Olaf: Name Day and Patron Saint

St Olaf Haraldsson was born around 995 and was baptized as a young man. Returning to Norway, he became king in 1015 and spent his reign planting the Christian faith among a fiercely pagan people. He built churches, brought bishops and clergy, and gave the Church its first order in Norway. The pagan chieftains rose against him with the help of foreign kings, and in 1028 he was driven into exile. He fled to Kievan Rus’, to Novgorod and the court of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, whose wife Ingigerd was his kinswoman by marriage. In 1030 he returned to win back his kingdom and fell at the Battle of Stiklestad on 29 July. A year later his body was found incorrupt, and miracles soon made his grave a place of pilgrimage. He has been honored ever since as Norway’s patron and “Eternal King”. Orthodox Christians venerate him as a passion-bearer of the undivided Church, and his memory was even kept in the Varangian chapel at Constantinople.

What the faithful pray for

• the strengthening of Christian faith in one’s people and homeland
• healing of the sick
• courage to stand for Christ against opposition
• a Christian end in the face of death
• the conversion and enlightenment of the North
• protection for travelers by sea

Protection

• from the powers of darkness
• from pagan opposition to the faith
• the people of Norway
• seafarers

Miracles

• A year after his death, his body was found incorrupt; it was later enshrined at Nidaros (Trondheim), which became one of the great pilgrimage sites of the North. (source)
• Many miracles of healing took place at his shrine, and springs of water flowed where his body had rested. (source)

Read the life of St Olaf of Norway