The Cult of St Olav in the Baltic Region er en artikkel av Øystein Ekroll, fra 2017. Artikkelen inngår i artikkelsamlinga Sacred Monuments and Practices in the Baltic Sea Region, av redaktørene Janne Harjula, Sonja Hukantaival, Visa Immonen, Anneli Randla og Tanja Ratilainen. Artikkelen er tilgjengelig på Academia.

Within the 500-year span of his cult, from his canonization in 1031 until it was cut short by the Lutheran Reformation in 1536-37, St Olav was the most popular Scandinavian saint who was only partially rivalled by St Bridget towards the end of the Middle Ages. After the initial popularity of the cult in the 12th and 13th centuries one could expect his cult to fade away and be eclipsed by new saints working fresh miracles. In fact, the opposite happened: From the late 14th century, the cult of St Olav was rejuvenated and reached new heights. This development did not originate in Norway but outside Scandinavia and it encompassed a large swath of Northern Europe from Antwerp in the west to Tallinn in the east. Now St Olav became the patron saint for especially merchants and seafarers. The point of gravity of the cult seems to be the town of North Germany that were members of the Hanseatic League.

Even though much work has been put into studying the artistic images of St. Olav and the literaty and liturgical documentation for his cult, not much work has been done on the why and the how: How did his cult manage to keep and even invrease its popularity until the 16th century? Why did the cult of St Olav receive such a new boost in the Late Middle Ages, when Norway was becoming a declining and insignificant country lacking local elites that could promote his cult, and St Olav had become an old-fashioned and less relevant saint with no fresh miracles of his recorded?