It is as if the silence has wings as parish priest Egil Mogstad moves through a heavy wooden door and enters St. Olav Cathedral in Trondheim. Surrounded by light brick and a charge of sunbeams that are just now brushing half of the parish priest’s face, it is as if the time of wonders is far from over. At least for Mogstad. His hope is that Karl Halfdan Schilling (1835–1907) will be named a saint. If so, he will be the first up here on the mountain since the Middle Ages. About time, some would say. But there is a lot that needs to be done to make this happen, and the urgency for the eye of the needle is only getting tighter, but first: Who was this Norwegian? A studded steel belt There must have been something quite ordinary and at the same time quite special about Karl Halfdan. We’ll take the last one first, as it says in the Bible: He is said to have raised a boy from the dead and healed the sick, in addition to helping the many poor who lived in the tired Belgian industrial town of Mouscron, which he eventually settled down in. Apparently, Karl Halfdan was such a fine fellow that the people believed that he must be in league with God himself. After he had breathed his last on the bed consisting of simple wooden felts and a felled tree trunk that served as a pillow, he was laid to rest in the monastery’s cemetery on a January day in 1907. Back in his spartan room, the earthly goods remained. It wasn’t everything. A desk, a pair of glasses, religious scriptures in Norwegian and a studded belt he used to tighten around his waist to show humility before God. And possibly take the phrase “to tighten the belt” a couple or three notches longer than most of us. Still, that wasn’t the most startling thing about him. Karl Halfdan Schilling lived simply, and his bed was a testimony to his humility before God. He is said to have slept on wooden stilts, with a cut tree trunk acting as a pillow. “The dead man’s face was unchanged” Soon after Karl Halfdan lay six feet under, people began to make pilgrimages to his grave. At the grave, the villagers said their prayers, and it was these who are said to have worked miracles. Sick people were said to be revived by visiting his grave and asking for help in his name. The tomb became a place of pilgrimage. In 1924, the bishop of Bruges thought it was time to look into the matter in more detail. The beatification process that was set in motion led to the tomb being opened that autumn. Our own Nobel Prize winner Sigrid Undset (1882–1949) will write a book about Norwegian saints a few years later, and describe Karl Halfdan’s remains as very intact even 17 years after his death: “The dead man’s face was unchanged, the hands darkened, the cassock faded and the darkness. » Against all odds A vacuum cleaner hums faintly from one of the aisles in St. Olav’s church. Mogstad feels like saying something about the more ordinary and down-to-earth in the case of Karl Halfdan. – He was far from a school light. He had difficulties with Latin and quickly got a headache from reading. Catholic parish priest Egil Mogstad in St. Olav’s cathedral in Trondheim believes Karl Halfdan should be canonised. Photo: Øystein Lie But still, adds the parish priest: – He had an incredible personality, and was always welcoming and present. People had the feeling that when he talked to you, it was only about you. And he looks really great then! They called him “Le Beau Norvégien”. As the son of a riding master, it was most natural to choose a military career. Instead, he first wanted to become an artist. As an 18-year-old, Karl Halfdan went to Düsseldorf, which at that time was the city that mattered when it came to that sort of thing. To make a long story short: Karl Halfdan was not going to become a painter. He was honestly a mediocre artist all things considered. One work is in the National Museum’s collection. A drawing of a bull. But soon there would be a decisive turning point in his life. This simple drawing of a bull is the closest Karl Halfdan came to his artistic career. Photo: The National Museum So the hat fit According to the website of the Catholic Church, Karl Halfdan stood in 1854 and looked at the procession that went through Düsseldorf’s streets at the celebration of Christ’s body. It was a sight that he had never seen before or related to. All the lights and priests in gold-embroidered silk robes. There was probably a lot of fuss and bling, felt this young Norwegian. – As the procession passed, people knelt and took off their hats in reverence, but Karl Halfdan chose to keep his artist’s hat on. He knelt like everyone else, but with an ironic smile on his face. Then something happened again, according to Mogstad: – People reacted immediately by knocking the hat off his head. Karl Halfdan realized that he had made a fool of himself, and at the same time also became very curious. What was this something? That Karl Halfdan converted to Catholicism at the age of 19, the year after he had arrived in Düsseldorf and had his hat fit, was almost like cursing in church. There was a clear division between Catholics and Protestants. Although Karl Halfdan’s faith was constantly strengthened, it would take many years before he came to terms with the art of painting. On a boat trip south from Christiania in the summer of 1868, somewhere in the fjord, he left it alone. – He demonstratively threw brushes and palettes into the fjord. Then he was finished as a painter. The Catholic Church has ten Norwegian saints Saint Olav Saint Sunniva Saint Hallvard Saint Eystein of Nidaros Saint Magnus Earl of Orkney Saint Thorfinn of Hamar Saint Ragnvald Earl of Orkney Saint Håkon V Magnusson Saint Gudmund Saint Thorlak PS: The last two are Icelandic, but can be counted on because the entire island was at that time inhabited by Norwegians and integrated by the Kingdom of Norway. The heavenly ladder The beatification process for Karl Halfdan took its time. After decades of investigation and pondering, Karl Halfdan was declared venerable on an autumn day in 1968 by Pope Paul VI. Venerable isn’t all that bad. The Vatican has for centuries ranked various honorary titles. Venerable is the second step up the ladder towards becoming holy. The third stage is called blissful, and the very last and holiest is to become a saint. Then you are as close to God as you can get in our sense. But: In order to be considered at all, a bishop must first declare the person in question to be a servant of God in order to be proposed to the Congregation for canonization. Since then, the person’s life and work must be brought to an end before the Pope puts his stamp of approval on the whole thing. Nevertheless, things have not been read out and agreed upon. Because what really matters is not the whole earthly life, but what happens by miracles after the person in question has died. If there is evidence that Karl Halfdan is in league with God himself, in any case that God exercises influence over the Norwegian, then yes, then it is quite possible to become a saint. That is where we stand now. Waiting for a miracle to happen. With VG visiting On Christmas Eve itself in 1979, VG brought a three-page report from the small Belgian town of Mouscron. The newspaper reported that the Barnabitter monks were still central to village life, and that Karl Halfdan in particular had a high star among the population. The people had no doubt that Karl Halfdan still had an influence on God’s works. On Christmas Eve itself in 1979, VG brought a three-page report from the small Belgian town of Mouscron. Photo: Facsimile VG, 1979 The monastery school he taught at was closed, and Karl Halfdan’s grave had been moved to a separate mausoleum flush with the church. The monastery’s walls bore visible proof that Karl Halfdan had not completely given up on art. Norwegian winter landscapes hung on the walls. VG’s reporter also took a peek into his spartan room, and the photographer fired at his bed, which was still standing where it always used to be. In a conversation with Father Lucien, the newspaper learned that Karl Halfdan practiced the ascetic form of religion by not only tightening the belt – but also allowing himself to be whipped. But that is hardly enough to be called a saint. An eternal process, so to speak It must be hard to be appointed to the saint, parish priest Mogstad knows that. Mother Teresa (1910-1997), the nun who worked among the poor in Calcutta, India and perhaps one of the most pious people to have lived on mother earth, was canonized only 19 years after her death. And that is unreasonably fast in the Catholic world, perhaps even a world record. For others, it is not uncommon for this process to take half a century or more. Everything has to be done on the day. The pros and cons must be weighed, and nothing must be swept under the rug. And one must of course have the right faith. It was much easier to stay the weekend in the past. Olaf the saint, he who may have crept on a rock at Stiklestad, was considered holy in a flash, so to speak. That was the way it was at the time. What is supposed to be the remains of St. Olav himself is neatly kept in St. Olav’s cathedral in Trondheim. Photo: Øystein Lie Since then we got a strip of Norwegian saints up to Håkon Magnusson, who said thank you for himself at the beginning of the 14th century. Later, no Norwegian has come close to being declared a saint. There are several reasons for that. One of them that especially kings were canonized over a low shoe in the Middle Ages. Eventually, we are talking about from the 16th century onwards, it was only the right people in the Vatican who decided who should be canonized. Or only the Pope, then. But for Karl Halfdan, new things can appear today. There is therefore hope in the air that the Norwegian can one day rise through the ranks. As recently as 2007, the Vatican’s own newspaper L’Osservatore Romano wrote that he is the only Norwegian currently undergoing beatification. Since then it has literally been as quiet as the grave. A final final request Parish priest Mogstad believes it is time to lift Karl Halfdan up to where he belongs, but it is urgent. At irregular intervals, the Vatican has tightened the criteria for canonization. In other words, the eye of the needle gets narrower and narrower. In autumn 2016, it became clear that the new procedural rules, among other things, increased the number of experts for an allegedly miraculous healing from five to seven. In other words, it may become more difficult than ever to get Karl Halfdan canonized. Mogstad believes that it is the bishop in Oslo who must now step forward. After all, Karl Halfdan lived a large part of his life in the capital. Parish priest Egil Mogstad flips through the binder and shows a photograph showing where a piece of a cloth that Karl Halfdan is said to have worn is kept. Photo: Øystein Lie – In addition, I have turned 75 and believe I have done my part. I took over a parish that was in complete disintegration after the revelations about former bishop Georg Müller’s sexual abuse and put behind me the process of designing and building a new church facility, says Mogstad. The bishop of Oslo, Bernt Eidsvig, tells via his secretary Gunhild Ficarra by e-mail that the case has been put on hold. “Interest in the venerable Schilling is rather weak in our diocese”, writes Ficarra. “An enormous amount of detailed knowledge is required in a canonization process. Given that this would be relevant for the Oslo Catholic Diocese, one or more canonists with special expertise in saint matters must first be trained. As authorized by canon law, one of the many conditions in a canonization process is that it must be possible to prove and testify that miracles had to be performed as a result of the venerable person’s intercession. And here, therefore, there is nothing new.” So then, right? The raisin in the sausage St. Olav Cathedral in Trondheim is empty. The rows of benches will soon be filled. Mogstad moves towards the high altar. There, under the great white cloth, sealed in a recess, lie several relics. Among other things, a leg splint allegedly from Olav the saint – and a piece of a cloth that Karl Halfdan is said to have worn. Whether it’s from the suit or his priest’s dress, it’s hard to say. But that it is a relic from Karl Halfden must be certain. – Sometimes I make a prayer, where I ask Karl Halfdan to do a favor, says Mogstad, before he adds: – But I haven’t demanded that much, myself. – Why not? – I have such respect and kindness towards him. We don’t have a Norwegian language for such things, but there must be a cult around Karl Halfdan for him to have any hope of being canonised. It involves giving him attention and sending bullet prayers. If there is a healing, it is like finding the raisin in the sausage, says Mogstad. So there is hope, after all. A miracle just has to happen. On the high altar, under the white cloth and sealed in a recess, lie several relics. Among other things, a piece of Karl Halfdan’s suit or priest’s dress. Photo: Øystein Lie
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Can Karl Halfdan Schilling become Norway’s first saint since the Middle Ages? – Long reading from news Trøndelag
