ST. OLAF OF NORWAY, KING & MARTYR, July 29th

Collect

GRANT, we beseech thee, Almighty God : that we, who this day keep the heavenly birthday of blessed Olaf, thy holy King and Martyr, may by his prayers be stablished in the love of thy holy Name. Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, who livest and reignest with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

For the legend

OLAF Haroldson (otherwise known as Olave) was born in 995 in Norway. At the age of twelve he went forth to the sea as chief of a viking band, to harry and plunder the coasts of Europe. But thereby he also came amongst some who had knowledge of Christ, (as for example, in England), and at the age of fifteen he was baptized by the Bishop of Rouen. However, the pagan habits and vices of the young viking were not easily laid aside, although from the first he had a chivalrous zeal for the Christian Faith, and was ever diligent in observing the fasts and devotions of the Church.

MOREOVER, in the severity of his justice, he became famous for a greater severity towards himself, whenever he understood that he had done wrong. As, for example, when he once unwittingly did servile work on the Lord's Day by cutting wood, he publically set fire to his own hands, and held the flaming stuff until he was greviously burned. Such boldness was respected by the warlike peoples ; and when at the age of twenty he became King of Norway, he began to lay the foundations of a Christian State and Church ; to which end he brought missionaries from England.

AT last there was a rebellion against his ways, due to his attempt to extend religion by the sword ; and on the twenty-ninth day of July, in the year 1030, in defence of the reforms he had set up in Christ's Name, he heroically gave his life on the battlefield, with the dying prayer : God help me. He was buried in a sandbank by the Nid River, where he had fallen in battle, whence later a spring of healing waters gushed forth. And there finally was built the great Cathedral of Trondhjem. The good for which he died lived on after him. In consequence, he is venerated not only as the founder of the liberties and religion of Norway, but also as one who gave his life to Christ as a Martyr. Wherefore he is to this day revered as the patron Saint and Apostle of Norway.

From the Anglican Breviary