Bishop Henry
Encyclopedia
Saint Henry was a medieval English
clergy
man. He came to Sweden with cardinal Nicholas Breakspeare 1153 and was propably designated to the new Archbishop of Uppsala, but the independent church province of Sweden could be established only 1164 after the civil war was over, and Henry would have been sent to organize the Church in Finland, where Christians had existed already at least two centuries. According to legends, he entered Finland
together with King Eric the Saint
of Sweden and died as a martyr
, becoming a central figure in the local Roman Catholic Church
. However, the authenticity of the accounts of his life, ministry, and death are widely disputed.
Together with his alleged murderer Lalli
, Henry remains one of the most recognized people from the early history of Finland
. His feast continues to be celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church of Finland
, and he is commemorated in several Protestant
liturgical calendars.
, was written at the end of the 13th century. It contains little concrete information about Henry. He is said to have been an English
-born Bishop of Uppsala at the time of King Eric the Saint
of Sweden in the mid-12th century, ruling the peaceful kingdom with the king in heavenly co-existence. To tackle the perceived threat from the non-Christian Finns, Eric and Henry were forced to battle them. After they had conquered Finland, baptized the people and built many churches, the victorious king returned to Sweden while Henry (Henricus) remained with the Finns, more willing to live the life of a preacher than that of a high bishop.
The legend draws to a conclusion as Henry attempted to give a canonical punishment to a murderer. The accused man became enraged and killed the bishop, who was thus considered to be a martyr.
The legend strongly emphasizes that Henry was a Bishop of Uppsala, not a Bishop of Finland which became a conventional claim later on, also by the church itself. He stayed in Finland out of pity, but was never appointed as a bishop there. The legend does not state whether there had been bishops in Finland before his time or what happened after his death; it does not even mention his burial in Finland. The vita is so void of any concrete information about Finland that it could have been created anywhere. The Latin is scholastic and the grammar is in general exceptionally good.
Henry's Vita is followed by the more local miracula, a list of eleven miracle
s that various people were said to have experienced sometime after the bishop's death. With the exception of a priest in Skara
who had gotten a stomach ache after mocking Henry, all miracles seem to have taken place in Finland. The other miracles, which usually occurred following prayer to Bishop Henry, were:
Most versions of Henry's legend only include a selection of these miracles.
, which has a short description of Eric's memorable deeds, also makes no reference to Henry or the crusade. Henry and the crusade are both fully present only in a version of Eric's legend that dates to 1344. Similarities in the factual content and phraseology regarding the common events indicate that either one of the legends has acted as the model for the other. Henry's legend is commonly considered to have been written during the 1280s or 1290s at the latest, for the consecration of the Cathedral of Turku
in 1300, when his alleged remains were translated
there from Nousiainen
, a parish not far from Turku
. Yet, even as late as in the 1470s, the crusade legend was ignored in the Chronica regni Gothorum, a chronicle of the history of Sweden, written by Ericus Olai, the Canon
of the Uppsala cathedral.
Noteworthy in the development of the legend is that the first canonically elected Bishop of Turku
, a certain Johan (1286–1289) of Polish
origin, was elected as the Archbishop of Uppsala
in 1289, after three years in office in Turku. The Swedish bishops of Finland before him, Bero, Ragvald and Kettil, had apparently been selected by the King of Sweden. Related to the new situation was also the appointment of the king's brother
as the Duke of Finland
in 1284, which challenged the Bishop's earlier position as the sole authority on all local matters. Johan was followed in Turku by Bishop Magnus
(1291–1308), who had been born in Finland.
The first mention of Bishop Henry in historical sources is from 1298, when he is mentioned along with king Eric in a document from a provincial synod of Uppsala in Telge. The first mention of Henry of Uppsala being the patron saint of Turku cathedral is from 14 August 1320, when he is mentioned as the second patron of the cathedral after Virgin Mary. So when he is later addressed by Pope Boniface IX
as the patronus
of the Cathedral of Turku along with the Virgin Mary, it is actually from the year 1391. Boniface also called him a "saint". In 1291 a longish document by the cathedral chapter
makes no reference to Henry even though it mentions the cathedral and election of the new bishop many times. A papal letter by Pope Nicholas IV
from 1292 has the Virgin Mary as the sole patronus in Turku. The legend itself is first referred to in a letter by Archbishop of Uppsala in 1298. Eric and Henry are mentioned together as martyrs who needed to be prayed to for the sake of the situation in Karelia
, thus associating their alleged crusade to Finland with the new expeditions against Novgorod. The war between Novgorod and Sweden
for the control of Karelia had started in 1293. The first certain appearance of Henry's image in the seal of the Bishop of Turku is from 1299.
Thus, Henry's veneration as a saint and his relation to King Eric seem to have emerged in the historical record at the same time in the mid-1290s with strong support from the church. This correlates with the start of the war against Novgorod. Sources do not support the popular assumption, that Henry's cult had developed in Nousiainen and gradually spread among ordinary people before official adoption. Although Nousiainen had Henry as its patronus, that is first mentioned only in 1452. Still in 1232, the church in Nousiainen was consecrated to the Virgin Mary only.
Some sources claim that Henry was canonized
in 1158, but this information has been traced to a late publication by Johannes Vastovius
in 1623 and is generally regarded as a fabrication.
Despite the high profile start of Henry's cultus, it took more than 100 years for the veneration of Saint Henry to gain widespread acceptance throughout Sweden. As of 1344 there were no relics of the bishop in the Cathedral of Uppsala. According to one biographer, Henry's veneration
was rare outside the Diocese of Turku throughout the 14th century. Vadstena Abbey
near Linköping
seems to have played a key role in establishment of Henry's legend elsewhere in Sweden in the early 15th century. Henry never received the highest totum duplex
veneration in Uppsala nor was he made a patronus of the church there, which status he had both in Turku and Nousiainen.
At the end of the Roman Catholic era in Sweden, Henry was well established as a local saint. The dioceses in Sweden and elsewhere venerating Henry were as follows, categorized by his local ranking:
Henry seems to have been known in northern Germany
, but he was largely ignored elsewhere in the Roman Catholic world.
In the Bishopric of Turku, the annual feast day of Henry was January 20 (talviheikki, "Winter Henry"), according to traditions the day of his death. Elsewhere his memorial was held already on January 19, since more prominent saints were already commemorated on January 20. After the Reformation
, Henry's day was moved to the 19th in Finland as well. The existence of the feast day is first mentioned in 1335, and is known to have been marked in the liturgical calendar
from the early 15th century onwards. Another memorial was held on June 18 (kesäheikki, "Summer Henry") which was the day of the translation of his relics to the Cathedral of Turku.
Gaudeamus omnes ("Let all rejoice"), a Gregorian
introit
for the Mass
in honor of Henry has survived in the late 14th or early 15th century Graduale Aboense.
over which see would become archiepiscopal. The crusade itself is described as a brief and bloodless event that was only performed to bring the "blind and evil heathen people of Finland" under Christian order.
The writer of the legend seems to have been especially interested in presenting the bishop as a humble martyr. He has fully ignored his place of death and burial and other "domestic" Finnish interests, which were much more apparent in folk traditions. The official legend and folk traditions eventually influenced each other, and the church gradually adopted many additional details to its saint bishop.
, which is also mentioned in conjunction with an unrelated early preacher in Vesilahti
, central Tavastia
, whose local name was "Fish of Kaland" (Kalannin kala, also known as Hunnun herra). Bishop Mikael Agricola
wrote in his Se Wsi Testamenti
in 1548, that the earliest Swedish settlers in Finland had come from Gotland
to the islets on the coast of Kaland, being harassed by Finns and seeking help from their relatives in Sweden.
It has also been suggested that the name might be related to Gaelic
, which would presumably have referred to the bishop's Scot
tish origins, though the legend gives him as a native Englishman.
Folk traditions have no information on the crusade whatsoever. King Eric is briefly mentioned in the death-lay's preface as Henry's concerned "brother". Henry appears as a lone preacher who moved around southwestern Finland more or less on his own. Besides the name, he has only little in common with the official Henry in the church vita.
Kokemäki
is often mentioned in traditions as a place where Henry preached. Kokemäki was later one the central parishes in Satakunta. This province was first mentioned in historical documents in 1331.
The death-lay's version of the bishop's death was different from the official vita. The bishop's killer was called Lalli
. Lalli's wife Kerttu falsely claimed to him that upon leaving the manor, their ungrateful guest Henry, travelling around on his own in the middle of winter, had without permission or recompense, through violence, taken food for himself and hay for his horse. This is supposed to have enraged Lalli so that he immediately grabbed his skis and went in pursuit of the thief, finally chasing Henry down on the ice of Lake Köyliönjärvi
. There he killed him on the spot with an axe. In some versions of the poem, considered older, Lalli's weapon was a sword. The axe was the murder weapon of Saint Olaf, who was very popular in Finland and may have influenced Henry's legend.
Bishop Henry's body was then buried at Nousiainen
. According to the poem, that was the place where the team of oxen pulling his hearse stopped.
Medieval folk traditions enumerate the pestilences and misfortunes which befell Lalli after his slaying of the bishop. His hair and scalp are said to have fallen out as he took off the bishop's cap, taken as a trophy. Removing the bishop's ring from his finger, just bones remained. Eventually he ran into a lake and drowned himself.
The poem, following the traditional Kalevala
metre, has survived as several 17th and 18th century literations from various parts of Finland. Some of its elements appear in earlier works, but it hardly dates older than the official Catholic vita. There is debate on whether the original poem was constructed by one or more individuals. The writer has however had superficial understanding of the church legends.
Both Lalli (Laurentius) and Kerttu (Gertrud) are originally German names, which might indicate that the poem was partly constructed on foreign models, whose influence is visible in other aspects, too. The way Lalli is manipulated to commit the crime and what happens to him later seem to be taken from a medieval Judas
fable. Extensive borrowing from unrelated Finnish legends from the pre-Christian era has taken place as well, leaving quite little original material left at all.
Based on finds from medieval church ruins in the tiny island of Kirkkokari ("Church Rock", previously known as the "Island of Saint Henry") in Lake Köyliönjärvi, the bishop's veneration began in the latter half of the 14th century, well after Henry had received his official status as a local saint, and 200 years after his alleged death. A small granary in the near-by Kokemäki
, claimed to have been the bishop's place of rest the night before his death, could not be dated earlier than the late 15th century in dendrological
examinations.
However, the poem's claim that Henry was buried in Nousiainen was already an official truth around 1300, when his alleged bones were translated from Nousiainen to the Cathedral of Turku. A mid-15th century Chronicon episcoporum Finlandensium also confirmed Köyliö as the place of his death. Neither place is mentioned in the official vita in any way. The church seems to have gradually complemented its own legends by adopting elements from the folk traditions, especially during the 15th century.
The bishop's violent death itself was nothing exceptional and could well have happened. Many bishops were murdered during the turmoils of the 12th and 13th centuries, although most were not elevated to sainthood. Saxo Grammaticus
said of the Battle of Fotevik
in 1134 that never had so many bishops been killed at the same time. Notable bishops that died violently included the Archbishop of Uppsala in 1187, Bishop of Estonia
in 1219 and Bishop of Linköping
in 1220.
, who was appointed as the archbishop in 1164.
A certain Henry is mentioned in Incerti scriptoris Sueci chronicon primorum in ecclesia Upsalensi archiepiscoporum, a chronicle of Uppsala archbishops, before Coppmannus and Stefan, but after Sverinius (probably mentioned in German sources in 1141/2 as "Siwardus"), Nicolaus and Sweno. Besides the name, the chronicle knows that he was martyred and buried in Finland in the Cathedral of Turku
. Latest research dates the chronicle to the early 15th century when Henry's legend was already established in the kingdom, leaving only little significance to its testimony.
A late 15th century legenda nova claimed that Henry had come to Sweden in the retinue of papal legate
Nicholas Breakspear, the later Pope Adrian IV
, and appointed as the Bishop of Uppsala by him. Even though legenda nova states 1150 as the year of the crusade, it is certain from other sources that Nicholas really was in Sweden in 1153. It is not known whether this was just an inference by the writer, based on the fact that also Nicholas was an Englishman. However, there is no information about anyone called as Henry accompanying the legate in any source describing the visit, nor him appointing a new bishop in Uppsala. Another claim by legenda nova was that Henry was translated to Turku cathedral already in 1154, which certainly was false since the cathedral was built only in the 1290s. In the late 16th century, Bishop Paulus Juusten
claimed that Henry had been the Bishop of Uppsala for two years before the crusade. Based on these postulates, early 20th century historians assembled 1155 as the year of the crusade and 1156 as the year of Henry's death. Historians from different centuries have also suggested various other years from 1150 to 1158.
Contradicting these claims, the medieval Annales Suecici Medii Aevi and the 13th century legend of Saint Botvid
mention some Henry as the Bishop of Uppsala (Henricus scilicet Upsalensis) in 1129, participating in the consecration of the saint's newly built church. He is apparently the same Bishop Henry who died at the Battle of Fotevik in 1134, fighting along with the Danes after being banished from Sweden. Known from the Chronicon Roskildense
written soon after his death and from Saxo Grammaticus
' Gesta Danorum
from the early 13th century, he had fled to Denmark from Sigtuna
, the see of the early Uppland bishops before it was moved a few kilometers to its later location in Uppsala sometime before 1164. He is ignored in all Swedish bishop chronicles, unless he is the same Henry who was later redated to 1150s. That would make the claim about him coming to Finland with King Eric a late innovation, where memory about a killed bishop in Uppsala sometime in the 12th century was reused in a new context.
Noteworthy also, is a story written down by Adam of Bremen
in his Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum
(Deeds of Bishops of the Hamburg Church) from 1075/6 about a certain foreigner called Hericus, who was slain and martyred while preaching among the Sueones. Adam had heard the story from King Sweyn II of Denmark
. According to some historians, resemblance to later legend about an English-born Henricus, who was allegedly slain and martyred in Finland, is too striking to be a coincidence.
No Bishop or Diocese of Finland is mentioned in a papal letter from 1171 (or 1172) by the seemingly well-informed Pope Alexander III
, who otherwise addressed the situation of the church in Finland. The Pope mentions that there were preachers, presumably from Sweden, working in Finland and was worried about their bad treatment by the Finns. The Pope had earlier in 1165 authorized the first missionary Bishop of Estonia to be appointed, and was a close acquaintance of both Eskil
, the Archbishop of Lund, and Stefan
, the Archbishop of Uppsala, who both had spent time with him in France where he had been exiled in the 1160s. Following the situation in Estonia, the Pope personally interfered in the Estonian mission in 1171, ordering assistance for the local Bishop Fulco from Norway.
No surviving list of bishops or dioceses under the Archbishop of Uppsala from 1164, 1189, 1192, 1233, 1241 or 1248 contains any reference to Finland, neither factual or propagandist. No claim about a Swedish bishop in Finland is made in any other source from the era prior to the so-called Second Swedish Crusade
in 1249.
The first mention of a bishop in Finland is from a papal letter in 1209. It was sent to Archbishop Anders
of Lund by Pope Innocent III
as a reply to the Archbishop's earlier letter which has not survived. According to the Archbishop, the Bishop of the newly established church in Finland was dead, apparently from natural causes since his passing away is mentioned to have been "lawful", and the see had been vacant for some time. The Archbishop had complained to the Pope how difficult it was to get anyone to be a bishop in Finland and planned to appoint someone without formal adequacy, who was already working in Finland. The Pope approved of Archbishop's suggestion without questioning his opinions. It is noteworthy that the Archbishop of Uppsala, Valerius
(1207–1219/1224), was also in Denmark at the time, temporarily exiled from Sweden after having allied with the deposed King Sverker
, yet another exile in Denmark.
Whether the appointment of the said preacher ever took place, remains unknown. Note should be taken that the King of Sweden at the time was Eric
, a grandson of his better known namesake Eric the Saint. Eric had taken over Sweden in 1208 and was crowned king two years later. The Pope who had strongly sided with Sverker, ignored him at first, but finally recognized him in 1216, commenting many requests that he had apparently made ever since having taken the office. Based on the papal letter that year, Eric seems to have had a plan to invade some country that allegedly had been "taken from the heathens by his predecessors" and was allowed to install a bishop there. Similar letters were sent to the King of Denmark in 1208 and 1218, who is known to have meant Estonia
both times. Sweden also attacked Estonia
in 1220. Eric died of illness 1216. Almost nothing is known about his time as the king.
Nevertheless, someone was eventually appointed and installed as the new bishop, since Pope Honorius III
sent a letter directly to an unnamed Bishop of Finland in 1221. According to the letter, Archbishop Valerius had followed the situation in Finland and sent a report to the Pope, worried about a threat from unidentified "barbarians". It is notable that when the Pope quoted Valerius in his letter, he calls the church in Finland to have been established "newly", the same claim that Anders had made 12 years earlier. The list of Swedish bishops which survives from this era is from king John Sverkerson's coronation from the year 1219 and it mentions the bishops which have been present at the coronation. Finland as well as Wäxjö are not among those five, which so seem to have been all the bishops of the Swedish realm at that time. So the Finnish bishop's possible position under Uppsala's primacy is highly improbable.
Despite so many high-ranking church representatives being involved in the 1209/1221 arrangements, later chronicles are fully ignorant on the situation in Finland at the time, or if there was even a bishop then. The first 13th century bishop is said to have been Thomas, and his predecessor remains unknown. According to 15th and 16th century chronicles, Henry was followed by bishops Rodulff and Folquinus, after whom there was a 25–30-year gap before Thomas. However, according to the papal letter Ex tuarum no such gap has ever existed, since the archbishop of Lund
was given the right to anoint a new bishop to Finland in 1209 after the death of the previous. So the logic and datings of the sixteenth century writers must be esteemed as false. The date 1209 is far too early for a Dominican like Thomas to step in to the office, and so Rodolphus, the first real bishop of Finland and his successor Folquinus must be considered as 13th century bishops nominated and appointed by the Danish and not by the Swedes. As an extra proof of this the ancient finnish taxation system of church taxes has its roots in Denmark, not in Sweden. And the same goes to lay taxes especially in the Åland Islands and to the old finnish monetary system. As J. W. Ruuth already nearly a hundred years ago pointed out, Finland was at that time a Danish and not a Swedish mission territory, where the Danes according to the Danish annals made there expeditions in 1191, 1202 and possible even 1210
Henry was allegedly buried in Nousiainen
, from where his bones—or at least something that was thought to be his bones—were translated to Turku
in 1300. In addition to traditions, the only source connecting Nousiainen to early bishops is a letter signed by Bishop Thomas in Nousiainen in 1234. Archaeological excavations of pre-Catholic cemeteries in Nousiainen and surrounding parishes show a clear discontinuation of traditions in the early 13th century, but no abrupt changes are apparent in the religious environment among the 12th century finds.
Whatever the case, the bishop's grave seems to have been traced to Nousiainen latest after his elevation to sainthood. A number of medieval documents mention that the bishop's grave continued to be located in the local church, presumably meaning that all the bones had not been translated to Turku. The church was later adorned with a grandiose 15th century cenotaph
, whose replica can be found in the National Museum of Finland
in Helsinki
.
Most of the bones in Turku were still in place in 1720 when they were catalogued for a transfer to Saint Petersburg
during the Russian occupation of Finland in the Great Northern War
. The man behind the idea was the infamous Swedish Count Gustaf Otto Douglas
who had defected to the Russian side during the war and was in charge of the grim occupation
of Finland. What happened to the bones after that, remains unknown. According to some sources, the Russian vessel transporting the relics sank on the way. However, it is generally acknowledged that a piece of Henry's ulna
had been placed in Bishop Hemming
's reliquarium that was built in 1514 and treasured in the cathedral. Also enclosed was a piece of parchment stating the bone belonged to Henry. During the restoration work of the cathedral, the relic was relocated to the National Board of Antiquities.
In the 1990s, the National Board of Antiquities claimed the relic as its own on the basis of the Finnish law on ancient objects and was contradicted by the Cathedral Parish of Turku. However, the Board let the relic be relocated in the Cathedral of Saint Henry in Helsinki, the oldest church in the modern Catholic Diocese of Finland. Since then, it has been located inside the altar of the cathedral. After a public controversy, it is currently planned to be returned to Turku during 2007. Also its authenticity is going to be examined.
In 1924, several other bones, including a jawless skull, were found in a sealed closet in the Cathedral of Turku. These are also referred to as Henry's relics in popular media and even by the church, even though that designation remains speculative and the bones may have belonged to some other saint. The bones are currently stored in the Cathedral of Turku.
Although Henry has never been officially canonized, he has been referred to as a saint since as early as 1296 according to a papal document of the time, and continues to be called as such today as well. On the basis of the traditional accounts of Henry's death, his recognition as saint took place prior to the founding of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints and the official canonization
process of the Roman Catholic Church
. Henry is currently commemorated on January 19 on the calendar of commemorations
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada
. January 19 is also Henry's name day
in Sweden and Finland. He continues to be remembered as a local observance in the Catholic Church of Finland, where the cathedral church is dedicated to Henry's memory. The cathedral was consecrated in 1860 and is headed by Msgr. Marino Trevisini.
The Kirkkokari island in Lake Köyliönjärvi remains the only Catholic place of pilgrimage
in Finland, with a memorial service held every year on second Sunday in June before the Midsummer
festival. Also the medieval 140 km countryside route from Köyliö to Nousiainen has been marked all the way for people willing to walk through it. Association of "Ecumenical pilgrimage of St. Henry" has been organized around the event.
Based on folk traditions about the bishop's activities, the municipalities of Nousiainen
, Köyliö
and Kokemäki
use images from Henry's legend in their coats of arms.
Today, Henry and his alleged murderer Lalli remain two of the best-known persons from the mediaeval history of Finland.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
clergy
Clergy
Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. A clergyman, churchman or cleric is a member of the clergy, especially one who is a priest, preacher, pastor, or other religious professional....
man. He came to Sweden with cardinal Nicholas Breakspeare 1153 and was propably designated to the new Archbishop of Uppsala, but the independent church province of Sweden could be established only 1164 after the civil war was over, and Henry would have been sent to organize the Church in Finland, where Christians had existed already at least two centuries. According to legends, he entered Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
together with King Eric the Saint
Eric IX of Sweden
Eric "IX" of Sweden, , also called Eric the Lawgiver, Erik the Saint, Eric the Holy and in Sweden Sankt Erik meaning Saint Eric was a Swedish king c.1155 – 1160...
of Sweden and died as a martyr
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
, becoming a central figure in the local Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
. However, the authenticity of the accounts of his life, ministry, and death are widely disputed.
Together with his alleged murderer Lalli
Lalli
Lalli is an apocryphal character from Finnish history. According to legend, he killed Bishop Henry on the ice of lake Köyliönjärvi in Finland on January 20, 1156.- Legend :...
, Henry remains one of the most recognized people from the early history of Finland
History of Finland
The land area that now makes up Finland was settled immediately after the Ice Age, beginning from around 8500 BCE. Most of the region was part of the Kingdom of Sweden from the 13th century to 1809, when it was ceded to the Russian Empire, becoming the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland. The...
. His feast continues to be celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church of Finland
Roman Catholicism in Finland
The Catholic Church in Finland is part of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and curia in Rome....
, and he is commemorated in several Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
liturgical calendars.
Vita and miracula
The officially accepted legend of Bishop Henry's life, or his VitaHagiography
Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...
, was written at the end of the 13th century. It contains little concrete information about Henry. He is said to have been an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
-born Bishop of Uppsala at the time of King Eric the Saint
Eric IX of Sweden
Eric "IX" of Sweden, , also called Eric the Lawgiver, Erik the Saint, Eric the Holy and in Sweden Sankt Erik meaning Saint Eric was a Swedish king c.1155 – 1160...
of Sweden in the mid-12th century, ruling the peaceful kingdom with the king in heavenly co-existence. To tackle the perceived threat from the non-Christian Finns, Eric and Henry were forced to battle them. After they had conquered Finland, baptized the people and built many churches, the victorious king returned to Sweden while Henry (Henricus) remained with the Finns, more willing to live the life of a preacher than that of a high bishop.
The legend draws to a conclusion as Henry attempted to give a canonical punishment to a murderer. The accused man became enraged and killed the bishop, who was thus considered to be a martyr.
The legend strongly emphasizes that Henry was a Bishop of Uppsala, not a Bishop of Finland which became a conventional claim later on, also by the church itself. He stayed in Finland out of pity, but was never appointed as a bishop there. The legend does not state whether there had been bishops in Finland before his time or what happened after his death; it does not even mention his burial in Finland. The vita is so void of any concrete information about Finland that it could have been created anywhere. The Latin is scholastic and the grammar is in general exceptionally good.
Miracle
A miracle often denotes an event attributed to divine intervention. Alternatively, it may be an event attributed to a miracle worker, saint, or religious leader. A miracle is sometimes thought of as a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature. Others suggest that a god may work with the laws...
s that various people were said to have experienced sometime after the bishop's death. With the exception of a priest in Skara
Skara
Skara is a locality and the seat of Skara Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden with 18595 inhabitants in 2005. Despite its small size, it has a long educational and ecclesiastical history. One of Sweden's oldest high schools, Katedralskolan , is situated in Skara...
who had gotten a stomach ache after mocking Henry, all miracles seem to have taken place in Finland. The other miracles, which usually occurred following prayer to Bishop Henry, were:
- The murderer lost his scalp when he put the bishop's hat on his head
- The Bishop's finger was found the next Spring
- A boy was raised from the dead in Kaisala
- A girl was raised from the dead in VehmaaVehmaaVehmaa is a municipality of Finland.It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Finland Proper region. The municipality has a population of and covers an area of of which is water...
- A sick woman was healed in SastamalaSastamalaSastamala is a town and municipality of Finland. It was created January 1, 2009, when the municipalities of Vammala, Äetsä and Mouhijärvi were consolidated into a single town....
- A FranciscanFranciscanMost Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
called Erlend had his headache healed - A blind woman got back her eyesight in KyröKyroKyro may refer to:* Karinainen* KYRO, a series of graphics chips made by PowerVR* KYRO , a radio station licensed to Potosi, Missouri, United States...
- A man with a paralyzed leg could walk again in Kyrö
- A sick girl was healed
- A group of fishermen from KokemäkiKokemäkiKokemäki is a town and municipality of Finland.It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Satakunta region. The town has a population of and covers an area of of which is water...
survived a storm
Most versions of Henry's legend only include a selection of these miracles.
Development of the legend
Henry and his crusade to Finland were also a part of the legend of King Eric. However, the oldest surviving version of Eric's legend is from about 1270, yet there is no information on either Henry or the crusade. The appendix of the early 13th century VästgötalagenVästgötalagen
Västgötalagen or the Westrogothic law is the oldest Swedish text written in Latin script and the oldest of all Swedish provincial laws. It was compiled in the early 13th century and is known to have been the code of law used in the province of Västergötland during the latter half of that century....
, which has a short description of Eric's memorable deeds, also makes no reference to Henry or the crusade. Henry and the crusade are both fully present only in a version of Eric's legend that dates to 1344. Similarities in the factual content and phraseology regarding the common events indicate that either one of the legends has acted as the model for the other. Henry's legend is commonly considered to have been written during the 1280s or 1290s at the latest, for the consecration of the Cathedral of Turku
Cathedral of Turku
Turku Cathedral is the Mother Church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, and the country's national shrine. It is the central church of the Archdiocese of Turku and the seat of the Archbishop of Finland, Kari Mäkinen...
in 1300, when his alleged remains were translated
Translation (relics)
In Christianity, the translation of relics is the removal of holy objects from one locality to another ; usually only the movement of the remains of the saint's body would be treated so formally, with secondary relics such as items of clothing treated with less ceremony...
there from Nousiainen
Nousiainen
Nousiainen is a municipality of Finland. The seat of the bishop of Finland was in Nousis in the early 13th century.It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Finland Proper region. The municipality has a population of...
, a parish not far from Turku
Turku
Turku is a city situated on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River. It is located in the region of Finland Proper. It is believed that Turku came into existence during the end of the 13th century which makes it the oldest city in Finland...
. Yet, even as late as in the 1470s, the crusade legend was ignored in the Chronica regni Gothorum, a chronicle of the history of Sweden, written by Ericus Olai, the Canon
Canon (priest)
A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....
of the Uppsala cathedral.
Bishop of Turku
The bishop of Turku was the medieval catholic religious leader of Finland.Influenced by Papal bulls Swedish magnates in the 12th century set up crusadeing expeditions to convert the heathens in the eastern Baltic. This resulted in the establishment of the Catholic Church, the Christian religion...
, a certain Johan (1286–1289) of Polish
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
origin, was elected as the Archbishop of Uppsala
Archbishop of Uppsala
The Archbishop of Uppsala has been the primate in Sweden in an unbroken succession since 1164, first during the Catholic era, and from the 1530s and onward under the Lutheran church.- Historical overview :...
in 1289, after three years in office in Turku. The Swedish bishops of Finland before him, Bero, Ragvald and Kettil, had apparently been selected by the King of Sweden. Related to the new situation was also the appointment of the king's brother
Benedict, Duke of Finland
Bishop Benedict, Duke of Finland was a Swedish prelate and a royal duke.His father was Birger jarl, the real ruler of Sweden 1250-66 and Benedict was from legitimate marriage...
as the Duke of Finland
Duke of Finland
Duke of Finland was an occasional medieval title granted as a tertiogeniture to the relatives of the King of Sweden between the 13th and 16th centuries. It included a duchy along with the feudal customs, and often meant a veritably independent principality...
in 1284, which challenged the Bishop's earlier position as the sole authority on all local matters. Johan was followed in Turku by Bishop Magnus
Bishop Magnus
Bishop Magnus I, or Mauno, was the Roman Catholic Bishop of Turku between 1291 and 1308. He was the first bishop who is known to have been born in Finland. He also helped to complete the Christianization of Finland started by St. Henry....
(1291–1308), who had been born in Finland.
Pope Boniface IX
Pope Boniface IX , born Piero Tomacelli, was the second Roman Pope of the Western Schism from November 2, 1389, until October 1, 1404...
as the patronus
Patronus
Patronus may refer to:* the patronus or patron in ancient Roman society; see Patronage in ancient Rome* the apparition produced by the Patronus Charm in the Harry Potter series of books and movies...
of the Cathedral of Turku along with the Virgin Mary, it is actually from the year 1391. Boniface also called him a "saint". In 1291 a longish document by the cathedral chapter
Chapter (religion)
Chapter designates certain corporate ecclesiastical bodies in the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Nordic Lutheran churches....
makes no reference to Henry even though it mentions the cathedral and election of the new bishop many times. A papal letter by Pope Nicholas IV
Pope Nicholas IV
Pope Nicholas IV , born Girolamo Masci, was Pope from February 22, 1288 to April 4, 1292. A Franciscan friar, he had been legate to the Greeks under Pope Gregory X in 1272, succeeded Bonaventure as Minister General of his religious order in 1274, was made Cardinal Priest of Santa Prassede and...
from 1292 has the Virgin Mary as the sole patronus in Turku. The legend itself is first referred to in a letter by Archbishop of Uppsala in 1298. Eric and Henry are mentioned together as martyrs who needed to be prayed to for the sake of the situation in Karelia
Karelia
Karelia , the land of the Karelian peoples, is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for Finland, Russia, and Sweden...
, thus associating their alleged crusade to Finland with the new expeditions against Novgorod. The war between Novgorod and Sweden
Swedish-Novgorodian Wars
Swedish–Novgorodian Wars were a series of conflicts in the 12th and 13th centuries between the Republic of Novgorod and medieval Sweden over control of the Gulf of Finland, an area vital to the Hanseatic League and part of the Varangian-Byzantine trade route...
for the control of Karelia had started in 1293. The first certain appearance of Henry's image in the seal of the Bishop of Turku is from 1299.
Thus, Henry's veneration as a saint and his relation to King Eric seem to have emerged in the historical record at the same time in the mid-1290s with strong support from the church. This correlates with the start of the war against Novgorod. Sources do not support the popular assumption, that Henry's cult had developed in Nousiainen and gradually spread among ordinary people before official adoption. Although Nousiainen had Henry as its patronus, that is first mentioned only in 1452. Still in 1232, the church in Nousiainen was consecrated to the Virgin Mary only.
Some sources claim that Henry was canonized
Canonization
Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...
in 1158, but this information has been traced to a late publication by Johannes Vastovius
Johannes Vastovius
Johannes Vastovius was a Swedish priest and writer in the late reformation period....
in 1623 and is generally regarded as a fabrication.
Veneration
Veneration
Veneration , or veneration of saints, is a special act of honoring a saint: an angel, or a dead person who has been identified by a church committee as singular in the traditions of the religion. It is practiced by the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic, and Eastern Catholic Churches...
was rare outside the Diocese of Turku throughout the 14th century. Vadstena Abbey
Vadstena Abbey
Vadstena Abbey was the motherhouse of the Bridgettine Order, situated on Lake Vättern, in the Diocese of Linköping, Sweden. The abbey started as one of the farms donated by the king, but the town of Vadstena grew up around it...
near Linköping
Linköping
Linköping is a city in southern middle Sweden, with 104 232 inhabitants in 2010. It is the seat of Linköping Municipality with 146 736 inhabitants and the capital of Östergötland County...
seems to have played a key role in establishment of Henry's legend elsewhere in Sweden in the early 15th century. Henry never received the highest totum duplex
Totum duplex
Totum duplex is the highest rank for an ecclesiastical feast in the Dominican breviary. Other ranks are Duplex, Semiduplex and Simplex.Respective highest ranks in other breviaries are:* Roman: Festum duplex...
veneration in Uppsala nor was he made a patronus of the church there, which status he had both in Turku and Nousiainen.
At the end of the Roman Catholic era in Sweden, Henry was well established as a local saint. The dioceses in Sweden and elsewhere venerating Henry were as follows, categorized by his local ranking:
- Totum duplex: Turku, LinköpingLinköpingLinköping is a city in southern middle Sweden, with 104 232 inhabitants in 2010. It is the seat of Linköping Municipality with 146 736 inhabitants and the capital of Östergötland County...
, SträngnäsSträngnäsSträngnäs is a locality and the seat of Strängnäs Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 12,296 inhabitants in 2005. It is located by Lake Mälaren and is the episcopal see of the Diocese of Strängnäs, a former Roman Catholic and present Lutheran Diocese, with the Strängnäs Cathedral, built... - Duplex: Uppsala, LundLund-Main sights:During the 12th and 13th centuries, when the town was the seat of the archbishop, many churches and monasteries were built. At its peak, Lund had 27 churches, but most of them were demolished as result of the Reformation in 1536. Several medieval buildings remain, including Lund...
(DenmarkDenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
), VästeråsVästeråsVästerås is a city in central Sweden, located on the shore of Lake Mälaren in the province Västmanland, some 100 km west of Stockholm...
, VäxjöVäxjöVäxjö is a city and the seat of Växjö Municipality, Kronoberg County, Sweden with 64 200 inhabitants in 2010. It is the administrative, cultural and industrial centre of Kronoberg County. Furthermore it is the episcopal see of the Diocese of Växjö. It has a population of about 64 200, out of a... - Semiduplex: NidarosNidarosNidaros or Niðarós was during the Middle Ages, the old name of Trondheim, Norway . Until the Reformation, Nidaros remained the centre of the spiritual life of the country...
(NorwayNorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
) - Simplex: SkaraSkaraSkara is a locality and the seat of Skara Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden with 18595 inhabitants in 2005. Despite its small size, it has a long educational and ecclesiastical history. One of Sweden's oldest high schools, Katedralskolan , is situated in Skara...
Henry seems to have been known in northern Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, but he was largely ignored elsewhere in the Roman Catholic world.
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
, Henry's day was moved to the 19th in Finland as well. The existence of the feast day is first mentioned in 1335, and is known to have been marked in the liturgical calendar
Calendar of saints
The calendar of saints is a traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the feast day of said saint...
from the early 15th century onwards. Another memorial was held on June 18 (kesäheikki, "Summer Henry") which was the day of the translation of his relics to the Cathedral of Turku.
Gaudeamus omnes ("Let all rejoice"), a Gregorian
Gregorian chant
Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic liturgical music within Western Christianity that accompanied the celebration of Mass and other ritual services...
introit
Introit
The Introit is part of the opening of the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist for many Christian denominations. In its most complete version, it consists of an antiphon, psalm verse and Gloria Patri that is spoken or sung at the beginning of the celebration...
for the Mass
Mass (liturgy)
"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...
in honor of Henry has survived in the late 14th or early 15th century Graduale Aboense.
Political dimensions
According to legend, establishment of the church of Finland was entirely the work of the saint-king Eric of Sweden, assisted by the bishop from the most important diocese in the country. The first half of the legend describes how the king and the bishop ruled Sweden like ‘two great lights’ with feelings of ‘internal love’ toward each other, emphasizing the peaceful coexistence of the secular and ecclesiastical rule during a happy era when ‘predatory wolves’ could not hit their ‘poisonous teeth against the innocent’. The reality was quite different – Eric's predecessor, Eric himself and two of his successors were all murdered almost within a decade, one of the bloodiest times for the Swedish royalty. In the 1150s, the Bishop of Uppsala was also in a bitter fight with the Bishop of LinköpingBishop of Linköping
-Before the reformation:* Herbert?* Rikard?* 1139-1160s Gisle* 1170-1171 Stenar* 1187-1195/96 Kol* Johannes* 1216-1220 Karl Magnusson* 1220-1236 Bengt Magnusson* 1236-1258 Lars* 1258-1283 Henrik* 1258-1286 Bo...
over which see would become archiepiscopal. The crusade itself is described as a brief and bloodless event that was only performed to bring the "blind and evil heathen people of Finland" under Christian order.
The writer of the legend seems to have been especially interested in presenting the bishop as a humble martyr. He has fully ignored his place of death and burial and other "domestic" Finnish interests, which were much more apparent in folk traditions. The official legend and folk traditions eventually influenced each other, and the church gradually adopted many additional details to its saint bishop.
Folk traditions
Among the many folk traditions about Henry, the most prominent is the folk poem "The Death-lay of Bishop Henry" (Piispa Henrikin surmavirsi). The poem almost totally ignores Henry's life and ministry and concentrates on his death.Henry's origins
According to the poem, Henry had grown up in "Cabbage Land" (Kaalimaa), which has puzzled Finnish historians for centuries. The name might be connected to a coastal area in northern Finland Proper called KalandKaland
Kaland is a village in Meerut district. It is 6 km from Sardhana and 22 km from Meerut. It is famous for cansugars.Mr Devendra also from this village which has no. 1 place in Kalashre community....
, which is also mentioned in conjunction with an unrelated early preacher in Vesilahti
Vesilahti
Vesilahti is a municipality of Finland.It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Pirkanmaa region. The municipality has a population of and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is ....
, central Tavastia
Tavastia (historical province)
Tavastia, Tavastland or Häme, Russian Emi or Yemi, is a historical province in the south of Finland. It borders Finland Proper, Satakunta, Ostrobothnia, Savonia and Uusimaa.- Administration :...
, whose local name was "Fish of Kaland" (Kalannin kala, also known as Hunnun herra). Bishop Mikael Agricola
Mikael Agricola
Mikael Agricola was a clergyman who became the de facto founder of written Finnish and a prominent proponent of the Protestant Reformation in Sweden . He is often called the "father of the Finnish written language". Agricola was consecrated as the bishop of Turku in 1554, without papal approval...
wrote in his Se Wsi Testamenti
Se Wsi Testamenti
Se Wsi Testamenti is the first translation of the New Testament to Finnish, by Mikael Agricola, the Bishop of Turku. Generally regarded as his most prominent work, the manuscript was completed in 1543, but it underwent correction for five more years. The whole work took eleven years...
in 1548, that the earliest Swedish settlers in Finland had come from Gotland
Gotland
Gotland is a county, province, municipality and diocese of Sweden; it is Sweden's largest island and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. At 3,140 square kilometers in area, the region makes up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area...
to the islets on the coast of Kaland, being harassed by Finns and seeking help from their relatives in Sweden.
It has also been suggested that the name might be related to Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic language
Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish, and thus descends ultimately from Primitive Irish....
, which would presumably have referred to the bishop's Scot
Scot
A Scot is a member of an ethnic group indigenous to Scotland, derived from the Latin name of Irish raiders, the Scoti.Scot may also refer to:People with the given name Scot:* Scot Brantley , American football linebacker...
tish origins, though the legend gives him as a native Englishman.
Folk traditions have no information on the crusade whatsoever. King Eric is briefly mentioned in the death-lay's preface as Henry's concerned "brother". Henry appears as a lone preacher who moved around southwestern Finland more or less on his own. Besides the name, he has only little in common with the official Henry in the church vita.
Kokemäki
Kokemäki
Kokemäki is a town and municipality of Finland.It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Satakunta region. The town has a population of and covers an area of of which is water...
is often mentioned in traditions as a place where Henry preached. Kokemäki was later one the central parishes in Satakunta. This province was first mentioned in historical documents in 1331.
Death and burial
Lalli
Lalli is an apocryphal character from Finnish history. According to legend, he killed Bishop Henry on the ice of lake Köyliönjärvi in Finland on January 20, 1156.- Legend :...
. Lalli's wife Kerttu falsely claimed to him that upon leaving the manor, their ungrateful guest Henry, travelling around on his own in the middle of winter, had without permission or recompense, through violence, taken food for himself and hay for his horse. This is supposed to have enraged Lalli so that he immediately grabbed his skis and went in pursuit of the thief, finally chasing Henry down on the ice of Lake Köyliönjärvi
Köyliönjärvi
Köyliönjärvi is a lake in Köyliö, Finland. Saint Henry was allegedly murdered on the ice of the lake in the mid-12th century. The lake and its surroundings are classified as a nationally valuable landscape by the government. The area has been inhabited continuously since the Iron Age....
. There he killed him on the spot with an axe. In some versions of the poem, considered older, Lalli's weapon was a sword. The axe was the murder weapon of Saint Olaf, who was very popular in Finland and may have influenced Henry's legend.
Bishop Henry's body was then buried at Nousiainen
Nousiainen
Nousiainen is a municipality of Finland. The seat of the bishop of Finland was in Nousis in the early 13th century.It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Finland Proper region. The municipality has a population of...
. According to the poem, that was the place where the team of oxen pulling his hearse stopped.
Medieval folk traditions enumerate the pestilences and misfortunes which befell Lalli after his slaying of the bishop. His hair and scalp are said to have fallen out as he took off the bishop's cap, taken as a trophy. Removing the bishop's ring from his finger, just bones remained. Eventually he ran into a lake and drowned himself.
Development of folk traditions
Basically the death-lay is a simple story of a short-tempered man who falls victim of his "bad-mouthed wife's" sharp tongue. The poem has no pity for Lalli, and he is not depicted as a hero in a story whose true antagonist is Kerttu. The depiction of Henry's death built on an independent tradition that was once in direct competition with the "official" version, which is largely forgotten today. It remains unknown whether the two traditions were built around the same person.The poem, following the traditional Kalevala
Kalevala
The Kalevala is a 19th century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Finnish and Karelian oral folklore and mythology.It is regarded as the national epic of Finland and is one of the most significant works of Finnish literature...
metre, has survived as several 17th and 18th century literations from various parts of Finland. Some of its elements appear in earlier works, but it hardly dates older than the official Catholic vita. There is debate on whether the original poem was constructed by one or more individuals. The writer has however had superficial understanding of the church legends.
Both Lalli (Laurentius) and Kerttu (Gertrud) are originally German names, which might indicate that the poem was partly constructed on foreign models, whose influence is visible in other aspects, too. The way Lalli is manipulated to commit the crime and what happens to him later seem to be taken from a medieval Judas
Judas Iscariot
Judas Iscariot was, according to the New Testament, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. He is best known for his betrayal of Jesus to the hands of the chief priests for 30 pieces of silver.-Etymology:...
fable. Extensive borrowing from unrelated Finnish legends from the pre-Christian era has taken place as well, leaving quite little original material left at all.
Based on finds from medieval church ruins in the tiny island of Kirkkokari ("Church Rock", previously known as the "Island of Saint Henry") in Lake Köyliönjärvi, the bishop's veneration began in the latter half of the 14th century, well after Henry had received his official status as a local saint, and 200 years after his alleged death. A small granary in the near-by Kokemäki
Kokemäki
Kokemäki is a town and municipality of Finland.It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Satakunta region. The town has a population of and covers an area of of which is water...
, claimed to have been the bishop's place of rest the night before his death, could not be dated earlier than the late 15th century in dendrological
Dendrology
Dendrology or xylology is the science and study of wooded plants . There is no sharp boundary between plant taxonomy and dendrology. However, woody plants not only belong to many different plant families, but these families may be made up of both woody and non-woody members. Some families include...
examinations.
However, the poem's claim that Henry was buried in Nousiainen was already an official truth around 1300, when his alleged bones were translated from Nousiainen to the Cathedral of Turku. A mid-15th century Chronicon episcoporum Finlandensium also confirmed Köyliö as the place of his death. Neither place is mentioned in the official vita in any way. The church seems to have gradually complemented its own legends by adopting elements from the folk traditions, especially during the 15th century.
Historical sources
Today, the official Catholic legend of Henry is challenged by historians to the point of being labelled as pure imagination. Completely invented saints were not exceptional in Europe, and in the lack of evidence of either the crusade or Henry, that possibility may not be fully denied.The bishop's violent death itself was nothing exceptional and could well have happened. Many bishops were murdered during the turmoils of the 12th and 13th centuries, although most were not elevated to sainthood. Saxo Grammaticus
Saxo Grammaticus
Saxo Grammaticus also known as Saxo cognomine Longus was a Danish historian, thought to have been a secular clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, foremost advisor to Valdemar I of Denmark. He is the author of the first full history of Denmark.- Life :The Jutland Chronicle gives...
said of the Battle of Fotevik
Battle of Fotevik
Battle of Fotevik was fought between forces of King Niels of Denmark together with those of his son Magnus Nilsson against those of Erik Emune on June 4, 1134 at the bay of Fotevik in Skåne....
in 1134 that never had so many bishops been killed at the same time. Notable bishops that died violently included the Archbishop of Uppsala in 1187, Bishop of Estonia
Bishop of Estonia
Bishop of Estonia was the name of the main Bishop in Estonia during the early Catholic missionary phase of the late 12th and early 13th centuries. The two known bishops were Fulco and Theoderich....
in 1219 and Bishop of Linköping
Bishop of Linköping
-Before the reformation:* Herbert?* Rikard?* 1139-1160s Gisle* 1170-1171 Stenar* 1187-1195/96 Kol* Johannes* 1216-1220 Karl Magnusson* 1220-1236 Bengt Magnusson* 1236-1258 Lars* 1258-1283 Henrik* 1258-1286 Bo...
in 1220.
Bishop of Uppsala
There is no historical record of a Bishop of Uppsala called Henry during the reign of King Eric (about 1156–1160). Early phases of the diocese remain obscure up to the point of StefanStefan (archbishop of Uppsala)
Stefan was created the first Archbishop of Uppsala in Sweden in the year 1164, a post he held until his death.Stefan was a Cistercian monk from Alvastra monastery...
, who was appointed as the archbishop in 1164.
A certain Henry is mentioned in Incerti scriptoris Sueci chronicon primorum in ecclesia Upsalensi archiepiscoporum, a chronicle of Uppsala archbishops, before Coppmannus and Stefan, but after Sverinius (probably mentioned in German sources in 1141/2 as "Siwardus"), Nicolaus and Sweno. Besides the name, the chronicle knows that he was martyred and buried in Finland in the Cathedral of Turku
Cathedral of Turku
Turku Cathedral is the Mother Church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, and the country's national shrine. It is the central church of the Archdiocese of Turku and the seat of the Archbishop of Finland, Kari Mäkinen...
. Latest research dates the chronicle to the early 15th century when Henry's legend was already established in the kingdom, leaving only little significance to its testimony.
Papal legate
A papal legate – from the Latin, authentic Roman title Legatus – is a personal representative of the pope to foreign nations, or to some part of the Catholic Church. He is empowered on matters of Catholic Faith and for the settlement of ecclesiastical matters....
Nicholas Breakspear, the later Pope Adrian IV
Pope Adrian IV
Pope Adrian IV , born Nicholas Breakspear or Breakspeare, was Pope from 1154 to 1159.Adrian IV is the only Englishman who has occupied the papal chair...
, and appointed as the Bishop of Uppsala by him. Even though legenda nova states 1150 as the year of the crusade, it is certain from other sources that Nicholas really was in Sweden in 1153. It is not known whether this was just an inference by the writer, based on the fact that also Nicholas was an Englishman. However, there is no information about anyone called as Henry accompanying the legate in any source describing the visit, nor him appointing a new bishop in Uppsala. Another claim by legenda nova was that Henry was translated to Turku cathedral already in 1154, which certainly was false since the cathedral was built only in the 1290s. In the late 16th century, Bishop Paulus Juusten
Paulus Juusten
Paulus Petri Juusten . , Swedish: Påvel Pedersson Juusten or Paul Juusten was the first bishop of Viipuri, and later, bishop of Turku, Finland...
claimed that Henry had been the Bishop of Uppsala for two years before the crusade. Based on these postulates, early 20th century historians assembled 1155 as the year of the crusade and 1156 as the year of Henry's death. Historians from different centuries have also suggested various other years from 1150 to 1158.
Contradicting these claims, the medieval Annales Suecici Medii Aevi and the 13th century legend of Saint Botvid
Saint Botvid
-Biography:Botvid, who was born in Södermanland, Sweden, went on a trade trip to England and where he came into contact with Christianity and was converted to the Christian faith. Botvid was sent back as a missionary to Sweden by Saint Sigfrid of Växjö along with Saint David and Saint Eskil. The...
mention some Henry as the Bishop of Uppsala (Henricus scilicet Upsalensis) in 1129, participating in the consecration of the saint's newly built church. He is apparently the same Bishop Henry who died at the Battle of Fotevik in 1134, fighting along with the Danes after being banished from Sweden. Known from the Chronicon Roskildense
Chronicon Roskildense
Chronicon Roskildense a small Danish historical work, which except for few yearbooks, is the oldest known attempt to write a coherent account of Danish history by a Danish author, from the time of the introduction of Christianity in Denmark to the author's own time...
written soon after his death and from Saxo Grammaticus
Saxo Grammaticus
Saxo Grammaticus also known as Saxo cognomine Longus was a Danish historian, thought to have been a secular clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, foremost advisor to Valdemar I of Denmark. He is the author of the first full history of Denmark.- Life :The Jutland Chronicle gives...
' Gesta Danorum
Gesta Danorum
Gesta Danorum is a patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th century author Saxo Grammaticus . It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark and is an essential source for the nation's early history...
from the early 13th century, he had fled to Denmark from Sigtuna
Sigtuna
Sigtuna is a locality situated in Sigtuna Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 18 inhabitants in 2005. It is the namesake of the municipality even though the seat is in Märsta....
, the see of the early Uppland bishops before it was moved a few kilometers to its later location in Uppsala sometime before 1164. He is ignored in all Swedish bishop chronicles, unless he is the same Henry who was later redated to 1150s. That would make the claim about him coming to Finland with King Eric a late innovation, where memory about a killed bishop in Uppsala sometime in the 12th century was reused in a new context.
Noteworthy also, is a story written down by Adam of Bremen
Adam of Bremen
Adam of Bremen was a German medieval chronicler. He lived and worked in the second half of the eleventh century. He is most famous for his chronicle Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum .-Background:Little is known of his life other than hints from his own chronicles...
in his Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum
Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum
Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum is a historical treatise written between 1075 and 1080 by Adam of Bremen. It covers the period from 788 to the time it was written. The treatise consist of:*Liber I...
(Deeds of Bishops of the Hamburg Church) from 1075/6 about a certain foreigner called Hericus, who was slain and martyred while preaching among the Sueones. Adam had heard the story from King Sweyn II of Denmark
Sweyn II of Denmark
Sweyn II Estridsson Ulfsson was the King of Denmark from 1047 to 1074. He was the son of Ulf Jarl and Estrid Svendsdatter. He was married three times, and fathered 20 children or more, including the five future kings Harald III Hen, Canute IV the Saint, Oluf I Hunger, Eric I Evergood and Niels...
. According to some historians, resemblance to later legend about an English-born Henricus, who was allegedly slain and martyred in Finland, is too striking to be a coincidence.
Bishop of Finland
No historical source remains that would confirm the existence of a bishop named Henry in Finland. However, papal letters mentioning an unidentified Bishop of Finland in 1209, 1221, 1229 and 1232 have survived. Some copies of another papal letter from 1232 call the bishop as "N.", but the letter "N" may originally have also been something resembling it. The first certainly known Bishop of Finland is Thomas, who is first mentioned in 1234. It is however possible, that Fulco, the Bishop of Estonia mentioned in sources from 1165 and 1171, was the same as Folquinus, a legendary Bishop of Finland at the end of the 12th century, but this remains only a theory.Pope Alexander III
Pope Alexander III , born Rolando of Siena, was Pope from 1159 to 1181. He is noted in history for laying the foundation stone for the Notre Dame de Paris.-Church career:...
, who otherwise addressed the situation of the church in Finland. The Pope mentions that there were preachers, presumably from Sweden, working in Finland and was worried about their bad treatment by the Finns. The Pope had earlier in 1165 authorized the first missionary Bishop of Estonia to be appointed, and was a close acquaintance of both Eskil
Eskil of Lund
Eskil was a 12th century Archbishop of Lund, in Skåne, Denmark .He was one of the most capable and prominent princes of the Church in Scandinavia...
, the Archbishop of Lund, and Stefan
Stefan (archbishop of Uppsala)
Stefan was created the first Archbishop of Uppsala in Sweden in the year 1164, a post he held until his death.Stefan was a Cistercian monk from Alvastra monastery...
, the Archbishop of Uppsala, who both had spent time with him in France where he had been exiled in the 1160s. Following the situation in Estonia, the Pope personally interfered in the Estonian mission in 1171, ordering assistance for the local Bishop Fulco from Norway.
No surviving list of bishops or dioceses under the Archbishop of Uppsala from 1164, 1189, 1192, 1233, 1241 or 1248 contains any reference to Finland, neither factual or propagandist. No claim about a Swedish bishop in Finland is made in any other source from the era prior to the so-called Second Swedish Crusade
Second Swedish Crusade
The Second Swedish Crusade was a Swedish military expedition to areas in present-day Finland by Birger jarl in the 13th century. As a result of the crusade, Finland became permanently part of Sweden for the next 550 years.-Year of the crusade:...
in 1249.
Anders Sunesen
Anders Sunesen was a Danish archbishop of Lund, Scania, from March 21, 1201, at the death of Absalon, to his own death in 1228. He is the author of the Latin translation of the Scanian Law and was throughout his life engaged in integrating a Christian worldview into the old legislature...
of Lund by Pope Innocent III
Pope Innocent III
Pope Innocent III was Pope from 8 January 1198 until his death. His birth name was Lotario dei Conti di Segni, sometimes anglicised to Lothar of Segni....
as a reply to the Archbishop's earlier letter which has not survived. According to the Archbishop, the Bishop of the newly established church in Finland was dead, apparently from natural causes since his passing away is mentioned to have been "lawful", and the see had been vacant for some time. The Archbishop had complained to the Pope how difficult it was to get anyone to be a bishop in Finland and planned to appoint someone without formal adequacy, who was already working in Finland. The Pope approved of Archbishop's suggestion without questioning his opinions. It is noteworthy that the Archbishop of Uppsala, Valerius
Valerius (archbishop of Uppsala)
Valerius was the Swedish Archbishop 1207–1219 . He was the fifth archbishop after the establishment of the see in 1164.- Appointment :...
(1207–1219/1224), was also in Denmark at the time, temporarily exiled from Sweden after having allied with the deposed King Sverker
Sverker II of Sweden
Sverker II was King of Sweden from 1196 to 1208.-Biography:...
, yet another exile in Denmark.
Whether the appointment of the said preacher ever took place, remains unknown. Note should be taken that the King of Sweden at the time was Eric
Eric X of Sweden
Eric "X" of Sweden, Swedish: Erik Knutsson; Old Norse: Eiríkr Knútsson was the King of Sweden between 1208 and 1216. Also known as Eric the Survivor when he became King, he was the only remaining son of King Canute I of Sweden and his queen of an undetermined name, who probably was Cecilia...
, a grandson of his better known namesake Eric the Saint. Eric had taken over Sweden in 1208 and was crowned king two years later. The Pope who had strongly sided with Sverker, ignored him at first, but finally recognized him in 1216, commenting many requests that he had apparently made ever since having taken the office. Based on the papal letter that year, Eric seems to have had a plan to invade some country that allegedly had been "taken from the heathens by his predecessors" and was allowed to install a bishop there. Similar letters were sent to the King of Denmark in 1208 and 1218, who is known to have meant Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
both times. Sweden also attacked Estonia
Battle of Lihula
Battle of Lihula was fought between invading Swedes and Estonians for the control of a castle in Lihula, Estonia in 1220. The exact date remains uncertain, though some historians suggest that the battle took place on August 8...
in 1220. Eric died of illness 1216. Almost nothing is known about his time as the king.
Nevertheless, someone was eventually appointed and installed as the new bishop, since Pope Honorius III
Pope Honorius III
Pope Honorius III , previously known as Cencio Savelli, was Pope from 1216 to 1227.-Early work:He was born in Rome as son of Aimerico...
sent a letter directly to an unnamed Bishop of Finland in 1221. According to the letter, Archbishop Valerius had followed the situation in Finland and sent a report to the Pope, worried about a threat from unidentified "barbarians". It is notable that when the Pope quoted Valerius in his letter, he calls the church in Finland to have been established "newly", the same claim that Anders had made 12 years earlier. The list of Swedish bishops which survives from this era is from king John Sverkerson's coronation from the year 1219 and it mentions the bishops which have been present at the coronation. Finland as well as Wäxjö are not among those five, which so seem to have been all the bishops of the Swedish realm at that time. So the Finnish bishop's possible position under Uppsala's primacy is highly improbable.
Despite so many high-ranking church representatives being involved in the 1209/1221 arrangements, later chronicles are fully ignorant on the situation in Finland at the time, or if there was even a bishop then. The first 13th century bishop is said to have been Thomas, and his predecessor remains unknown. According to 15th and 16th century chronicles, Henry was followed by bishops Rodulff and Folquinus, after whom there was a 25–30-year gap before Thomas. However, according to the papal letter Ex tuarum no such gap has ever existed, since the archbishop of Lund
was given the right to anoint a new bishop to Finland in 1209 after the death of the previous. So the logic and datings of the sixteenth century writers must be esteemed as false. The date 1209 is far too early for a Dominican like Thomas to step in to the office, and so Rodolphus, the first real bishop of Finland and his successor Folquinus must be considered as 13th century bishops nominated and appointed by the Danish and not by the Swedes. As an extra proof of this the ancient finnish taxation system of church taxes has its roots in Denmark, not in Sweden. And the same goes to lay taxes especially in the Åland Islands and to the old finnish monetary system. As J. W. Ruuth already nearly a hundred years ago pointed out, Finland was at that time a Danish and not a Swedish mission territory, where the Danes according to the Danish annals made there expeditions in 1191, 1202 and possible even 1210
Relics
Nousiainen
Nousiainen is a municipality of Finland. The seat of the bishop of Finland was in Nousis in the early 13th century.It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Finland Proper region. The municipality has a population of...
, from where his bones—or at least something that was thought to be his bones—were translated to Turku
Turku
Turku is a city situated on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River. It is located in the region of Finland Proper. It is believed that Turku came into existence during the end of the 13th century which makes it the oldest city in Finland...
in 1300. In addition to traditions, the only source connecting Nousiainen to early bishops is a letter signed by Bishop Thomas in Nousiainen in 1234. Archaeological excavations of pre-Catholic cemeteries in Nousiainen and surrounding parishes show a clear discontinuation of traditions in the early 13th century, but no abrupt changes are apparent in the religious environment among the 12th century finds.
Whatever the case, the bishop's grave seems to have been traced to Nousiainen latest after his elevation to sainthood. A number of medieval documents mention that the bishop's grave continued to be located in the local church, presumably meaning that all the bones had not been translated to Turku. The church was later adorned with a grandiose 15th century cenotaph
Cenotaph
A cenotaph is an "empty tomb" or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been interred elsewhere. The word derives from the Greek κενοτάφιον = kenotaphion...
, whose replica can be found in the National Museum of Finland
National Museum of Finland
The National Museum of Finland presents Finnish history from the Stone Age to the present day, through objects and cultural history. The Finnish National Romantic style building is located in central Helsinki and operates in collaboration with the National Board of Antiquities , an association...
in Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
.
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
during the Russian occupation of Finland in the Great Northern War
Great Northern War
The Great Northern War was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in northern Central Europe and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swedish alliance were Peter I the Great of Russia, Frederick IV of...
. The man behind the idea was the infamous Swedish Count Gustaf Otto Douglas
Gustaf Otto Douglas
Count Gustaf Otto Douglas was a Swedish mercenary, grandson of Robert Douglas, Count of Skenninge. He was captured by Russians during the Battle of Poltava. He was eventually employed by the Russian army during the Great Northern War, and in 1717 was placed in charge of the occupation of Finland...
who had defected to the Russian side during the war and was in charge of the grim occupation
Greater Wrath
The Greater Wrath is a term used in Finnish history for the Russian invasion and subsequent military occupation of Eastern Sweden, now Finland, from 1714 until the treaty of Nystad 1721, which ended the Great Northern War, although sometimes the term is used to denote all of the Great Northern...
of Finland. What happened to the bones after that, remains unknown. According to some sources, the Russian vessel transporting the relics sank on the way. However, it is generally acknowledged that a piece of Henry's ulna
Ulna
The ulna is one of the two long bones in the forearm, the other being the radius. It is prismatic in form and runs parallel to the radius, which is shorter and smaller. In anatomical position The ulna is one of the two long bones in the forearm, the other being the radius. It is prismatic in form...
had been placed in Bishop Hemming
Bishop Hemming
Bishop Hemming was the Roman Catholic Bishop of Turku during 1338-1366. He was born in Sweden.-External links:* by Finnish Literature Society...
's reliquarium that was built in 1514 and treasured in the cathedral. Also enclosed was a piece of parchment stating the bone belonged to Henry. During the restoration work of the cathedral, the relic was relocated to the National Board of Antiquities.
In the 1990s, the National Board of Antiquities claimed the relic as its own on the basis of the Finnish law on ancient objects and was contradicted by the Cathedral Parish of Turku. However, the Board let the relic be relocated in the Cathedral of Saint Henry in Helsinki, the oldest church in the modern Catholic Diocese of Finland. Since then, it has been located inside the altar of the cathedral. After a public controversy, it is currently planned to be returned to Turku during 2007. Also its authenticity is going to be examined.
In 1924, several other bones, including a jawless skull, were found in a sealed closet in the Cathedral of Turku. These are also referred to as Henry's relics in popular media and even by the church, even though that designation remains speculative and the bones may have belonged to some other saint. The bones are currently stored in the Cathedral of Turku.
Henry's status today
Canonization
Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...
process of the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
. Henry is currently commemorated on January 19 on the calendar of commemorations
Calendar of Saints (Lutheran)
The Lutheran Calendar of Saints is a listing which details the primary annual festivals and events that are celebrated liturgically by some Lutheran Churches in the United States. The calendars of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod are from the...
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is a mainline Protestant denomination headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The ELCA officially came into existence on January 1, 1988, by the merging of three churches. As of December 31, 2009, it had 4,543,037 baptized members, with 2,527,941 of them...
and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada is Canada's largest Lutheran denomination, with 152,788 baptized members in 624 congregations, with the second largest, the Lutheran Church–Canada, having 72,116 baptized members...
. January 19 is also Henry's name day
Name day
A name day is a tradition in many countries in Europe and Latin America that consists of celebrating the day of the year associated with one's given name....
in Sweden and Finland. He continues to be remembered as a local observance in the Catholic Church of Finland, where the cathedral church is dedicated to Henry's memory. The cathedral was consecrated in 1860 and is headed by Msgr. Marino Trevisini.
The Kirkkokari island in Lake Köyliönjärvi remains the only Catholic place of pilgrimage
Pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...
in Finland, with a memorial service held every year on second Sunday in June before the Midsummer
Midsummer
Midsummer may simply refer to the period of time centered upon the summer solstice, but more often refers to specific European celebrations that accompany the actual solstice, or that take place on a day between June 21 and June 24, and the preceding evening. The exact dates vary between different...
festival. Also the medieval 140 km countryside route from Köyliö to Nousiainen has been marked all the way for people willing to walk through it. Association of "Ecumenical pilgrimage of St. Henry" has been organized around the event.
Based on folk traditions about the bishop's activities, the municipalities of Nousiainen
Nousiainen
Nousiainen is a municipality of Finland. The seat of the bishop of Finland was in Nousis in the early 13th century.It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Finland Proper region. The municipality has a population of...
, Köyliö
Köyliö
Köyliö is a municipality of Finland.It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Satakunta region. The municipality has a population of and covers an area of of which is water...
and Kokemäki
Kokemäki
Kokemäki is a town and municipality of Finland.It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Satakunta region. The town has a population of and covers an area of of which is water...
use images from Henry's legend in their coats of arms.
Today, Henry and his alleged murderer Lalli remain two of the best-known persons from the mediaeval history of Finland.