Mikael Agricola

Mikael Agricola was a Finnish Lutheran clergyman and scholar whose translations helped establish written Finnish. He led the Reformation in Finland under Swedish rule.

Abckiria: A 1543 primer by Mikael Agricola, regarded as the first book printed in Finnish. Its Finnish alphabet, prayers, and catechism put his language-building work into print.
Finnish alphabet: The set of letters used to write Finnish, based on the Latin alphabet. Agricola adapted Latin letters and spelling conventions to represent Finnish in print.
Viipuri: A historic city on the Gulf of Finland, now called Vyborg and located in Russia. Agricola studied and worked in Viipuri before entering the Swedish church hierarchy.
Gustav I of Sweden: King of Sweden from 1523 to 1560, who established royal control over the Swedish church. Agricola served the church under Gustav’s rule as Lutheran reform took hold in Finland.
Catholic Church: The worldwide Christian church in communion with the pope, with traditions and institutions distinct from Protestant churches. Agricola’s Lutheran reforms altered Finnish religious life within a realm formerly aligned with Roman Catholicism.
Se Wsi Testamentti: Mikael Agricola’s 1548 Finnish translation of the New Testament. This translation established a substantial model for written Finnish prose.
Finnish grammar: The system of word forms and sentence structure used in Finnish. Rendering scripture in Finnish required written forms for its distinctive grammar.
University of Wittenberg: A university in Wittenberg, Germany, founded in 1502 and central to the Protestant Reformation. Agricola studied there in the 1530s and encountered leading Lutheran reformers.
Paulus Juusten: A Finnish Lutheran bishop and historian who succeeded Agricola as bishop of Turku. Juusten continued the Finnish church leadership that Agricola helped establish.
Latin: An ancient Indo-European language that served as the Western church’s principal language of worship and scholarship. Agricola’s Finnish translations made religious texts available beyond the Latin-literate clergy.

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