Mikael Agricola

Mikael Agricola ( listen / i;? Actually Mikael Olavinpoika, " son of Olav "; * 1509 in Pernaja / Pernå, † April 9, 1557 in Uusikirkko / Nykyrka ) was a Finnish theologian and reformer and is considered the father of the Finnish literary language.

Life

Agricola was the son of a farmer and was probably born in the southern Finnish parish Pernaja, there in the village of Torsby. He grew up bilingual with Swedish and Finnish, which is to look after the findings of the investigations by Simo Heininen Swedish as his mother tongue.

Agricola visited in Viipuri ( Vyborg Sr. or Viborg ), the Latin school at Johannes Erasmus and came there for the first time in contact with the ideas of humanism and the Reformation. In 1528, he was ordained and went to Turku ( Åbo Sr. ) as secretary to the bishop Martin Skytte. In Turku, he made ​​the acquaintance of Peter Särkilax, a student of Erasmus and Luther. In Turku it was also where he in 1531 in place of his father name Olavinpoika the Latin epithet Agricola grew up ( " Bauer" ).

Bishop Skytte sent Agricola in 1536 to study at the University of Wittenberg. There he became a pupil of Melanchthon, Bugenhagen and Luther, of which he had already acquired in 1531 in Turku, a copy of which appeared in Strasbourg in the previous year Enarrationes seu postillae in Lectiones. 1539 Agricola finished his studies with a master's degree and returned to Finland.

After returning to Turku, he was a canon in the cathedral chapter and rector of the Latin school of Turku, which he chaired until 1548. 1548, he became a coadjutor bishop Skyttes and after his death in 1550 without papal approbation his successor. To a greater extent than his predecessors, he continued in this office for the needs of the Reformation.

Agricola was not only an important theological writer and translator, but also a prudent administrator: his handwritten notes on the income of the cathedral chapter and the clergy in Turku were issued on the occasion of Agricola year of Jyrki Knuutila and Anneli Mäkelä - Alitalo 2007. He also worked as a politician and diplomat. In 1557 he was involved as a member of a delegation of the Swedish king at the court of Ivan the Terrible in the peace negotiations between Sweden and Russia. On the return journey from Russia Agricola died in Finland, probably in Uusikirkko. He was buried in the Cathedral of Viipuri / Vyborg. The exact tomb in the cathedral is no longer known.

Agricola married in 1549 or 1550 Birgitta Olavintytär ( = daughter of Olav, † 1595 ). His only son, Christian Agricola (* December 11, 1550, † February 19, 1586 ) was consecrated in 1583 in the cathedral of Uppsala Bishop of Reval (Tallinn ). Christian Agricola was with the nobles Elin Pedersdotter Fleming (d. 1608) married and had a daughter with her. The male line of Michael Agricola's descendants became extinct with the death of his son.

Work

Agricola applies - Luther comparable - as the father of the Finnish literary language, which on the basis of Turku dialect extended with elements from other Finnish dialects and by borrowing particularly from the German, Swedish and Latin, was created and by Agricola and his successors to numerous neoplasms has been extended for the theological and scientific needs.

With the turning of Sweden and Finland to the Reformation it became even there the task of communicating to the people the faith each in its own language. Sermons and prayers in Finnish also existed in the period before Agricola, but it was he who founded the programmatic and implemented the Reformation concern for the Finnish language into practice. His first printed work was also the first printed book in Finnish, the ABC Kiria (ABC - book ), which was created 1537-1543 and was probably printed in 1543 for the first time in 1551 in a second edition in 1559 and a posthumous third edition was published. This is not a catechism for beginners, but a collection of basic Christian texts, among other things, to based on Luther's Small Catechism and the Catechism of Melanchthon. The ABC Kiria contains, inter alia, the Creed, the Our Father, as well as explanations of baptism and the Lord's Supper. The existence of the ABC - Kiria was again until 1851 known by the discovery of a title page in the University Library of Uppsala, other parts were discovered in 1904 in the Swedish State Archives and in 1966 in the Diocesan Library of Västerås.

1544 Agricola published in Stockholm next Rucouskiria Bibliasta, a prayer book based on texts of the Bible. However, his most significant achievement was the translation of the New Testament (Se Wsi Testamenti ). The beginning of this translation work can be based handwritten glosses in his books to the time in Turku traced back before the beginning of his studies in Wittenberg. In 1543 it was completed, in 1548 it was published in Stockholm. His translation followed the Greek text, but drew particularly nor the Latin translation of Erasmus, the German Martin Luther and the Swedish Olaus Petri approach.

1549 appeared his Finnish editing the Mass liturgy ( Messu eli Herran Echtolinen ), the and Icelandic (1594 ) does not belong in contrast to the Danish-Norwegian ( 1537/42 ) the incumbent of Bugenhagen type, rather than editing the Swedish Exhibition of Olaus Petri (1531 follows ) a 1524/25 resulting in Nuremberg tradition, which was mediated by cars in Rostock low German version of the Nuremberg fair Andreas Hospital Döbers to Sweden.

In 1551 he published a translation of the Psalms ( Dauidin Psalttari ), which is still followed in 1551 and 1552 further translations of the Old Testament. In the introduction to his translation of the Psalms, he also offered a metric enumeration of indigenous pagan deities Hämes and Karelia, which is the principal source of Finnish mythology and folk tradition in the 16th century. In his preface he also added sometimes a rhyme seals which are written in three - or four-footed iambic couplet verse and be based on the model of the German Knittel verse.

Afterlife

By Mikael Agricola no contemporary pictorial representations have survived. The various statues (eg in the cathedral of Helsinki, and in front of the cathedral in Turku ) and pictorial representations of the Finnish reformer (eg the image of Albert Edelfelt ) are inventions of the 19th and 20th centuries. In Wittenberg, two tablets recall ( a bronze plaque at the Luther House and an enamel plaque at the former university building ) to the studies of Agricola in this city.

The famous Finnish poet and playwright Paavo Haavikko presented Agricola in 1968 in the center of his drama Agricola yes kettu ( "Agricola and the Fox " ), the Agricola can stand up for the rights of Finland in the power struggle between Sweden and Russia, and in a more general sense, the involvement of the intellectuals represents in the political intrigues of his time. The first performance in Helsinki particularly excited by a sensation that the director Kalle Holmberg made ​​costumes to underline the references to the current political situation in Finland in the conflict between East and West, the actor Ivan the Terrible, following the example of Joseph Stalin.

Anniversaries

In Finland, April 9 is regarded as Mikael Agricola day and day of the Finnish language.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has set up a memorial day for Mikael Agricola on April 10.

Agricola's writings

• ABC Kiria. about 1543 (PDF, 1.5 MB). Critical Edition of Kaisa Häkkinen, SKS, Helsinki 2007.
• Rucouskiria Bibliasta. 1544 (PDF; 84.5 MB)
• Se Wsi Testamenti, 1548 (PDF, 148.2 MB)
• Käsikiria Castesta ia muista Christikunnan Menoista. 1549.
• Messu eli Herran Echtolinen. 1549.
• Se avoid Herran Jesus en Christusen Pina, ylesnousemus ia taiuaisen Astumus, niste Neliest Euangelisterist coghottu. 1549.
• Dauidin Psalttari. 1551 ( PDF; 44.72 MB). Critical Edition of Simo Heininen, Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seuratt, Helsinki 1994.
• Weisut ia Ennusttoxet Mosesen Laista ia prophet Ista Wloshaetut. 1551st
• Ne Prophetat. Haggai. Zechariah. Malachi., 1552.