Cause for novelist Sigrid Undset’s canonization expected to open in fall

OSV News) — Preparations are underway in Norway to open a canonization cause for the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Sigrid Undset, Bishop Fredrik Hansen of Oslo announced July 8.

“She is far more than an author and Nobel Prize laureate. For us, she is a model of Christian faith, of a life lived in virtue and of the pursuit of holiness,” Bishop Hansen said of Undset during a Mass where he made the announcement.

“She showed a constant and practical concern for the poor. She gave of herself in caring for her daughter, in her commitment to life and to the sanctity of life. Through her many books she has shaped countless believers, inspired them to live in Christ and borne witness to our medieval saints,” he said, according to a press release.

Born in Denmark in 1882 and raised in Norway, Undset is best known for her novel “Kristin Lavransdatter,” a trilogy tracing its protagonist’s life in the Middle Ages. It earned Undset the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928 “principally for her powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages,” according to the Nobel Prize organization.

Her research into medieval Catholicism led her to become Catholic in 1924, and in 1928 she became a Third Order Dominican. During World War II, she fled to New York City, where she publicly advocated for Norwegian resistance to Nazism. She returned to Norway after the end of the war in 1945, and she died in 1949 in Lillehammer, Norway.

Prior to publicizing the initiative, Bishop Hansen presented it to the Nordic Bishops’ Conference, which includes the bishops of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, as well as experts on Undset’s life. Her sainthood cause will formally open in the fall, he said.

Bishop Hansen shared the news at a Mass celebrating the feast of St. Sunniva in the ruins of the Benedictine monastery on Selja, an island that is considered the birthplace of Norwegian Christianity and home to its first diocese. According to legend, the 10th-century Christian queen St. Sunniva fled Ireland to escape marriage to a tyrant and ultimately died on Selja, after which miracles were attributed to the site.

“Like St. Sunniva and her companions, Sigrid Undset, too, must be for us a model of life in Christ,” Bishop Hansen said. He encouraged the faithful to pray for the diocese’s work on her cause.

After the cause is formally opened, Undset will be given the title “servant of God.” Should her cause progress, she would receive the title “venerable” from the pope to recognize her life of heroic Christian virtue. An approved miracle attributed to her intercession would normally then be required for her beatification, with a second approved miracle necessary for her canonization.

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