Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1980, Síða 207
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prayer to St. Bartholomew (no. 9) has been disfigured beyond
recognition, the prayers to Sts. Simon and Jude (no. 12) and to St.
Matthias (no. 13) have also suffered by transcription. Thus it is
probable that they arrived in Iceland a long time before their transcrip-
tion in our unique manuscript. Anyhow, they would seem very
appropriate for Skålholt Cathedral, dedicated to St. Peter.
Skålholt and Herford
Missions from various countries are recorded in the sources relating
to early Christian times in Iceland. However, as mentioned above (p.
23), the earliest connection of the organized Icelandic Church was with
Germany. The first bishop of Skålholt, Isleifr (1056-80), was educated
at the nunnery of Herford in Westphalia, diocese of Paderborn, famous
as a seat of learning before the rise of the universities; his son and
successor, Gizurr (1082-1118), in Saxony.
The series of the Apostles’ prayers bears witness to a connection
with Germany. I do not suggest that Isleifr or Gizurr should have
brought them back from Herford, or Germany, but it is rather
suggestive that St. Pusinna, patron saint of the Herford community,
should appear in two calendars found in Iceland.2
According to the legend, seven sisters lived as consecrated virgins in
their father’s house in the Perthois around 500. Of the seven sisters,
four were honoured as saints after their death. The historically
important legends are those of St. Pusinna and her sister, St. Liudtrud,
which run largely parallel. The problem of the possible priority of the
Danish prayer-book c. 1500, beginning ‘O sanctus petrus, Sanctus paulus, then hællige
tros aposttels hoffdyngh (ed. MDB 3, nos. 478-89).
Another series, beginning ‘O Petre beatissime, apostolorum maxime’ (AH 15, no.
138), are in a Vadstena prayer-book c. 1500, beginning ‘O hålga hårra sancte petre
yperste apostol’ (ed. SBM, no. 157).
Rhythmic prayers of intercession to the apostles are extant in the Icelandic ‘Tolf
postula kvæbi’; to each apostle has been assigned a strophe, sometimes ending on a
prayer. See Islenzk Mi6aldakvæ6i, ed. Jon Helgason, 2 (Copenhagen 1938), pp. 274-
77.
2 See B. de Gaiffier, La plus ancienne vie de sainte Pusinne de Binson, honorée en
Westphalie: Analecta Bollandiana, 76 (Bruxelles 1958), pp. 188-223.