Saint Canute of Denmark

Saint Canute IV was king of Denmark from 1080 to 1086. The Roman Martyrology commemorates him on July 10 as a martyr and says that he zealously promoted the worship of God in his kingdom, supported the clergy, and founded the churches of Lund and Odense, and that he was in the end killed by rebels. He is venerated as the patron of Denmark.

He was a natural son of King Sweyn II Estridsen; the name of his mother is not known. He was born in the 1040s, but the exact year is uncertain. In his youth he took part in two expeditions to England against William the Conqueror, the first at the turn of 1069 and 1070, the second in 1075. After his father’s death in 1076 the nobles chose his brother Harald as king, and Canute went into exile in Sweden. He became king after Harald’s death in 1080. He married Adela, daughter of Count Robert the Frisian of Flanders. Their son Charles, later count of Flanders, was murdered in Bruges in 1127 and is venerated as Blessed Charles the Good.

As king he sought to strengthen the Church in Denmark. He supported the bishops and the clergy, gave generously to churches, especially the cathedral of Lund, and worked to introduce the tithe for the Church. He also tried to improve the legal position of foreign clerics and merchants and of freed slaves. At the same time he strengthened royal power: his officials collected the royal dues. His rule was judged differently as early as the Middle Ages: some saw him as a harsh ruler who oppressed the people, others as a strict but just defender of the Church.

In 1085 he prepared a great naval expedition against England, but it never took place: the assembled fleet dispersed. The following year a revolt broke out against him. The sources name various causes for it: heavy taxes and dues, the harshness of the royal tax collectors, and the tithe. The king took refuge on the island of Funen, in Odense.

On July 10, 1086, the rebels surrounded him in the church of Saint Alban in Odense and killed him before the altar, together with his brother Benedict and seventeen men of his retinue. According to the hagiographic account, the king prepared for death in prayer and died on his knees, struck by a spear. After his death the country suffered bad harvests and famine, in which many saw a punishment for the killing of the king, and people began to speak of miracles at his tomb. His life and martyrdom were described at the beginning of the twelfth century by Ælnoth, a cleric from Canterbury who had settled in Odense.

Pope Paschal II approved his cult, and the king’s relics were solemnly translated to a new church in Odense; the sources give the year as 1100 or 1101. That church is today Saint Canute’s Cathedral, and his remains rest in its crypt. Although the revolt also had political and fiscal causes, tradition sees in his death a witness of fidelity to Christ and to the Church. In some calendars he was formerly commemorated on January 19.