Christopher de Paus
Papal count
Died when: 81 years 0 days (972 months)Star Sign: Virgo
Christopher Tostrup Paus, Count of Paus (10 September 1862 – 10 September 1943) was a Norwegian landowner, heir to the timber firm Tostrup & Mathiesen, papal chamberlain and count, known as philanthropist, art collector and socialite in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
He inherited a fortune from his grandfather, timber magnate Christopher Tostrup, and lived for decades in Rome; in 1923 he bought the estate Herresta in Sweden which is still owned by descendants of his cousin Herman Paus who was married to a granddaughter of Leo Tolstoy.
He gave large donations to museums in Scandinavia and to the Catholic Church.A convert to Catholicism, he was appointed as a papal chamberlain by Pope Benedict XV in 1921 and conferred the title of count by Pope Pius XI in 1923.
He was the recipient of numerous papal and Scandinavian honours.He was a first cousin once removed of playwright Henrik Ibsen and was the only Ibsen relative to visit Ibsen during his decades-long exile when he wrote his most famous works.