St. Magnus was the Earl of Orkney in Scotland and related to the royal house of Norway, which exercised sovereignty over the Orkney Islands in that day. The story of St. Magnus’ life and martyrdom are well attested. Three Icelanding sagas tell his story, the most famous being the Orkneyinga saga. His life is also recounted in two Latin accounts.
Magnus was born around 1080. He was the son of Erlend Thorfinnson, Earl of Orkney. Erlend held the earldom of Orkney under the Norse crown, but was practically independent. Magnus came from a distinguished line of warriors, as both his father and uncle had been among the Norse invaders of England under Harald Hadrada in 1066. In 1098 King Magnus III of Norway came and deposed St. Magnus’ father, taking personal possession of the Orkneys and installing his illegitimate son as ruler. Magnus entered the service of King Magnus III and served as his personal chamberlain.
Despite the warrior culture in which he was raised, St. Magnus had a disposition for piety and gentleness. The warriors of King Magnus’ retinue mistook this for weakness and harassed him. At this time, many Norse were still pagans or only very nominal Christians. Magnus suffered greatly from these taunts but bore them with patience and humility. He also refused to stain his hands with innocent blood. He was present in 1098 for the Battle of Angelsey Sound in Wales but refused to take part in what essentially was a Viking raid, preferring instead to stay on the ship and sing Psalms. This disgraced him with the king’s retinue and he was obliged to take refuge in Scotland. He spent seven years in exile in Scotland, deepening his piety and awaiting more favorable circumstances to return home.
The king died in 1103; St. Magnus returned to Orkney in 1105 to dispute an inheritance issue with his cousin, Haakon. The dispute could not be resolved, and St. Magnus appealed to the new king, Eystein I of Norway. King Eystein made St. Magnus and Haakon joint earls of Orkney in 1114, an arrangement which was obviously doomed to failure. The two sides almost came to blows, but it was agreed that the earls would meet on the island of Egilsay on Easter to work out their differences. Each earl was to bring only two ships. St. Magnus, being good natured and honest, showed up with the requisite two ships. Haakon, however, treacherously brought eight ships full of armed followers.
Realized his cousin’s treachery, Magnus took refuge in the island church overnight, praying to God and preparing his soul for whatever lay before him. In the morning he was dragged out of the church by Haakon’s chieftains. St. Magnus offered to go into exile or imprisonment, but the chieftains demanded that one of the two earls must die, as the lordship of Orkney could not be divided. Haakon, however, could find none of his chiefs willing to strike the fatal blow, as it was clear St. Magnus was innocent of any wrongdoing, his only crime consisting in being born with a title to the earldom that Haakon coveted.
In the end, Haakon made his cook deliver the lethal blow by striking Magnus in the skull with an axe. Before death, St. Magnus prayed for his captors and implored God’s to forgive them. He was killed with a single blow to the head from an axe the day after Easter, 1117.
St. Magnus was hastily buried in the field where he was executed. According to legend, the rocky area around his grave miraculously became a green field. Magnus’ mother Thora was later given permission to have St. Magnus interred at Christchurch in Birsay on Orkney’s mainland. A church was later constructed on the spot where he was killed on Egilsay (shown in the photo at the top of this article).
Tale of Magnus’ sanctity soon spread about, as well as tales of miracles. William the Old, bishop of Orkney in the 12th century, allegedly spoke condescendingly about miracles attributed to Magnus and was subsequently struck blind. His sight was not restored until praying at St. Magnus’ tomb. Not long after, Bishop William authorized the cult of Magnus on the island at constructed the church of St. Magnus near the site of the murder, the ruins of which can still be seen today. A cathedral to St. Magnus was constructed in Kirkwall shortly thereafter, which became the final repository of his relics. A renovation of the cathedral in 1919 uncovered a box with the skull of St. Magnus within.
St. Magnus was venerated as a martyr almost immediately, but his status as a martyr has been questioned. Magnus’ canonization was done locally, prior to the institution of canonical procedures by Pope Alexander III. It is admittedly difficult to see in what sense St. Magnus was a martyr. The cause Haakon’s aggression was not the practice of the faith or the defense of a particular virtue, but in a dispute over the rightful possession of the earldom of Orkney. Magnus certainly was pious and saintly, even praying for his persecutors before his execution, but his death itself does not seem to be a martyrdom in the proper sense. We should keep in mind that while the Church has affirmed the episcopal canonization of Magnus, his title of “martyr” is more an exercise of popular piety than a strict theological title.
The feast day of St. Magnus is also interesting. In the Orkneys his feast day is celebrated on April 16th, the date of his death. It is known as Mansemas and attended with considerable public festivities. Mansemas has become more of a popular commemoration than a liturgical one, however. It is often not celebrated liturgically because it frequently coincides with Easter, Holy Week, or the Easter Octave. In Denmark, where devotion to St. Magnus was very strong, there was an alternate feast day on August 19th. How this date got fixed was due to a confusion between St. Magnus of Orkney and St. Magnus of Milan. It happened that there was another and earlier St Magnus—an Italian martyr from 6th century Milan— who had long occupied August 19 in the calendar of saints. So, for no better reason than the coincidence of their names, our saintly earl took over his Italian counterpart’s spot on the Danish calendar.
Phillip Campbell, “Magnus of Orkney,” Unam Sanctam Catholicam, August 29, 2017. Available online at https://unamsanctamcatholicam.com/2025/10/magnus-of-orkney