Saint Thorlak


Saint Thorlak Thorhallsson is the patron saint of Iceland. He was bishop of Skálholt from 1178 until his death. Thorlac's relics were translated to the cathedral of Skalholt in 1198, not long after his successor as bishop, Páll Jónsson, announced at the Althing that vows could be made to Thorlac. His status as a saint did not receive official recognition from the Catholic Church until 14 January 1984, when John Paul II canonized him and declared him the patron saint of Iceland. His feast day is 23 December, when Thorlac's mass is celebrated in Iceland.

Career

Born in 1133 at Hlíðarendi in the see of Skálholt in southern Iceland, Thorlac was from an agrarian family. He was ordained a deacon before he was fifteen and a priest at the age of eighteen. He studied abroad at Paris with the Victorines, where he learned the Rule of Saint Augustine from roughly 1153 to 1159, and then studied Canon Law at the Augustinian priory in Lincoln.
Returning to Iceland in 1165, Thorlac founded a monastery of Canons Regular at Þykkvabær after refusing to marry a rich widow. There he devoted himself to a strictly religious life, refusing to marry and devoting himself to reciting the Our Father, the Creed, and a hymn, as well as fifty Psalms.
Thorlac was consecrated a bishop by Augustine of Nidaros and worked to regulate the Augustinian Rule in Iceland, as well as eradicate simony, lay patronage, and clerical incontinency.

Canonization

Thorlac's life and dozens of his miracles are described in great detail in the Icelandic saga Þorláks saga helga, republished in Icelandic on the occasion of John Paul II's visit to Iceland in 1989. It seems likely that Thorlac's informal sanctification in the Church in Iceland, promoted by Latin texts on which this was based, 'was arranged in Icelandic ecclesiastical circles, clerics of both dioceses being conspicuous in reports of early miracles'.
Thorlac was officially recognised as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church on 14 January 1984, when John Paul II canonized him and declared him the patron saint of Iceland.
The sacred reliquary of St. Thorlac was maintained in the Diocese of Skalholt until it was destroyed in the Reformation, and his mortal remains were strewn about the cathedral grounds. The only known remaining relic of St. Thorlac is a bone fragment contained with other saints' relics in a lead box in sanctuary's end wall of the St. Magnus Cathedral, Faroe Islands.

Novena

A novena, or nine day devotional prayer, in honor of St. Thorlac was approved in May 2018, by the Bishop of Reykjavik, Iceland for use by all faithful.

Thorlac's mass

is celebrated on the date of his death, 23 December.
It is considered the last day of preparations before Christmas. Therefore, on St. Thorlac's Day, the house is cleaned and preparations for the Christmas meal are begun. Fish was usually eaten on Þorláksmessa since 23 December was the last day of the Catholic Christmas fast. In west fjords in Iceland, it was customary to eat cured skate on this day; this custom spread to the whole of Iceland. The skate is usually served with boiled or mashed potatoes, accompanied by a shot of brennivín.

Other

A group based in the state of New York has advocated for Thorlak becoming the patron saint of people with autism.