María Corina Machado, Venezuelan recipient of last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, on Thursday gave (Visit an external site. The link opens in a new tab.) her Nobel Prize Medal to U.S. president Donald Trump. However, in 1940 a Nobel Prize Medal was sold to help Finland.
Norwegian author Sigrid Undset (1882–1949) received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1928. Four years earlier she had converted and been received into the Catholic Church.
In awarding her the prize, the Swedish Academy commended Undset for her description of Medieval times in the Nordic Countries. The Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy is set in the 14th century, when Norway – like Finland – was Catholic.
In early 1940, during the Winter War, Undset showed her support for the Finnish war effort by donating her Nobel Prize. In total, Norwegians collected some 2.4 million Norwegian kroner in cash and material aid valued at more than half a million kroner in support of Finland.
Undset also took in three Finnish children evacuated during the war. Originally, she had not meant to care for three children, but did so because she did not wish to split up three siblings.
Source: Katolsk.no (Visit an external site. The link opens in a new tab.)