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St. Magnus Cathedral [1]
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Date: 2025-07-12
Welcome to the Street Prophets Coffee Hour cleverly hidden at the intersection of religion, art, science, food, and politics. This is an open thread where we can share our thoughts and comments about the day. Let’s start by looking at St. Magnus Cathedral.
By 900 CE, the Norse earls of Orkney were allied with Norway. In the later Norse years, Magnus Erlendson was one of the key figures in Norse Orkney. As a Christian, Magnus sought to increase the power and influence of Christianity in Orkney. The Orkneyinga Saga describes him this way:
“He was a man of strict virtue, successful in war, wise, eloquent, generous and magnanimous, open-handed with money, sound with advice and altogether the most popular of men.”
The story of Magnus Erlandson begins in 1098, a time when Orkney was divided between two brothers, Erland and Paul. Magnus was the eldest son of Earl Erland and Hakon was the eldest son of Earl Paul. King Magnus of Norway, came to Orkney, unseated the two earls, and placed his illegitimate son Sigurd as the overlord of Orkney. King Magnus then set off on a raiding expedition, taking both Magnus and Hakon with him.
When Sigurd returned to Norway, he left Hakon as the sole earl of Orkney. A few years later, Magnus was granted his share of the earldom by the Norwegian throne. Between 1105 and 1114 there was a good relationship between the two earls. Then something happened—it is not clear what—and the two cousins became enemies.
At a peace meeting on the island of Egilsay, Hakon violated the truce, seized Magnus, and had him executed by Lilolf, his cook. According to most accounts, Magnus died while he was praying. This was about 1116, 1117, or 1118. Hakon then denied Magnus a Christian burial. After his death, a popular cult grew up around Magnus and about two decades later, the Roman Catholic Church declared him to be a saint.
In 1137, his nephew, Earl Rognvald, began construction of the great cathedral in Kirkwall which would bear his name. Rodnvald had promised the people of Orkney that he would build a great church in honor of St. Magnus and create a place of pilgrimage. It would take three centuries to complete the building of St. Magnus Cathedral. In her book Monuments of Orkney: A Visitor’s Guide, Caroline Wickham-Jones writes:
“The long period of construction is visible in small details of the design, which changed as the work progressed. The pillars of the nave change in shape from east to west, and there are two styles of arch: early rounded Romanesque arches contrast with the later pointed Gothic arches.”
Earl Rognvald died in 1158 and was canonized in 1192. The bones of both St. Magnus and St. Rognvald are interred in the cathedral. After the Scottish reformation in 1560, the cathedral was used for Protestant worship. Today the cathedral belongs to the people of Orkney and while it has a Church of Scotland congregation, it can be used by any Christian denomination.
We visited St. Magnus Cathedral as a part of a CIE Coach Tour. Shown below are some photographs of the cathedral.
Open Thread
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