“Sadly, it isn’t uncommon to find someone who was set apart from their family or who was rejected by society. This week, you could give them back at least part of their story. You could also take a different angle and write about an object that was cast out, or maybe getting a cast off. Feel free to be creative!” prompt from Amy Johnson Crow for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.
I had to reach back a long way for this story. When I first started researching my husbands Icelandic roots a cousin reached out to tell about some of his relatives. Turns out my husband’s 11th great grandfather was the last Catholic priest in Iceland. He ended up being beheaded for refusing to promote Lutheranism in Iceland. Sounds a little more than outcast but he certainly was rejected by the society of that time.
His name was Jón Arason and he was a Roman Catholic bishop and a poet. Jón lived from 1484-November 7, 1550. I found an extensive article about him on Wikipedia which has some very good sources. This is how my husband came to be a descendant, in case you were wondering, “Clerical celibacy was only practiced in medieval Iceland in the sense that priests did not marry their partners, and Jón Arason had at least nine children by his long-time partner Helga Sigurðardóttir, of whom six lived to adulthood.” direct quote from Wikipedia article about Jón Arason.
Jón Arason and two of his sons were captured at the Battle of Sauðafell. The sons names were Ari and Björn. Björn was the 10th great grandfather of my husband. Jón, Ari and Björn were all three beheaded ending the campaign for a Catholic Iceland. There is a statue of Jón in Eyjafjörður, Iceland and a memorial at the place of his execution in Skálholt, southern Iceland. When we get to Iceland we will have to look them up because honestly how many people actually know their 10th and 11th great grandparents let alone have a story to tell about them.
I found a number of references to Bishop Jón being a great poet. I hoped to find a copy of one of his poems. So far I haven’t had any luck with that. There have been books written about Jón and his story and how revered he was in Iceland. One says it is a fictitious account of his life, but I may have to see if I can track down the other book, maybe it will have a few of his poems.
There is a detailed post written on the Icelandic Roots blog by another relative of my husband. It is very well written and worth the read if you have time and interest. Here is a You Tube as well with a little bit of a robotic voice but good information. The surplice of Jón is in the National Museum of Iceland and is one of their treasures. This museum is on our bucket list of places to go in Iceland. According to this article Jón also introduced printing to Iceland. Here is one more article from The Journal of Medieval Studies about Jón.
He was well known, revered and well documented. He was also an outcast from the Danish royals of that time. Most of all he was my husbands 11th great grandfather which is amazing to me. The farthest I have on my tree is a sixth great grandfather and I only know his name. It’s kind of exciting to have a little celebrity in one of our trees.
My Tree in the Forest 