Saint Canute IV (Knut), King of Denmark and Martyr

Our Saint appeared to have been chosen by Providence to complete the conversion of the Danes, to whom the Gospel was announced for the first time in the year 826, according to some authors. The beginnings of his reign were marked by brilliant victories won over the Sambians, the Estonians, and the Curonians, who were ravaging his states; he then brought the light of the faith into the provinces of Courland, Samogitia, and Livonia. The success of his arms did not make him proud; he was always seen in the midst of his triumphs laying his diadem at the feet of the crucified Jesus, and presenting to the King of Kings the offering of his person along with that of his kingdom. The torch of war being extinguished, he thought of uniting himself with a spouse worthy of him: his choice fell upon El Adélaïde Wife of Canute IV and daughter of the Count of Flanders. tha, otherwise Adela, daughter of Robert, Count of Flander s. From this saint Charles Grandson of Canute IV and Count of Flanders. marriage came Saint Charles, surnamed the Good, who was, like his grandfather, Count of Flanders.

Canute was not content with merely knowing about abuses; he worked with all his might to remedy them. He enacted laws, severe in truth, but absolutely essential to ensure the exact administration of justice. Murders and other crimes were repressed by the law of retaliation. Superior to any human consideration, he took up the defense of the oppressed against the tyranny of the great. The execution of the famous pirate Eigil Eigill Governor of Bornholm who became a pirate, executed by Cnut. l is proof of this. This Eigill, son of a powerful man and highly cherished by King Sweyn II because of his services, had himself rendered important ones to Canute, who, to reward him, had given him the governorship of the island of Bornholm. The excessive ostentation of this lord having led him into enormous expenses, he took it into his head, in order to support it, to practice the trade of a pirate. No sooner was the king informed of this than he sent him an order to cut back on a portion of his retinue, convinced that he would remedy the evil if he destroyed its cause. Eigill promised to obey; but he did nothing of the sort. He left shortly after with 18 ships to go and plunder the lands of the Vandals; finally, he capped his crimes with the barbaric act he committed on the coasts of his governorship. Here is the fact. A ship from Norway, loaded with precious merchandise, after having passed the Sound strait and appeared off the island of Bornholm, ran aground on the shore as the tide was going out. Eigill, who was in ambush with his men, advanced, put the crew in irons, took the merchandise, and burned the ship with the sailors, for fear of being discovered. The combination of several circumstances gave Canute suspicions, and it was to clarify them that he charged Benedict, his brother, to go and seize the governor. Eigill allowed himself to be led before the king without any resistance; he confessed his crime and even tried to justify it with reasons that were, at best, specious. The prince was not dazzled by them; and as the officers of his court, who for the most part were relatives or friends of Eigill, offered him a sum of money in order to save the culprit's life, he replied to them: "It shall not be so; I do not wish to participate in such a crime: he shall die. If it is a capital crime to kill a single man, what punishment does he not deserve who has caused so many to perish in order to seize their goods?" No one dared to reply. The king ordered that Eigill be taken into the forest to be hanged from a tree. He did not spare his accomplices either; they were all punished according to how guilty they were found to be.

The holy king occupied himself only with the means of making his subjects happy. He established the finest order in his kingdom; and as the example of the prince greatly influences the people, he began by regulating his own palace. To the virtues that make great kings, Canute joined all those that make great Saints. He chastised his body with rigorous fasts. His love for penance went so far that he made use of the discipline and the hair shirt. Often he conversed with God through fervent prayers, in order to obtain the graces he needed. He gave credence to piety by protecting and honoring all those who served God. The sacred ministers felt the effects of his liberality. He granted the clergy a great number of privileges and immunities; his goal in this was to make it more respectable to the people. He neglected nothing to convince his subjects of the obligation they were under to pay tithes, intended for the subsistence of those who had devoted themselves to the service of the altars. The growth of the kingdom of Jesus Christ also seemed to him an object very worthy of his attention: hence this ardent zeal for the propagation of the Gospel. He founded several churches, which were decorated with truly royal magnificence. He presented a very beautiful crown, which he was accustomed to wearing, to the church of Roskilde in Zealand, which was his capital and the place of his residence.

Although E ngland had Angleterre Country of origin of Blessed Ralph. passed, in 1066, under the dominion of William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, Canute did not fail to take measures to support the rights that he or his allies might have over this kingdom. He sent troops there; but they were easily defeated, because no one wanted to join them. Some time later, that is to say in 1085, Canute raised a numerous army at the solicitation of several Englishmen who had taken refuge in Denmark: his design was to make a landing in England, in order to drive out the Normans. He had the displeasure of seeing this project fail through the betrayal of his brother Olas, Duke of Schleswig, who forced him, through affected delays, to remain in the Lymfjord strait; and the departure was so deferred that the troops eventually deserted.

The holy King believed this occasion favorable to work toward the establishment of ecclesiastical tithes; he therefore ordered that, as punishment for the desertion, either the tithes or a considerable tax should be paid. The Danes, who had a marked aversion to subjection to tithes, preferred to pay the tax, however great it might be. The prince, mortified by this choice, wanted the tax to be levied with a certain rigor, in the hope that his subjects would change their resolution.

The collectors began to make this levy in Funen; they then passed into Jutland, and then into the small province of Vendsyssel, at the extremity of the northern part of Jutland. This province was then the poorest in all of Denmark: it had two prefects or governors, Thor-Skor and Tolar-Werpill. They incited the people, placed themselves at the head of the discontented, and raised the standard of rebellion. The king, informed of the approach of the rebels, had withdrawn to Schleswig, from where he passed into the island of Funen with a fairly considerable body of troops; from there he ordered the queen to withdraw as soon as possible to Flanders to her father and to take her children with her. Having been for some time in the city of O dense, Odensée City where the saint was martyred. capital of the island, he resolved to go and seek the rebels to give them battle; but their leaders, although superior in number, did not dare to come to blows with troops who were well-disciplined, seasoned, and commanded by a prince who had already given so many proofs of his valor and prudence; they therefore had recourse to perfidy to prevent him from taking the field. One of them, named Asbiorn, went to find him and told him that his people had returned to their duty, which he assured by several false oaths. The king, who had only peaceful intentions, believed the deceiver, despite all that his brother Benedict could say to prevent him from falling into the trap: but he was not long in being undeceived, for he learned that the army of the rebels was marching with diligence toward Odense to surprise him there. This news caused him no trouble; he went, according to his custom, to the church of Saint Alban, where he heard Mass. Scarcely was it finished when someone came to tell him that the enemies were approaching with great strides. Count Eric having advised him to take flight, he replied: "No, no, I will not flee. I would rather fall into the hands of my enemies than abandon those who are attached to me; besides, they only want my life."

The holy King thought only of preparing himself for death: he went to prostrate himself at the foot of the altar, where, after having made a humble confession of his faults and protested that he forgave his enemies, he received communion with the most perfect tranquility; he then took the book of psalms, which he began to recite. Meanwhile, the rebels arrived near the church and invested it on all sides. Bened Benoît Father of Saint Romanus and advisor to King Chlothar I. ict, the king's brother, defended the doors with the few troops he had; but while he was performing prodigies of valor, Canute received a blow from a stone in the forehead above the eyebrow. This stone came from outside and had been thrown through a window of the church. The king, far from interrupting his prayer, contented himself with putting his hand to his wound to stop the blood that was flowing in abundance. The rebels, having been unable to force the doors of the church, again had recourse to treason. On e of their l Egwind Bifra Murderer of Canute IV. eaders, named Egwind Bifra, asked to speak to the king, under the pretext of proposing terms of peace. Canute ordered that he be allowed to enter; but Benedict obeyed only reluctantly, because he still suspected some new perfidy, and the event proved that he had been right; for the infamous Egwind, having bowed deeply in the presence of the king as if to greet him, drew, upon rising, a dagger from under his cloak and plunged it into his breast. The traitor immediately climbed onto the altar to escape through the window: but when he was still only half-way out, Palmar, one of the king's principal officers, divided him in two with a blow of his saber, so that one half of his body fell outside, and the other remained in the church. This spectacle revived the fury of the barbarians; they threw bricks and stones through the windows. The shrines containing the relics of Saint Alban and Saint Oswald, which Canute had brought from England, were overturned. Meanwhile, the Saint, with his arms extended before the altar, was recommending his soul to God and awaiting death with resignation. He was still in this posture when a javelin thrown through a window completed his sacrifice. His brother Benedict also perished with seventeen other people. This happened on July 10, 1086, according to Ælnoth. Our Saint had reigned for nearly six years. He was succeeded by his brother Olaf I.

God avenged the death of His servant by afflicting Denmark with various calamities, among others a cruel famine, the ravages of which lasted for eight years and three months of the following reign. Heaven also attested to his holiness through several miraculous healings that took place at his tomb. This led to his body being exhumed at the end of the reign of Olaf, to be placed in a more honorable location than the one where it had been. Eric III, successor to Olaf, a religious prince who worked with as much zeal as success to make piety flourish in his states, sent ambassadors to Rome with the proofs of the miracles performed at the tomb of the blessed Canute. The Pope, after examining the documents, issued a decree authorizing his cult, with the status of first or principal martyr of Denmark. On this occasion, a solemn translation of his relics was performed, and they were placed in a very beautiful shrine. This shrine was found in Odense on January 22, 1582, while work was being done to repair the choir of the church of Saint Alban; it was made of gilded copper and enriched with precious stones, as well as some other ornaments of very fine workmanship.

The following inscription was read upon it: "In the year of Jesus Christ 1086, in the city of Odense, THE GLORIOUS KING CANUTE, betrayed, like Jesus Christ, because of his zeal for religion and his love for justice, by BLANCON, one of those who ate at his table, after having confessed and participated in the sacrifice of the body of the Lord, had his side pierced and fell to the ground before the altar, his arms extended in the form of a cross. He died for the glory of Jesus Christ and rested in Him on Friday, June 7, in the basilica of Saint Alban, martyr, whose relics he had brought from England to Denmark some time before." Saint Canute has a specific office in the Roman breviary on January 19. — The attributes of the holy King are the arrows and the lance, instruments of his death.

Butler and Godescard drew this life from a history of Saint Canute, written by Ælnoth, a monk Ælnoth Monk of Canterbury and biographer of Saint Canute. of Canterbury, who had lived for twenty-four years in Denmark and who wrote in 1150. All agree on the great fidelity of this author. — See also Saxo Grammaticus, a Danish historian, and the Bollandists.