Some saints only come to light after their death. St. Thorfinn is one of these.
A Norwegian bishop, he lived the last years of his life at the Cistercian Monastery of Ter Doerst in Flanders, Belgium.
In
this Flemish monastery the foreign bishop remained hidden and unknown
until some fifty years after his death. It was in the course of some
building operations within the monastery that his tomb was opened and
his remains were found to exude a strong and sweet perfume.
Still, little is known of St. Thorfinn except that he was Bishop of Hamar in Norway and had been outlawed, along with two other bishops, by King Eric of Norway over a dispute regarding rights granted to the clergy by the previous king.
After numerous hardships, including shipwreck, the holy bishop had made his way to the Abbey of Ter Doerst in Belgium. St. Thorfinn died on Janurary 8, 1285.
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