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Olav Haraldsson, born in A.D. 995 into the family of Harald Fairhair, grew up in south-eastern Norway. When still in his teens he set out as a Viking and served as an officer for noblemen in England and Normandy. He was baptised in Rouen, where he must have encountered the pious Benedictine movement. Shortly after, in 1015, he set off homeward to claim the royal throne of Norway. On his ship he brought a number of English bishops, indicating that even at this early stage he may have seen converting Norway to Christianity as his calling.

At first it appeared that everything was going his way. He became the first national king to effectively wield his power throughout the entire country, eventually establishing an administrative network and a legal system which made it possible to hold the country together. But some chieftains and farmers in the inland region and in the north gradually became dissatisfied with Olav's rule and he was forced to flee the country.

His final year on earth, A.D. 1030, was spent with his brother-in-law Grand Duke Jaroslav in Kiev. In 1030 he set off homeward to try to regain power. The decisive battle came at Stiklestad on 29 July. However, outnumbered and overpowered by his opponents, the brave King fell in battle. His body was smuggled to Trondheim and buried in the sandbank where Nidaros Cathedral now stands.

Soon, however, wondrous things began to take place. An eclipse of the sun was immediately linked to the battle, thought to bear tidings of the wrath of Heaven, and to signify that Stiklestad was under the shadow of Golgotha, where there was "darkness in the middle of the day".

Rumours of sudden healings attributed to the King were rampant. One of these concerned one of the men who had killed the King, Tore Hund, whose wounded hand was healed after a drop of the King's blood fell on it, causing him to break with his ways and set off on a pilgrimage of atonement to Jerusalem. Olav became Norway's patron saint, and his reputation reached far beyond the borders of his country.

After King Olav had been designated a saint in August 1031, the cult of Olav spread rapidly throughout the Nordic countries, to the British Isles and the Hanseatic towns along the Baltic, finding adherents in the Netherlands, Normandy and even as far away as Spain, Russia and Constantinople. The oldest surviving picture of Olav was painted on a column in the Nativity Church in Bethlehem. We know of at least 340 Olav churches and Olav chapels across Northern Europe. The City of Trondheim - Norway's Historical Capital - became the destination for people seeking to redeem their souls at King Olav's shrine. (Cont.)