Surprise Attack Left Church Planter Henry Dead in Finland
Bishop Henry baptizes the Finns at the spring of Kuppis, close to Turku. Painting by R.W. Ekman.
IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY AD, Finnish pirates foraged in the Baltic, preying on the Swedes. King Eric IX of Sweden fought and overcame them. He offered the Finns friendship and Christianity, but they chose war, so Eric invaded their lake-dotted land in 1154 and annexed it as a province of Sweden.
Accompanying Erik on his crusade was an English-born bishop named Henry, friend of another English churchman, Nicholas Breakspear (later Pope Adrian IV). Henry, at this time bishop of Uppsala, had labored successfully as an evangelist in Norway and Sweden. In Finland, he made his headquarters at Nousiainen and proceeded to preach to the Finns, whom he converted and baptized. No doubt his efforts were aided by the fact that the Finns already had some knowledge of Christianity, as is shown by the existence of Christian crosses from an earlier period.
He was able to work in Finland only a few months. A Finn named Lalli murdered him on a frozen lake on this day, 19 January 1156.* Tradition says Henry had excommunicated Lalli for murdering a Swedish soldier. However, an early Finnish account says the bishop incurred Lalli’s wrath by compelling Lalli’s wife to give Henry food for himself and fodder for his horse.
Either way, the seeds Henry planted made Finland a Christian nation around 1160. After Henry’s death, Finns regarded him as their patron saint. By a century and a half later, popes were referring to him as a saint, too. Other Christian workers revived the Finnish church from time to time and during the Reformation, Finns in large part converted to Lutheranism. Today about 85% of Finns are Lutheran.
—Dan Graves
* Some sources say the 20th.
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