, if she might obtain the benefit of a cure through his merits. She was immediately mercifully healed of that contraction.
[12] A blind woman given sight. A certain woman who had suffered a grave blindness for a year vowed a pilgrimage: and invoking S. Henricus, she received her sight.
[13] A dead girl raised. When the firstborn daughter of a certain servant of the Church was suffering from a fatal illness, the grieving father made a vow to various Saints for the cure of his daughter: but no remedy was present. When he had placed his daughter on the ground dead, a certain distinguished person said to him in a vision, as he was falling asleep from weariness and grief: Why do you not invoke S. Henricus? A certain woman of advanced age, who was standing by him as he awoke, said: Make a vow to S. Henricus, for he himself wishes to have your vow. He vowed that his daughter would always fast on the vigil of the same Martyr every year, and would visit the body of S. Henricus with offerings; and he and the mother of the girl would fulfill the vow on her behalf until the years of her discretion. When this vow had been made, the girl arose, restored to full health.
[14] Certain men engaged in the capture of seals in the middle of the sea, battered by a severe storm, The sea calmed. fearing the destruction of their persons and the loss of their goods, invoked S. Henricus. And immediately calm was restored on the sea, and they escaped the danger of death.
[15] A blasphemer punished, then healed. Gudmundus, a servant of the Lord of Alnensis, when he had come to Westgothia to visit a certain Priest, and had drunk the memory of S. Henricus late after supper, the Priest hearing this mocked, and said: If he is a Saint, let him be angry with me, if he can. On the following night, lying in bed, he began to be cruelly tortured by an excessive swelling of the body and pain: and understanding that the wrath he had wished for had come on account of his mockery, he called the aforesaid Gudmundus, and made a vow that he would celebrate his vigil all the days of his life. And he was immediately freed through the merits of S. Henricus, the man of God.
[16] By these and very many other signs and prodigies the Lord made His Saint wonderful, and displayed him to all as one to be venerated and honored.
Annotationse That is, a skullcap.