Not many bishops are the center of national holidays. But the bishop
who brought the Reformation to Finland does have a holiday. Finns honor
Michael Agricola on this day, the anniversary of his death, April 9,
1557. They remember him as the father of Finnish written language.
Born in Finland, he encountered Reformation ideas while studying at
Turku, Finland. The bishop there was a humanist (one who studies the
contributions of mankind) and sympathetic to reformation ideas. He sent
Michael to Wittenberg, the center of the Reformation, to study. There
Michael met both Martin Luther and his close ally, Phillip Melanchthon.
His studies complete, these two Reformers gave him a letter of
recommendation that enabled him to get a job teaching at the important
school at Turku, where he trained clergymen in the Bible and taught
Reformation theology. Michael wasn't as concerned with throwing out
Catholicism as he was in encouraging his students to discover a new
inner Christian life.
He saw how important it was for Finns to learn to read and to know
something about their own history and culture. One of the first things
he did was to create a spelling book in Finnish. At that time, Sweden
controlled Finland. Swedish was the official language. Michael had to
print all his books in Stockholm. He printed his ABC book around 1543.
The next year, he printed a prayer book. In addition to prayers by
Luther and Erasmus, he included Bible prayers and prayers by saints of
the Middle Ages. He wasn't the kind of reformer who says the past has
nothing worthwhile to offer us. But the prayer book included more than
prayers: it included a calendar, short outlines of astronomy,
meteorology and theology. It is amusing to note that it included
instructions for proper hygiene! Had his classrooms gotten smelly?
Most important of all, Michael translated the New Testament from
Greek. It took him twenty years to complete, but he considered the labor
worthwhile. Like other reformers, he believed that everyone should be
able to read the Word of God in his or her own language. He taught that
every sinner has a way open to salvation through Jesus: that Jesus did
for sinners what masses, pilgrimages, holy places, prayers to Mary,
relics and good works never can do.
Only 500 copies of Michael's New Testament were printed, but more
than a hundred still survive. Printed in the old German typeface, they
were filled with pictures printed from woodcuts. At the front of his New
Testament, Michael compiled a history of Christianity in Finland and
gave details about Sweden's occupation of his country. So his Bible has
value for historians, too.
He also translated the Psalms and key passages of the Old Testament.
In the preface to the Psalms he listed the old gods of Finland. This is
interesting information that would otherwise have been lost. All in all,
Michael Agricola helped make the Finns the independent people that they
are today. He brought about a quiet reformation in his homeland by
changing only what really needed to be changed.
Bibliography:
- "Agricola, Michael." Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
- Grell, Ole Peter, editor. The Scandinavian Reformation.
Cambridge University Press, 1995.
- "Literature of the early Reformation period: Michael Agricola (ca
1510-1557)." http://virtual.finland.fi/finfo/english/
kirjaeng.html#agri
- Ottoson, Knud. A Short History of the Churches of Scandinavia.
Archus, 1986.
- Various internet articles.
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