Selja Abbey and St Sunniva's Cave, Stad

Vestland · Norge · Monastery

According to legend the Irish king's daughter Sunniva fled across the sea from a forced marriage and was driven ashore with her followers on the island of Selja. When chieftains from the mainland came with armed men, they sheltered in the caves in the mountainside and prayed to die there rather than fall into their hands; the rock collapsed and buried them. Long afterwards a marvellous light was said to shine over the island, and remains found in the cave were declared holy. With Sunniva, Norway gained its first saint's cult, the year before the Christianisation at Dragseidet in 997. Around 1090 a Benedictine monastery was founded below the cave, and Selja remained a pilgrimage destination throughout the Middle Ages. The ruins still stand beneath Sunniva's cave, and the stairs up to it are worn by a thousand years of pilgrim feet.

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Hvor ligger Selja Abbey and St Sunniva's Cave, Stad?

Selja Abbey and St Sunniva's Cave, Stad ligger i Vestland, Norge.

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