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The Cult of St Nicholas in the Early
Christian North (c. 1000–1150)

Ildar H. Garipzanov
Published online: 26 Aug 2010.

To cite this article: Ildar H. Garipzanov (2010) The Cult of St Nicholas in the Early
Christian North (c. 1000–1150), Scandinavian Journal of History, 35:3, 229-246, DOI:

10.1080/03468755.2010.481990

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Ildar H. Garipzanov

THE CULT OF ST NICHOLAS IN THE EARLY

CHRISTIAN NORTH (C. 1000

–1150)

The cult of St Nicholas spread in Scandinavia and northern Rus

’ in approximately the same

period, namely in the last decades of the 11th and the first decades of the 12th centuries. In
spite of such a correspondence, the dissemination of the cult in the two adjacent regions has
been treated as two separate phenomena. Consequently, the growing popularity of the cult in
Scandinavia has traditionally been dealt with as an immanent part of the transmission of the
Catholic tradition, and a similar phenomenon in northern Rus

’ has been discussed with

reference to the establishment of Orthodox Christianity. By contrast, the evidence analysed in
this article shows that the establishment of the cult of St Nicholas in the two regions was an
intertwined process, in which the difference between Latin Christendom and Greek Orthodoxy
played a minor role. The early spread of this particular cult thus suggests that, as far as some
aspects of the cult of saints are concerned, the division between Catholicism and Orthodox
Christianity in Northern Europe was less abrupt in the 11th and 12th centuries than has been
traditionally assumed. This was due to the fact that the medieval cult of saints was not
limited to the liturgy of saints, but was a wider social phenomenon in which political and
dynastic links and cultural and trading contacts across Northern Europe often mattered more
than confessional differences. When we leave the liturgy aside and turn to kings, princes,
traders and other folk interacting across the early Christian North, then the confessional
borders are less useful for our understanding of how some aspects of Christian culture were
communicated across Northern Europe in the first two centuries after conversion.

Keywords St Nicholas, cult of saints, Northern Europe

The cult of St Nicholas spread in Scandinavia and northern Rus

’ in approximately the

same period, or in the last decades of the 11th and the first decades of the 12th century. In
spite of such a correspondence, the dissemination of the cult in the two adjacent regions
has been treated as two separate phenomena. Consequently, the growing popularity of
the cult in Scandinavia has traditionally been dealt with as an immanent part of the
transmission of the Catholic tradition, and a similar phenomenon in northern Rus

’ has

been discussed in relation to the establishment of Orthodox Christianity. The separate
treatments have been based on the traditional assumption that Western and Eastern
Christianity became profoundly different by the 11th century, and that the schism of
1054 simply confirmed this religious division in formal terms. But, how wide was this
divide? As Paul Magdalino has noted,

‘it is true that the twelfth century saw the

Scandinavian Journal of History Vol. 35, No. 3. September 2010, pp. 229

–246

ISSN 0346-8755 print/ISSN 1502-7716 online

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DOI: 10.1080/03468755.2010.481990

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deepening of the ecclesiastical schism between Greek East and Latin West. Yet the
schism deepened in a context of growing, not diminishing, contacts at all social levels

’.

1

In a similar vein, I will argue that the culture of sanctity in 11th- and 12th-century
Northern Europe was not abruptly divided along the borders created by confessions and
liturgical languages. A number of universal saints known in the Christian East and West
began to be venerated in Scandinavia and northern Rus

’ in those centuries, and the

establishment of the cult of some universal saints in these regions developed as closely
related processes.

2

The establishment of the cult of St Nicholas in Scandinavia and

northern Rus

’ provides a good example of such a coterminous process, one in which

the differences between Latin Christendom and Greek Orthodoxy played a minor role.

1.

The transmission of the cult of St Nicholas in the early medieval

West (the 9th-11th centuries)

The traditional view on the transmission of the cult of St Nicholas in early medieval
Europe, established after the works of Karl Meisen and Werner Mezger, can be
summarized as follows:

3

it appeared first in Byzantium in the early Middle Ages and

then penetrated southern Italy. By the 9th century, the cult was transmitted to the
territories with a Latin rite and became known in papal Rome, and the first Roman pope
with such a name, Nicholas I, is an obvious testimony to the growing popularity of the
saint in Western Europe. In the same century, St Nicholas was already mentioned in
several Carolingian martirologia, most of which were produced in eastern Frankish
territories. Furthermore, his relics were venerated in Fulda as late as 818, and
his name was included in the litany of saints written in Lorsch in the mid-9th century
(Figure 1 provides a map of the key locations mentioned in this article). It is noteworthy
that

– as pointed out by Byzantine scholars – around the same time, in the first half of the

9th century, the cult of St Nicholas had spread to Constantinople; in 880, Emperor Basil I
founded the Nea Church, a palatine church partly dedicated to St Nicholas.

4

A century later, the cult became well established in Ottonian Germany, and the

connection between the Ottonian and Byzantine courts, personified by Empress
Theophano, might have contributed to this development. The new Latin Lives of St
Nicholas, written by Reginald of Eichstätt between c. 966 and 991 and by Otloh of
Emmeram in the first half of the 11th century, exemplified the importance of Ottonian
Germany for the dissemination of the cult around the year 1000.

5

Scholars disagree on the way the cult was transmitted after the year 1000.

Traditionally, the foundation of the Norman state in southern Italy has been considered
crucial for the popularity of the cult in Normandy in the first half of the 11th century.
Thereafter, as the holy patron of sailors and merchants, St Nicholas became the tutelary
saint of the Normans, and they became the main agents popularizing his cult in England
and Scandinavia.

6

At the same time, Charles Jones has emphasized an original connection of

St Nicholas

’s liturgy to Lower Lotharingia, and has pointed to local cathedral culture

in the second half of the 10th century as the place where the cult of St Nicholas was
developed under a Byzantine influence, to be transmitted to England and France after the
year 1000.

7

A teutonicus Isembert, an abbot in Rouen (1033

–54) and chaplain of the

Norman Duke Robert, was the person linked to the promotion of St Nicholas

’s cult in

Normandy in the 1030s and 1040s; his German origin corroborates the significance of a

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German influence for the growing popularity of the saint in Normandy in the second
quarter of the 11th century.

8

Véronique Gazeau has even suggested that Isembert might

have brought a relic of St Nicholas from Germany, which could have boosted the saint

’s

cult in Normandy.

9

The manuscript tradition of the Anglo-Saxon litanies of saints, in which St Nicholas

was first included in the mid-11th century, seems to corroborate the original connection
of the cult in England to the middle Rhine region, rather than Normandy. The saint is
listed in litanies in two Cambridge Corpus Christi College manuscripts written in the
middle of the 11th century, Mss. 163 and 391. The names of the local saints mentioned in
Ms. 163 link it directly to Cologne. The second codex, Ms. 391, is of Worcester
provenance.

10

Another manuscript produced for the Worchester Cathedral c. 1060

(British Museum, Ms. Cotton Nero E. 1) contains the Office of St Nicholas and Jones has
pointed to Bishop Wulfstan as the main promoter of the cult in Anglo-Saxon England.

11

FIGURE 1 Europe (c. 1000–1150).

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231

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E. M. Treharne agrees with Jones and presents other liturgical evidence from England

–

the early vitae of St Nicholas and prayers addressed to the saint

– showing that the cult of

St Nicholas was first established in Worcester and other major religious centres in the
west of England just before the Norman Conquest.

12

It is important to note in this regard

that Jones has also presented evidence for direct contacts between Worcester and Lower
Lotharingia at that time.

13

Notwithstanding that Charles Jones must have been correct in stressing that

St Nicholas

’s cult penetrated Normandy and Anglo-Saxon England initially from

Ottonian Germany, it is only after the Norman Conquest and under the influence of
Normans that the saint began to be repeatedly chosen as a titular saint for churches and
abbeys in England, especially among Norman ecclesiastical foundations.

14

This fact corre-

sponds to the leading role of Normans in the propagation of the cult in Western Europe in
the second half of the 11th century. The most influential event in this process was, of
course, the translation of the relics of St Nicholas from Myra to Bari in 1087, undertaken by
Italian Normans,

15

which led to the establishment in 1089 of the Catholic feast on 9 May

dedicated to this event. As a result of these developments, St Nicholas became a popular
saint all around Europe during the 12th century, when the number of Latin manuscripts
with the hagiographic works dedicated to the saint increased considerably.

16

2.

The spread of the cult of St Nicholas in early Rus

’ (c. 1000–1150)

2.1.

The cult in southern Rus

’ in the 11th century

The cult of St Nicholas in early Rus

’ has been presented within the above-mentioned

‘divided West and East’ paradigm as shaped exclusively by a Byzantine influence. So,
Western scholars like Meisen and Jones have uncritically referred to the entry from the
Primary Chronicle

that mentions a church of St Nicholas in Kiev in its record of the year

882.

17

Yet, in this entry, a church of St Nicholas is mentioned in an early-12th-century

narrative in order to identify for the author

’s contemporary readers the place where the

mythical Viking leader Askold had been buried more than two centuries earlier.

18

Kievan

Rus

’ was officially converted by Prince Vladimir the Great more than a century after 882,

when St Nicholas was unknown in both Rus

’ and Scandinavia. Hence, this reference

should be taken for what it is, namely an act of remembrance of the distant past at a time
when the cult of St Nicholas became popular in Rus

’ in the late 11th and early 12th

centuries. This misunderstood reference apart, surviving evidence suggests that the cult
of St Nicholas began to spread in early Rus

’ at approximately the same time as in

Normandy and England.

It is beyond doubt that the knowledge and veneration of St Nicholas were brought to

early Rus

’ along with the Byzantine cult of saints. His feast on 6 December was

celebrated in the early Russian liturgy in accordance with the Byzantine tradition,

19

and there is ample evidence that the saint was highly respected in 11th-century Kiev. For
instance, St Nicholas was depicted together with the most venerated church fathers in the
apse of St Sophia in Kiev in the 1040s.

20

St Nicholas

’s popularity in southern Rus’ in the

mid-11th century can be corroborated by the fact that Sviatoslav Jaroslavich, prince of
Chernigov from 1054 to 1073 and grand prince of Kiev from 1073 to 1076, became the
first Rurikid to choose the name of St Nicholas as a baptismal name and to place it along

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with the image of the patron saint on his princely seals.

21

Moreover, the Life of Feodosij,

written by Monk Nestor in the Kievan Caves Monastery in the mid-1080s, mentions that
the mother of this first monastic saint (d. 1074) in early Rus

’ was admitted by a local

princess to a convent of St Nicholas in Feodosij

’s lifetime – that is, in the third quarter of

the 11th century.

22

Yet, the existence of such a convent cannot be corroborated by other

written evidence. Furthermore, in his Lesson on St Boris and St Gleb written approxi-
mately between 1075 and 1085, Nestor stresses the importance of St Nicholas

’s feast day

on 6 December in the description of a posthumous miracle of the holy brothers, which
suggests the importance of the saint

’s cult in Kiev at the time and in the Kievan Caves

Monastery in particular. In the same miracle, Nestor also mentions a church of St
Nicholas,

23

which might have been founded in Kiev by Prince Sviatoslav, occupying

the Kievan throne from 1073

–76. Such a foundation would have corresponded to the

pattern displayed by Sviatoslav

’s brothers. When ruling in Kiev, they founded churches

dedicated to their own patron saints, correspondingly, Iziaslav to St Michael (1070) and
Vsevolod to St Andrew (1086).

24

The church of St Nicholas mentioned by Nestor may

also well be the same one as referred to in the Primary Chronicle in its record of 882.

2.2.

The growing popularity of the cult in Novgorod in the late 11th and the first half of

the 12th centuries

In contrast to Kiev in the south, St Nicholas seems to have been slightly less popular at the
time in Novgorod. At least, he is not mentioned in a list of major liturgical feasts of autumn
and early winter written on a birch-bark letter (no. 913) found in the early administrative
headquarters of Novgorod in the layer of the third quarter of the 11th century. Meanwhile,
this list mentions such popular holy figures as St Demetrios, St Cosma and St Damian,
St Barbara and St Michael the Archangel.

25

It seems that the less-prominent position of

St Nicholas in Novgorod compared to Kiev mirrored the influence that the clan of Iziaslav, a
brother of Sviatoslav Jaroslavich, exercised in that northern town in the 1050s and 1060s.
In the 1060s and 1070s, the two brothers were fighting for the Kievan throne, with the
result that Iziaslav and his family had to flee to Poland and Germany in 1073 and remain
abroad until the death of Sviatoslav in 1076. It is known that a son of Sviatoslav, Gleb, was
prince of Novgorod from c. 1068 to 1078. Hence, the birch-bark calendar must have been
written before c. 1068, when Iziaslav

’s clan promoted his patron saint, St Demetrios and

the patron saint of his son Sviatopolk, St Michael, but must have discouraged the promotion
of the patron saint of his rival relative, St Nicholas. This antagonism must have faded away
after Gleb became prince of Novgorod c. 1068, and another birch-bark letter (no. 914)
found at the same site and probably written in the 1070s mentions St Nicholas along with
St Clement and St Demetrios.

26

Novgorod became much more important for the cult of St Nicholas in Rus

’ in the

12th century, and the saint became more popular in the north of medieval Rus

’ than in

the south.

27

A stone church dedicated to St Nicholas was founded in Novgorod in 1113,

becoming the second largest in the town after the Episcopal Cathedral of St Sophia, which was
located on the other side of the Volkhov River dividing the city into two parts.

28

The precise

location of this newly built church of St Nicholas also emphasized its importance: it was built
adjacent to Novgorod

’s market, which was the centre of both trade and social life.

29

A later legend connected this event to the discovery of a miraculous round icon of St

Nicholas floating along the Volkhov River. This story relates to the fact that the earliest

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surviving icons of the saint were produced in northern Rus

’ in the 12th century, and

fragments of a bronze frame for an icon of St Nicholas were found in Novgorod, in a layer
dated to between 1125/30 and 1185/90.

30

Such references to icons are significant, since

in the Orthodox Church miraculous icons of saints played a role similar to saints

’ relics in

the West. So, a vibrant cult of a saint could have been established around a miraculous
icon, even without authentic relics.

It is important to emphasize again that the growing popularity of St Nicholas in

Novgorod corresponds to the period when the town was no longer controlled by the
clan of Iziaslav. The church of St Nicholas was founded by a grandson of Vsevolod
Jaroslavich, Mstislav (prince of Novgorod from c. 1091 to 1095

31

and 1096 to 1117 and

grand prince of Kiev from 1125 to 1132) and completed by his son Vsevolod (prince of
Novgorod from 1117 to 1136). From the time of its foundation, that church was closely
linked with Novgorodian princes; for example, in 1136, amidst a civil conflict between the
Novgorodians and princes, the Novgorodian bishop Nifont refused to perform the marriage
ceremony of Prince Sviatoslav Olgovich in St Sophia, and the prince instead had his wedding
ceremony performed by his own priests in the Church of St Nicholas. This connection of the
cult of St Nicholas with Novgorodian princes was further confirmed by the foundation of
another church dedicated to this saint at the princely residence in 1165.

32

At the same time, the Novgorodian urban elite also began to patronize the cult of St

Nicholas in Novgorod, which became especially important from the late 1130s onwards,
due to diminished princely authority in the town. The First Novgorod Chronicle did not fail to
mention that posadnik (the head of the Novgorodian civil administration) Dobrynia died in
1117 on 6 December; that is, on the feast day of St Nicholas.

33

Furthermore, in 1135

–36, a

powerful Novgorodian boyar and/or merchant, Irozhnet, demonstrated his dedication to
the cult by founding a church of St Nicholas in the Nerevskij konec.

34

It is exactly in this

decade (the 1130s), when we have clear evidence of the popularity of St Nicholas among
the urban elite engaged in international trade, that the First Novgorod Chronicle notes some
trading expeditions of Novgorodians to the western shores of the Baltic Sea.

2.3.

The translation of the relics of St Nicholas to Bari and early Rus

’

The growing popularity of St Nicholas in Novgorod in the first half of the 12th century
corresponds to a similar process in Northern Europe, which raises the question of to what
extent the Novgorodian development was linked to the West. The Catholic feast on
9 May, dedicated to the translation of the relics of St Nicholas from Asia Minor to Bari in
southern Italy, was hardly acceptable to the Byzantine Church. By contrast, the new
Western feast was incorporated into the early Kievan liturgy almost immediately (the
feast of Nikola veshnij)

– probably between 1089 and 1093

35

– testified to by the original

early Russian text, a sermon on the translation of the relics of St Nicholas to Bari,
composed soon after this event.

36

On the one hand, the Kievan archbishop Nicholas

(c. 1091

–1104) could have had a personal interest in the promotion of the feast of his

namesake.

37

On the other hand, Nazarenko suggests that the tight contacts of early Rus

’

and its rulers with Western Europe must also have contributed to the introduction of the
feast in Kiev. In his opinion, Grand Prince Vsevolod Jaroslavich had a hand in the
promotion of the new Western feast at the time when the Kievan archbishopric was
vacant.

38

It is important to stress in this regard that in the 1060s and 1070s, Vsevolod was

always on the side of his brother Sviatoslav, and his possible promotion of the new feast

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dedicated to the patron saint of his brother would correspond to his earlier political
actions. One way or another, the adoption of this Western feast in early Rus

’ indicates, as

Sophia Senyk puts it,

‘that in the late eleventh century there was as yet no consciousness

of a schism in the Christian Church

’.

39

In this wider European perspective, the dynastic links of Prince Mstislav

Vladimirovich, whom the Novgorodian chronicle credited with founding the first stone
church of St Nicholas in 1113, are quite interesting. His mother was Gytha of Wessex, a
daughter of the last Anglo-Saxon king, Harald; she had fled to Flanders and thereafter to
Denmark to King Sven Estridsen before she married Prince Vladimir Monomakh
(c. 1075).

40

In the West, Mstislav was known as Harald; his mother most likely gave

him this name after his Anglo-Saxon grandfather, in addition to the princely name. She
was a devoted Christian, as illustrated by her probable participation in the first Crusade
and her death in Palestine in 1098/99; and she must have influenced the religious views of
her son, with whom she probably stayed in the final years of her life. Nazarenko has
shown that her close ties with the cloister of St Pantaleon at Cologne led to the
promotion of the saint

’s cult in Novgorod to the extent that Pantaleon became the

patron saint of Mstislav

’s son, Iziaslav. Nazarenko has also suggested that the miracle of St

Panteleon involving Harald

–Mstislav, which can be dated to the 1090s and which was

written down in the cloister of St Panteleon in the early 12th century, influenced the
legend describing the foundation of the church of St Nicholas in Novgorod in 1113.

41

This

evidence is especially significant since, as mentioned above, Cologne was one of the few
centres in Lower Lotharingia that promoted the cult of St Nicholas across Northern
Europe. Gytha

’s connections thus clearly show one of the channels by which the growing

popularity of St Nicholas in Northern Europe might have contributed to the further
promotion of the saint in Novgorod.

3.

The early cult of St Nicholas in Denmark and Norway

(c. 1100

–1130)

3.1.

Medieval Denmark

The cult of St Nicholas began to spread in late 11th-century Denmark, around the time
when Gytha stayed there before her marriage to Vladimir Monomakh in the early
1070s.

42

This can be evidenced by the fact that at that time a son of King Sven

Estridsen, Niels (king of Denmark from 1104 to 1134), was named after the saint.
Thus, the name of Nicholas was introduced into the Danish royal dynasty almost at the
same time as in the dynasty of the Rurikids. The earliest cathedral church of Aarhus has
been traditionally described as dedicated to St Nicholas from the time of its foundation.

43

Based on its architectural features, Hubert Krins has suggested that the church must have
been constructed in the 1070s or 1080s. Krins has also argued that the type of crypt in the
Aarhus Cathedral follows prototypes from the Lower Rhine region, where similar
architectural structures were built up to the middle of the 11th century. Moreover,
the type of church, Saalkirche mit Krypten, is quite rare; another such example is the
church of St Pantaleon in Cologne (dedicated in 980).

44

Thus, the architectural features

of the earliest Aarhus cathedral connect it to Lower Lotharingia, which was pivotal in the
early dissemination of the cult of St Nicholas in Normandy and Anglo-Saxon England.

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Yet, this data must be treated with circumspection, since it is only in later medieval
sources that this cathedral church is mentioned as connected to St Nicholas earlier: for
example, the Life of St Niels describes the cathedral as dedicated to the saint in the late
12th century.

45

Furthermore, its later assumed re-dedication to St Clement looks

strange, considering that in Scandinavia St Nicholas became a more popular saint than
St Clement from the 12th century onwards.

46

We are on much safer chronological ground with another early dedication to

St Nicholas in Denmark, namely the Slangerup nunnery on Sjælland, which was one of
the earliest monastic foundations in Denmark and was founded by King Erik Ejegod (king
of Denmark from 1095 to 1103) around the year 1100.

47

Erik Cinthio has suggested that

King Erik acquired precious relics of the saint on his trip to Rome and Bari in 1098,

48

after which the king founded the Slangerup nunnery to host them. The mid-13th-century
Knýtlinga saga

describes him meeting Pope Paschal II and making donations to various

ecclesiastic institutions, and supports this evidence by quoting some stanzas from Markús
Skeggjason

’s poem Eiríksdrápa from c. 1104.

49

Although the saga does not mention Erik

’s

acquisition of relics on this trip, his visit to Bari

– along with references to his generous

donations, which might have been reciprocated with relics

– makes Cinthio’s proposition

quite possible.

By contrast, in the early 13th century Saxo Grammaticus reports a legendary story

that, when King Erik went on his pilgrimage to the Holy Land via Rus

’, he visited

Constantinople and received a collection of relics from the Byzantine emperor. Most of
the relics were sent to Roskilde and Lund, but the relics of St Nicholas and a splinter of
the Holy Cross were sent to the place of Erik

’s birth, Slangerup.

50

The text indicates that

the relics of St Nicholas were treated as the most precious in the collection, but it is less
certain that they reached Slangerup from Constantinople. By the time of Erik

’s pilgrim-

age in 1103, the relics of St Nicholas had already been translated from Myra to Bari,
although some relics of a saint as popular as St Nicholas must have been kept in
Constantinople, close to the imperial palace; for example, in the Nea Church, which
before 1204 was in possession of

‘a great treasure of sacred relics’.

51

This church must

have had relics of the saint to whom it was partly dedicated. All in all, although Saxo

’s

story is impossible to verify, the Byzantine provenance of St Nicholas

’s relics in Slangerup

remains a possibility as plausible as the south Italian one. At the same time, the entire
story might have been invented by Saxo in his attempt to glorify the ancient and recent
Danish kings, presenting them as equal to Roman and Byzantine emperors.

After the foundation of the Slangerup nunnery, almost a dozen churches (eight or

nine) dedicated to St Nicholas were founded in 12th-century Denmark, including the see
of the Danish archbishopric, Lund.

52

If we leave the dubious case of Aarhus aside, none of

these churches were cathedrals. So the Danish evidence shows that the early cult of the
saint in Denmark was promoted by kings like Sven Estriden and Erik Ejegod, with the
open possibility of an influence from Lower Lotharingia, which was so important for the
dissemination of the cult in North-Western Europe. As to the relics of the saint, they
were most likely acquired in Bari or Byzantium.

3.2.

Norway

In Norway, the early cult of St Nicholas can be dated to approximately the same time as
in Denmark.

53

Here the feast of the saint was included in the lists of the most important

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holidays in the Gulating Law (Chapter 18) and Eidsivating Law (Chapter 9), most likely
in the first half of the 12th century. This textual evidence corresponds to the earliest
church dedications to St Nicholas in Trondheim and Oslo, which are dated to the early
12th century. The introduction of the cult of St Nicholas in Norway has traditionally been
connected to an English influence, which corresponds to the fact that the earliest
fragment with a part of St Nicholas

’s Office found in the diocese of Nidaros was written

in the west of England

– the main centre of the saint’s cult at the time of the Norman

conquest

– in the early 12th century.

54

At the same time, it is noteworthy that, similar to

the Slangerup nunnery, the earliest church dedications to St Nicholas were connected to
Norwegian royalty. Haakon Christie has stated that the parish church of St Nicholas in
Oslo was built by the year 1100 near the royal castle, although he has not provided any
evidence for such an assertion, and the earliest written reference to this church is dated to
the mid-13th century.

55

The erection of the church in Trondheim can be dated more precisely. According to

saga evidence, the church, embellished with much artwork, was founded in the royal
palace by King Eystein Magnusson, while his brother, Sigurd Jorsalfar (1103

–30),

travelled to Jerusalem and visited England, Iberia, Sicily, Byzantium (including
Constantinople) and Germany from 1108 to 1111.

56

Still, it is possible that the church

in question was founded by Sigurd upon his return to Norway, since if some of the relics
of St Nicholas were deposited at the time of foundation, then they must have been
brought by Sigurd, not Eystein. Sagas report, for instance, that Sigurd brought a splinter
of the Holy Cross from his voyage. Moreover, St Nicholas was popular in most of the
regions Sigurd visited, which might have influenced his choice of church dedication. He
might also have acquired a relic of St Nicholas on his voyage

– for example, in

Constantinople. In addition, later sources from Bergen state that King Eystein founded
a church of St Nicholas in that town, which may explain the later confusion with a similar
dedication in Trondheim. The church of St Nicholas in Bergen is mentioned in written
sources as existing in the late 12th century and the late-19th-century excavations of its
remains showed a Romanesque stone structure of the 12th century.

57

It is known that

Eystein founded the Munkeliv monastery in Bergen, dedicated to St Michael. A marble
royal head with the inscription Eystein rex has been found there and dated to the second
quarter of the 12th century. According to Knut Helle, this is an artefact without any
parallel in medieval Norwegian art, and King Eystein is presented here wearing a crown
of the Byzantine type.

58

So, similar to Erik Ejegod

’s possible acquisition of St Nicholas’s

relics in Constantinople, a Byzantine link might have been of some significance in the case
of the Norwegian kings Sigurd and Eystein.

Another important fact is that in the years following his southbound voyage, Sigurd

married Malmfrid, a daughter of Prince Mstislav, the prince who as mentioned above
founded the stone church of St Nicholas in Novgorod in 1113, at approximately the same
time that a similar church was founded in Trondheim. Thus, it is difficult to avoid
the conclusion that a dynastic connection between the two royal families in Norway and
Rus

’ might also have been somehow involved in these parallel dedications. It is also

noteworthy that a Varangian church of St Olaf, whose cult was focused on Trondheim
(the main town of Sigurd

’s realm), was built in Novgorod, most likely in the early

12th century.

59

Moreover, the mother of Malmfrid was Kristina, the daughter of King Ingi

Steinkelsson of Sweden; Malmfrid

’s sister was Ingeborg, who married Knud Lavard, a

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son of Erik Ejegod.

60

Finally, after the death of Sigurd in 1130, Malmfrid married Erik

Emune, who soon thereafter defeated King Niels (Nicholas) and became king of
Denmark. This short overview of the tight matrimonial ties between the ruling families
in early-12th-century Norway, Denmark, Sweden and northern Rus

’ suggests that the

promotion of St Nicholas by one family would have easily become known to the others
and would have encouraged them to make similar church dedications. Thus, regardless of
whether or not a Byzantine influence or the role of a

‘Sigurd–Mstislav’ connection is

true, the presented evidence points to the crucial role of royal families and their dynastic
contacts in the early spread of the cult of St Nicholas in Scandinavia.

4.

The early church dedications to St Nicholas in the Baltic region

(the 12th century)

4.1.

Pomerania

The evidence from Denmark and northern Rus

’ shows that the cult of St Nicholas

was established on the western and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea at the turn of
the 12th century. In this perspective, the early church dedications to the saint in the
12th-century Baltic region are quite interesting. In northern and central Poland,
the earliest churches dedicated to St Nicholas seem to date to the 12th century; in
Giecz, the earliest structure of such a church has been dated to the late 11th century.

61

In

Poznan, a similar church existed in the 12th century.

62

The existing data also suggests

that church dedications to St Nicholas became very popular in Pomerania at the early
stage of Christianization; that is, in the 12th century.

63

The first evidence of this trend is

Gdansk, where, according to archaeological data, the church of St Nicholas seems to have
been one of the earliest churches and can be dated to as late as the second half of the 12th
century.

64

The second example is the town of Kamien in Western Pomerania, which

developed as a large fortified settlement in the 11th century, where a church dedicated to
the saint was probably founded in the 12th century.

65

It is important to notice that

Kamien was located on the trade route from northern Germany to the Novgorodian
territory. In both lands, the cult of St Nicholas became popular in the 12th century and
could thus offer a unifying patron saint for sailors and merchants involved in the trade
across the Baltic. In this role, St Nicholas might have easily appealed to townsfolk
involved in the Baltic trade, regardless of their confession. During their business
transactions, they could equally swear oaths by his name in different towns involved in
trade across the Baltic, such as Novgorod or Gdansk. The location of the earliest stone
church of St Nicholas in Novgorod, adjacent to its market, is quite telling in this regard.

4.2. Medieval Sweden

Sigtuna probably had the earliest church of St Nicholas in Sweden. This church was referred
to in written sources as early as 1304 and described in the 17th century as a Russian church.
It has been suggested that, in the Middle Ages, St Nicholas Church functioned as a private
church and the church of merchants. There are ongoing excavations around its place in
Sigtuna, and it seems that the stone church can now be safely dated to the second half of the
12th century.

66

At the same time, Sten Tesch argues that this church was erected in the first

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half of the 12th century along with another six stone churches, built as a manifestation of the
new Christian power of the king, bishop and magnates. Indeed, the location of these
churches seems to suggest that there was some degree of coordinated effort in the process
of their construction. Upon completion, these churches created a new sacred street, which
must have been used for ceremonial processions from the church of St Peter to the church
of St Olaf.

67

The church of St Nicholas was right in the middle of that street. Unlike the

other churches, it has three even apses, a nave and two aisles, and reminds us of the
structures of Byzantine provincial churches. Therefore, all these features

– along with

the evidence that this church was known as Russian in the early modern period

– suggest

that it followed an Orthodox rite and that the cult of St Nicholas arrived in Sigtuna most
likely from Novgorod due to intensive political and trading contacts. That is why it has been
suggested that the church of St Nicholas in Sigtuna was founded and owned by Novgorodian
merchants, similar to the church of St Nicholas in Visby, which has been dated to the
second half of the 12th century.

68

Meanwhile, the assumingly Orthodox church seems to

have been built along with the churches following the Latin rite within one building project
supported by official authorities. This feature reminds us of a Byzantine connection and
royal involvement with regard to the early cult of St Nicholas in Denmark and Norway. It
also suggests that, as far as the cult of St Nicholas in Sigtuna is concerned, the distinction
between Latin and Byzantine rites was less important in the 12th century, and that the
churches following the two rites coexisted within a single religious landscape. After all, the
feast of this saint was celebrated in Western and Eastern Christianity on the same day: 6
December. Furthermore, it is noteworthy that the saints to whom the early churches of
Sigtuna were dedicated also held prominent positions in Novgorod at the time. The
churches of St Olaf and St Peter following a Latin rite existed there and were owned
correspondingly by the Gotlandic and German merchants and St Peter along with St Paul
was especially venerated in northern Rus

’.

5.

Conclusions

In summary, the analysed evidence shows that, before the turn of the 12th century, the cult
of St Nicholas, originating from the Byzantine town of Myra in Asia Minor, was dissemi-
nated from the European south to the north via two main channels. On the one hand, a
western route connected 9th-century Italy with Carolingian Francia and Ottonian
Germany. In the first half of the 11th century, the cult spread further to Normandy,
and from the mid-11th century to Anglo-Saxon England. Lower Lotharingia and its
cathedral culture seem to have been a key factor in the promotion of the cult of St
Nicholas and its Latin liturgy in North-Western Europe in the 11th century, and it may
well be that the cult first arrived in Denmark in the late 11th century from Lower
Lotharingia. On the other hand, an eastern channel linked late 10th-century Byzantium
and newly converted Rus

’ and its major town, Kiev – with St Nicholas being imported

along with other Byzantine saints. In the 11th century, St Nicholas was also known in
northern Rus

’ and its main centre, Novgorod, but there is no evidence indicating his

popularity there.

The situation began to change at the turn of the 12th century, when these two

routes converged in Scandinavia and northern Rus

’. In the 1090s, the Latin feast

dedicated to the translation of the relics of St Nicholas from Asia Minor to Bari in Italy
was accepted in Kievan Rus

’, but not in Byzantium. Furthermore, in the first half of the

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12th century the cult of St Nicholas spread in Scandinavia and northern Rus

’ within one

single process. This growing popularity of St Nicholas was initially due to royal
patronage (especially in the first quarter of the 12th century) and royal dynastic
contacts among the members of the ruling families in Norway, Sweden, Denmark
and Rus

’. This royal involvement may also explain possible Byzantine links for the cult

of St Nicholas in Scandinavia at its earliest stage. At the next stage (probably from the
second quarter of the 12th century and certainly from the mid-12th century), the cult
of St Nicholas was ardently supported by trading elites in the Baltic Sea region,
regardless of their confessional affiliation. St Nicholas provided merchants and sailors
on the Latin and Orthodox shores of the Baltic Sea with a unifying patron saint, whom
they could beseech for holy protection and support on their trading expeditions across
Northern Europe. They could all celebrate the feast of their saint on the same day, 6
December

– unlike some other feasts of universal saints that were performed on

different days in the Latin and Orthodox Churches.

Thus, the material analysed in this article suggests that, as far as some aspects of the

medieval cult of saints are concerned, the confessional division between Catholicism and
Orthodox Christianity in Northern Europe

69

could not interrupt religious interactions

and exchange across the early Christian North until as late as the 12th century. Of course,
the liturgy of St Nicholas was performed differently and in different languages within the
two rites. Yet, the cult of saints was not limited to the liturgy of saints. The cult of saints
was a wider social phenomenon, in which political and dynastic links and cultural and
trading contacts across Northern Europe often mattered more than liturgical, theological
and ecclesiastical differences. When we leave the liturgy aside and turn to kings, princes,
traders and other folk interacting across the early Christian North, then an institutional
approach with its excessive emphasis on confessional borders is less useful for our
understanding of how some aspects of Christian culture were communicated across
Northern Europe in the first two centuries after conversion. It is these wider socio-
political, economic and cultural contexts that explain why St Nicholas was first promoted
by kings and princes in this region, and later became the patron saint par excellence of
sailors and merchants.

Notes

1

Magdalino,

‘Introduction’, xii.

2

For more details, see Haki Th. Antonsson and Garipzanov, Saints and Their Lives,
especially chapters 2

–5.

3

Meisen, Nicholauskult und Nicholausbrauch, 56

–88; summarized in Mezger, Sankt

Nikolaus

, 17

–22. On the convergence of Nicholas of Myra and Nicholas of Sion in

the early Byzantine cult of St Nicholas, see Sevcenko, The Life of St Nicholas, 18

–21.

4

For details, see Sevcenko, The Life of St Nicholas, 20

–1. Its primary dedication seems

to have been to St Michael the Archangel; see Majeska, Russian Travelers to
Constantinople

, 248.

5

For details and references, see Treharne, The Old English Life of St Nicholas, 34

–5.

6

Meisen, Nicholauskult und Nicholausbrauch, 89

–104; and Treharne, The Old English Life

of St Nicholas

, 35

–42.

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7

See Jones, The Saint Nicholas Liturgy, 10

–13 and 64–89; and Jones, Saint Nicholas of

Myra

, 140

–4.

8

Jones, The Saint Nicholas Liturgy, 66

–73; and Jones, Saint Nicholas of Myra, 147–9.

9

Gazeau, Normannia monastica, vol. 1, 188

–9, 197.

10

Lapidge, Anglo-Saxon Litanies, 64, 79, 107, 245.

11

Jones, The Saint Nicholas Liturgy, 7

–41.

12

Treharne, The Old English Life of St Nicholas, 39

–40.

13

Jones, Saint Nicholas of Myra, 142

–4. St Nicholas is also included in the litany of the

saints in a Gallican psalter (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Douce 296), on
paleographical grounds dated to the second quarter of the 11th century, but its
origin remains obscure: Lapidge, Anglo-Saxon Litanies, 78, 237.

14

For details and references, see Treharne, The Old English Life of St Nicholas, 42

–5.

15

On this event and connections between Normandy and the Normans in Apulia and
Calabria, see Chibnall,

‘The Translation of the Relics of Saint Nicholas’, 33–41.

16

See Philippart and Trogalet,

‘L’hagiographie latine du XI

e

siècle

’, 299.

17

Meisen, Nicholauskult und Nicholausbrauch, 57; Jones, Saint Nicholas of Myra, 85.

18

Povest

’ vremennykh let, 76–9.

19

Loseva, Russkije mesiatseslovy XI

–XIV vekov, 218.

20

See Lazarev, Mozaiki Sofiji Kievskoj, 34; and Lazarev, Old Russian Murals, 227

–9.

21

Janin, Aktovyje pechati Drevnej Rusi X-XV vv., vol. 1, 34

–5; Janin and Gaidukov, Aktovyje

pechati Drevnej Rusi X

–XV vv., vol. 3, 115–16.

22

See the Life of Feodosij in Hollingsworth, The Hagiography of Kievan Rus

’, 45.

Hollingsworth thinks that this princess may have been the wife or sister of Iziaslav
Jaroslavich, who was grand prince of Kiev from 1054 to 1073 and 1076 to 1078. On
the dating of the text and related historiography, see ibid., liv

–lx.

23

Lesson on the Life and Murder of the Blessed Passion-Sufferers Boris and Gleb

, in

Hollingsworth, The Hagiography of Kievan Rus

’, 28–9. For the discussion of its dating

and corresponding bibliography, see ibid., xxxv.

24

Povest

’ vremennykh let, 215, 243.

25

Zalizniak, Drevnenovgorogskij dialect, 281

–2.

26

Ibid., 283.

27

Uspenskij, Filologicheskije razyskanija, 31.

28

Novgorodskaja pervaja letopis

’, 20, 203.

29

Dejevsky,

‘The Churches of Novgorod’, 212.

30

See Medyntseva, Gramotnost

’ v drevnej Rusi, 127.

31

On the dates of the early reign of Mstislav, see Nazarenko, Drevniaja Rus

’, 548–50.

32

Novgorodskaja pervaja letopis

’, 24, 32, 209, 219.

33

Ibid., 20, 204.

34

Ibid., 23, 208. For details, see Dejevsky,

‘The Churches of Novgorod’, 215–18.

35

Nazarenko, Drevniaja Rus

’, 358, 557, 596; and Senyk, A History of the Church in Ukraine,

366

–7.

36

For details on this text and the time of its composition, see Cioffari, La leggenda di Kiev,
43

–71.

37

His seals have survived; see Janin, Aktovyje pechati Drevnej Rusi X

–XV vv., vol. 1, 48.

38

Nazarenko, Drevniaja Rus

’, 557–8.

39

Senyk, A History of the Church in Ukraine, 367.

40

See Bolton,

‘English Political Refugees’, 19–20.

41

Nazarenko, Drevnaja Rus

’, 585–616.

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42

See Franklin,

‘Kievan Rus’ (1015–1125)’, 91.

43

See Cinthio,

‘Heiligenpatrone und Kirchenbauten’, 168; and Michelsen and de Fine

Licht, Danmarks Kirker: Århus Amt, vol. 3, 1036

–7.

44

Krins, Die frühen Steinkirchen Danemarks, 88

–9.

45

De vita et miraculi beati Nicolai Arusiensis

, 400.

46

Bjørn and Gotfredsen, Århus domkirke, 29

–32.

47

Nyberg, Monasticism in North-Western Europe, 206; and Haki Antonsson,

‘Saints and Relics’,

64.

48

Cinthio,

‘Heiligenpatrone und Kirchenbauten’, 168.

49

Knýtlinga saga

, c. 74, in Danakonungasögur, 217

–20; Phelpstead, ‘Pilgrims,

Missionaries and Martyrs

’, 62; and Haki Antonsson, ‘Claims to Papal Canonizations

of Saints in Scandinavia and Elsewhere

’.

50

‘Et ne ortus sui locum locum veneratione vacuum sineret, Slagathorpiam cum Nicolai
sacratissimis ossibus divini patibuli particulam transtulit

’. Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta

Danorum

, XII.7,4, vol. 2, 80. Haki Antonsson,

‘Saints and Relics’, 64, seems to accept

the reliability of this account.

51

Majeska, Russian Travelers to Constantinople, 249. He adds that

‘by later Palaeologan

times all the relics seem to have been dispersed either in the West or among other
churches of Constantinople

’.

52

Beskow,

‘Kyrkededikationer i Lund’, 54.

53

Margaret Cormack shows that in Iceland, the cult of St Nicholas also spread during the
12th century, most likely around the mid-12th century, slightly after it spread in
Norway: Cormack, The Saints in Iceland, 14, 18, 21, 28, 47, 56, 134

–8.

54

Gjerløw, Antiphonarium Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae, 48.

55

Christie,

‘Old Oslo’, 48–50; and Dietrichson, Sammenlignede Fortegnelse, 6.

56

The Saga of the Sons of Magnús

, 699.

57

Helle, Bergen bys historie, vol. 1, 139

–40. I am thankful to Geir Atle Ersland for

pointing this out to me.

58

Ibid., 114, 662.

59

For details and references, see Jackson,

‘The Cult of St Olaf and Early Novgorod’.

60

The Saga of the Sons of Magnús

, 702.

61

The remains of the first church were found under the area of St Nicholas

’s church.

According to stratigraphical data, the earliest church is dated from the late 10th to
12th or 13th centuries. Teresa Krysztofiak believes that the building techniques
applied there suggest the late 11th century as a probable starting date. See Buko,
The Archaeology of Early Medieval Poland

, 319.

62

Poznan was an episcopal see in the 12th century, and at that time St Nicholas

’s church

existed inside the fortified area of Zagorze. See Kócka-Krenz, Kara, and Makowiecki,

‘The Beginnings, Development and the Character’, 161. In Wisliza, in southern
Poland, St Nicholas

’s church was founded probably as late as the mid-12th century;

Buko, The Archaeology of Early Medieval Poland, 292. According to Joanna Kalaga, this
church was founded in the second half of the 11th or early 12th century; see
Gassowsky,

‘Early Medieval Wisliza’, 345.

63

The bishopric of Wolin was founded in 1140 and subordinated to the Papal Curia. See
Blomquist, The Discovery of the Baltic, 138

–40.

64

Buko, The Archaeology of Early Medieval Poland, 253

–4. Paner, ‘The Spatial Development

of Gdansk

’, 23–7, states that the Romanesque church was built in the newly developed

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settlement area in the second half of the 12th century, and the church of St Nicholas was
the second stone church in Gdansk after another one in the stronghold.

65

‘Outside its ramparts there was St. Nicholas’ Church with a biritual cemetery dated to
the 9th

–12th century’. Buko, The Archeology of Early Medieval Poland, 213. This

suggests the 12th century as the time when that church could have been founded.

66

For details and references, see Ros, Staden, kyrkorna, 172

–6; and Wikström, ‘Den

svårfångande kronologin

’, 226.

67

Tesch,

‘Kungen, Kristus och Sigtuna’, 253–4.

68

For details and references, see Ros, Staden, kyrkorna, 175. A silver capsule with the
images of St Nicholas and the Mother of God has been found in central Sweden (at
Almännige in Gästrikland) and provisionally dated to the late 11th century. Piltz, Det
levande Bysans

, 96

–7, considers it a Russian imitation of the Byzantine original, which

would also correspond to Novgorodian connections of the early cult of St Nicholas in
medieval Sweden.

69

For example, see Blomquist, The Discovery of the Baltic, especially 10

–11, who argues

for a profound civilizational division (based on cultural and religious differences)
between the Catholic and Orthodox countries in the Baltic Sea region.

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Ildar H. Garipzanov is Senior Researcher in Medieval History at the University of Bergen,
Norway; Kandidat of Historical Science (Kazan State University, 1991); MA in Medieval

Studies (Central European University, Budapest, 1998); and PhD in Medieval History

(Fordham University, New York, 2004). Among his recent publications are The Symbolic

Language of Authority in the Carolingian World (c. 751

–877) (Leiden: Brill, 2008), and ‘Frontier

Identities: Carolingian Frontier and the gens Danorum

’, in Franks, Northmen, and Slavs:

Identities and State Formation in Early Medieval Europe, ed. Ildar Garipzanov, Patrick Geary,

and Przemys

ław Urban´czyk, 113–42 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2008). Currently, he leads a

research project, entitled

‘The “Forging” of Christian Identity in the Northern Periphery

(c. 820

–1200)’, financed by the Norwegian Research Council. Address: Centre for Medieval

Studies, University of Bergen, PO Box 7800, 5020, Bergen, Norway. [email: ildar.

[e-mail]]

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