Dedication: St. Magnus, Earl of Orkney (feast day April 16), a Viking Jarl born around 1075 or 1080, the eldest son of Erland, joint ruler (with his brother Paul) of the Orkneys, a group of over 70 islands off the north-east tip of Scotland. As young men, Magnus and his co-heir Hakon, son of Paul, were kidnapped by the usurping King of Norway, Magnus Barefoot, who compelled them into a spot of piracy. This the Christian Magnus resisted, initially staying aboard ship and singing psalms, eventually seeking asylum in a bishop's house at the court of Malcolm III (successor to Macbeth). Returning to Orkney on the death of Magnus Barefoot, Magnus and Hakon resumed the tradition of joint rule, but were goaded by their followers into a power-struggle, which ended violently in April 1116 (or 1115, or 1117) when Hakon treacherously ordered his cousin's murder at what was to have been a reconciliation on the island of Egilsay.
Although his martyrdom was more of a political assassination, Magnus was a sincere and contemplative Christian who led by example and met his death with fortitude, and miraculous cures and phenomena -- including heavenly light and fragrance -- were soon associated with his burial place at Birsay (the site of which is now uncertain). His remains were soon translated to Kirkwall, where the cathedral which bears his name was begun in 1137 by his grand-nephew Rognvald, who later became Earl of Orkney in his own right. Magnus was canonised by the middle of the century, and is said to have appeared to Robert the Bruce in 1314 on the eve of the Battle of Bannockburn, promising him victory. The saint's remains, hidden in less happy days (probably after the Scottish Reformation in the 1560s), were rediscovered in a pillar at Kirkwall in 1917. In the wake of revived interest in the saint, the Bishop of London confirmed the dedication in 1924, during the influential incumbency of the Rev. Henry Joy Fynes-Clinton (rector 1921-59). The church was then substantially refurbished; the statue of St. Magnus in the south aisle, by Martin Travers, commemorates these events. Not least, the rededication dispels the confusion which inclines many earlier writers to attribute the patronage to one of two 3rdC martyrs (a Bishop of Anagni, near Rome, and a layman of Caesarea in Cappadocia) who share a feast day on August 19.
Parish Priest: Fr Philip Warner. (0207 626 4481)
The Church is open for visiting and for prayer Tuesday to Friday 10.00 am to 4.00 pm
The Church of St. Magnus the Martyr, Lower Thames Street,
London EC3R 6DN