HAPPY MIKAEL AGRICOLA DAY Picture: A statue of Mikael Agricola in Pernaja, Finland. Today, 457 years ago Mikael Agricola passed on to Heaven. Finnish Mikael Agricola (c. 1510 – April 9, 1557) was a clergyman who became known as the father of literary Finnish and a prominent proponent of the Protestant Reformation in Sweden-Finland - or the Realm of Sweden. Agricola was consecrated as the bishop of Turku (Åbo) in 1554, without papal approval. As a result, he began a reform of the Finnish church (then a part of the Church of Sweden) along Lutheran lines. He translated the New Testament into Finnish and also produced the prayer book and hymns used in Finlands new Lutheran Church. This work set the rules of orthography that are the basis of modern Finnish spelling. His thorough work is particularly remarkable in that he accomplished it in only three years. He died suddenly while returning from a trip during which he negotiated a treaty with the Russians. Wars and fires are known to have destroyed the earliest texts written in Finnish. Pictured on the following page is the oldest remaining text written in Finnish. It is a spell to keep away the thunder, dating to c. 1200 AD. The text was written on a birch-bark: facebook/photo.php?fbid=341287452636143&set=a.137919086306315.26103.137891239642433&type=1&theater -
Posted on: Wed, 09 Apr 2014 19:48:45 +0000
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