ST RONALD OF ORKNEY - 20 AUGUST

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST

Saints celebrated on the 20th of August

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST RONALD OF ORKNEY 

Rognvald Kali Kolsson, also known as St Ronald of Orkney, born in 1100, was a Norwegian earl of Orkney who came to be regarded as a Christian saint.

Saint Rognvald's parents were lendmann Kolr Kalisson and Gunnhildr Erlendsdottir, the sister of St Magnus Erlendsson, Earl of Orkney. It was through his mother, Gunnhildr, that Rognvald had a claim on the Orkney earldom.

EARL OF ORKNEY AND SHETLAND

Rognvald grew up in Norway, where he was known as Kali Kolsson. He also had a sister, Ingrid. Kali was a fine poet and in one of his poems claims to possess nine exceptional skills, having mastered board games, runes, reading and writing, handicrafts (such as metalwork, carving, and carpentry), skiing, archery, rowing, music, and poetry. The sagas support this view of Kali as able and skilled.

King Sigurd I of Norway appointed him Earl of Orkney and Shetland in 1129. In 1137, Rognvald initiated the building of St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall, Scotland. 

HE SET OUT ON A PILGRIMAGE TO THE HOLY LAND

In 1151, Earl Rognvald set out on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. 

Having visited Jerusalem, his party made its way back north via Constantinople, where it was received by the emperor Manuel I Komnenos and his Varangian Guard, then sailed to Apulia where they took horses for the journey to Rome, arriving back in Orkney for Christmas 1153. 

HE WAS BURIED IN ST MAGNUS CATHEDRAL

While he was abroad, King David I of Scotland granted half of Caithness to the cousin of Harald Maddadsson, Erlend Haraldsson. Earl Harald subsequently displaced Erlend Haraldsson, who was killed in 1156. 

On August 20, 1158 Rognvald was killed with his company of eight men by Thorbjorn Klerk, the former friend and counsellor of Harald, who had been made an outlaw by Earl Rognvald for a murder committed in Kirkwall, following a series of acts of violence. 

His body was taken to Kirkwall and buried in St Magnus Cathedral. Miracles happened at his grave as well as on the stone where he died. Rognvald was canonised 1192 by Pope Celestine III.

(Information from Wikipedia - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B6gnvald_Kali_Kolsson)