Archaeology Institute PhD student’s research dates St Magnus reliquary
Research by a UHI Archaeology Institute PhD student suggests the wooden box said to have contained the remains of St Magnus is contemporary with the martyrdom of the 12th century Orkney earl.
The box was recovered in March 1919, during extensive renovation work in St Magnus Cathedral. Within it were human bones, the skull showing clear signs of injury. This led to the remains being heralded as that of Saint Magnus, murdered at Easter in 1116, 1117 or 1118.
Despite this, there was always the possibility that the box and its contents were much later, perhaps introduced to cash in on the medieval pilgrim trade. Alternatively, the wooden reliquary may have been fashioned to protect the relics when they were hidden in the cathedral pillar ahead of the 16th century Scottish Reformation.
But a radiocarbon date secured from the box now suggests it, and by extension the bones, fit the timeframe of St Magnus’ demise.
Jenny Murray, a curator at the Shetland Museum and Archives, is researching Magnus Erlendsson for her SGSAH-funded PhD, which is looking at the physical traces of his cult in the North Atlantic.
Expanding on research carried out by the UHI Archaeology Institute’s Dr Sarah Jane Gibbon, Jenny has been recording sites relating to St Magnus as well as the surviving artefacts associated with his veneration. As part of this she was drawn to the reliquary said to have once held Magnus’ relics.
Jenny explained:
“Funding from the Orkney Archaeology Society allowed me to obtain a radiocarbon date from a small sample of the box lid. This revealed the tree used to construct the box was most likely felled between AD1034 and AD1168.
“This is hugely important on many fronts – it may be Scotland’s earliest surviving wooden reliquary but also strongly suggests that the box was original to the translation of St Magnus’ relics into the cathedral around AD1150, where it remained until 1919.”
Although the bones were reinterred in the cathedral pillar, the box is now on display in the Orkney Museum, Kirkwall.
She added:
“There’s also the strong possibility that the box was fashioned around the time that Magnus’ bones were moved from Birsay to Kirkwall, to awaiting the opening of the cathedral.”
According to the Orkneyinga saga, Magnus’ remains were exhumed around 20 years after his death. They were washed, tested in consecrated fire and, on St Lucy’s Day, “enshrined and placed above the altar” at Christchurch, Birsay.
But, in a dream, Magnus declared he wanted his mortal remains moved to Kirkwall.
The saga states that Bishop William “led a grand procession east to Kirkwall, taking along with them the holy relics of Earl Magnus, and placed the reliquary above the high altar of the church that stood there at that time”. That temporary destination was the little church of St Olaf, where a “A good many miracles happened there immediately after these events.”
Some years later, around 1150, the saint's relics were moved again - this time to the cathedral that had been raised in his honour.
The box, which is 74.5cm long, 25.7cm wide and 17.6cm high, was identified as being made from Scots pine in 1926, a conclusion confirmed by Associate Professor Scott Timpany of the UHI Archaeology Institute, who also extracted and prepared the timber sample for radiocarbon dating.
Although it is not possible to say whether the wooden box held Magnus’ relics throughout that period, and part of the saint’s elaborate shrine at all three locations, there are a few tantalising hints.
The lid has been worn smooth at one end, suggestive of repeated contact. Are we seeing the result of pilgrims touching the sacred reliquary? Likewise, the body is damaged at the same side. It is purely speculative but were eager pilgrims taking fragments and splinters as talismans or keepsakes?
We know, from the saga, that two miscreants made off with gold from the shrine!
The healing properties of the saint’s relics were renowned and well-documented, with the Magnus saga stating that “a good many people kept vigil … beside the holy relic and were cured of their sufferings as long as they invoked Earl Magnus in true faith.”
That perceived healing power may have extended to the fabric of the buildings themselves, with evidence of marks within the cathedral where visitors scraped away tiny quantities of red sandstone – perhaps for curative reasons.
Jenny said:
“The new radiocarbon dating also expands the narrative as to the reliquary’s position within the cathedral and adds an extra level of significance to the notion that the skeletal remains are indeed those of St Magnus.
“In 1926, it was surmised that the box was transferred from the high altar to the column during the extension of the cathedral’s east end in the late 12th century.
“The altar would have been close to the pillar before it was moved into the extended choir. It’s been suggested that the interment within the pillars was intentional – placing the remains of both Magnus and Rognvald in a place of special honour and security.
“One of my PhD supervisors, Dr Sarah Jane Gibbon, has proposed the pillars’ inward-facing position was so the two saints could watch over and ‘protect’ the high altar.
“With St Magnus and St Rognvald being placed within the very fabric of the cathedral, the building itself can be seen as the reliquary and the red sandstone becomes even more special.”
Jenny would like to thank Dr Sarah Jane Gibbon and Associate Professor Scott Timpany, of the UHI Archaeology Institute, Dr Siobhan Cooke-Miller, curator of archaeology at the Orkney Museum, and the Orkney Archaeology Society for their assistance in the project.