Sanctus Augustinus

Eystein Erlendsson was born around 1120 to the high nobility of Trøndelag and schooled in Paris, and he came home to do something no Norwegian had done: build a Church that could outlast the men running it. From 1157 he was Archbishop of Nidaros, and he spent thirty years on the institution rather than on himself.

He codified canon law and founded religious houses. He set down the life and miracles of St Olav in the Passio et Miracula Beati Olavi, fixing the national cult in writing. In 1163 he crowned Magnus Erlingsson, the first Norwegian king consecrated by the Church, and drafted the law of succession that made the crown answerable to it. Above all he raised the great cathedral over Olav's shrine — the building that made Nidaros the pilgrimage of the North.

When King Sverre moved to bend the Church back to the crown, Eystein chose three years of exile in England over surrendering a single liberty, then came home and resumed building where he had left off. He died in 1188 with the cathedral unfinished, which is the correct ending for him. His emblem is a church held in his own hand — not a crown, not a sword, a building.