While tidying up in St. Olav Cathedral, Dom Albert has found several old chalices. The origin of these objects is mostly unknown, but one of them bears an interesting inscription which may throw some light on its history.

This is the background (from «Den katolske kirke i Norge», "The Catholic Church in Norway"):

In 1866 an attempt was made by the North Pole Mission to establish a mission for The Catholic Church in Trondheim. The Belgian priest Elias Maesfranck (b.1819) was active here for a few years. He had already five years experience form the parish in Alta. In Trondheim, the masses were conducted in a rented room, but the time was clearly not right and very little was achieved. After a short while, Maesfranck travelled to the USA to raise funds for the mission in Trondheim. He returned in 1870, but conditions were so disheartning that it seems he gave up the work. In 1872 he returned to Belgium and in 1875 he accepted a call in Detroit, USA.

In 2011 Dom Albert arrives to take up the position as parish priest in Trondheim. During a general clean up he finds several old and partially broken chalices. Under one of them the following inscription can be read: «Elias Maesfranck 1871». This may serve as a silent witness to the work of The Church in Trondheim. The chalices will now be restored and in due time they will again serve their original purpose in the celebration of mass.