John Campanius
Encyclopedia
John Campanius (August 15, 1601 – September 17, 1683), also known as John Campanius Holm, was a Swedish Lutheran
clergyman assigned to the New Sweden
colony.
and attended Uppsala University
, where he studied theology
and graduated in 1633. He was ordained into the Lutheran ministry during 1633. He served as the chaplain
to the Swedish delegation in Russia
in 1634. He then moved to Norrtälje
, where he served as a schoolmaster beginning in 1635. He also served as chaplain and preceptor of the Stockholm Orphan's Home, a position he continued in through 1642.
, near present-day Wilmington, Delaware
, and served as a missionary
to the nearby Lenape
Indians. Campanius served as a replacement for the first Swedish Lutheran Minister, Reorus Torkillus
who had recently died. For several years the New Sweden
colony had no specific location for organized worship. Campanius had to visit the settlers at their cabins, which ranged all the way up to Fort Nya Gothenburg on Tinicum Island
. Johan Campanius dedicated the new church at Tinicum on September 4, 1646. One of the few items which remain from his time of service is a gilded silver chalice
used in celebrating the Eucharist
..
Campanius also began to make notable headway in evangelizing the Lenape. He gained a good grasp of their language, and learned how to preach to them with good effect. He also transliterated their words, numbers, and common phrases for the use of later missionaries. After gaining experience in this way, he eventually was able to translate Luther's Small Catechism
into the Lenape language
. This effort, which was not printed until 1696, is one of the first attempts by a European native to create a written document in one of the native Native American
languages. Campanius also studied the traditions of the natives, and recorded them in his journal. While this did help to preserve some anthropological information on them, it also helped perpetrate the idea that the Native Americans were descendants of the lost tribes of Israel
.
By 1647, he wrote to his Archbishop
in Stockholm
that he had gotten weary of his work in New Sweden
, and requested that he be allowed to return home. In 1648, three other ministers were sent to New Sweden to continue his work and Campanius was allowed to return to Sweden. There he served as minister of churches at Härnevi and Frösthult in Uppsala
County in east central Sweden until his death in 1683. Both Johan Campanius and his wife Margareta were buried at the Frösthult Church in Enköping Municipality
.
in the American Colonies. He is considered by some to be the first weatherman
in America because he kept a daily record of the weather at New Sweden
. The records included at least 1644 and 1645 and were published in Sweden in 1702. The prestigious John Campanius Holm Award is granted annually to honor cooperative observers for outstanding accomplishments in the field of meteorological observations
. No more than twenty-five awards are given annually. The certificate is signed by the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA).
Church of Sweden
The Church of Sweden is the largest Christian church in Sweden. The church professes the Lutheran faith and is a member of the Porvoo Communion. With 6,589,769 baptized members, it is the largest Lutheran church in the world, although combined, there are more Lutherans in the member churches of...
clergyman assigned to the New Sweden
New Sweden
New Sweden was a Swedish colony along the Delaware River on the Mid-Atlantic coast of North America from 1638 to 1655. Fort Christina, now in Wilmington, Delaware, was the first settlement. New Sweden included parts of the present-day American states of Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania....
colony.
Background
Johan Campanius was born in StockholmStockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
and attended Uppsala University
Uppsala University
Uppsala University is a research university in Uppsala, Sweden, and is the oldest university in Scandinavia, founded in 1477. It consistently ranks among the best universities in Northern Europe in international rankings and is generally considered one of the most prestigious institutions of...
, where he studied theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
and graduated in 1633. He was ordained into the Lutheran ministry during 1633. He served as the chaplain
Chaplain
Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...
to the Swedish delegation in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
in 1634. He then moved to Norrtälje
Norrtälje Municipality
Norrtälje Municipality is a municipality in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. Its seat is located in the city of Norrtälje....
, where he served as a schoolmaster beginning in 1635. He also served as chaplain and preceptor of the Stockholm Orphan's Home, a position he continued in through 1642.
New Sweden
Campanius left Stockholm on August 16, 1642 and arrived at New Sweden on February 15, 1643. He came to accompany the first Swedish settlers to Fort ChristinaFort Christina
Fort Christina was the first Swedish settlement in North America and the principal settlement of the New Sweden colony...
, near present-day Wilmington, Delaware
Wilmington, Delaware
Wilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States, and is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley...
, and served as a missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
to the nearby Lenape
Lenape
The Lenape are an Algonquian group of Native Americans of the Northeastern Woodlands. They are also called Delaware Indians. As a result of the American Revolutionary War and later Indian removals from the eastern United States, today the main groups live in Canada, where they are enrolled in the...
Indians. Campanius served as a replacement for the first Swedish Lutheran Minister, Reorus Torkillus
Reorus Torkillus
Reorus Torkillus was the first Lutheran clergyman to settle in what would become the United States.-Biography:Torkillus was born at Mölndal, near Gothenburg, Sweden in 1608. He studied for the ministry at Lidköping and Skara in Sweden...
who had recently died. For several years the New Sweden
New Sweden
New Sweden was a Swedish colony along the Delaware River on the Mid-Atlantic coast of North America from 1638 to 1655. Fort Christina, now in Wilmington, Delaware, was the first settlement. New Sweden included parts of the present-day American states of Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania....
colony had no specific location for organized worship. Campanius had to visit the settlers at their cabins, which ranged all the way up to Fort Nya Gothenburg on Tinicum Island
Tinicum Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania
Tinicum Township, more popularly known as "Tinicum Island" or "The Island", a census-designated place and township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 4,353 at the 2000 census. Included within the township's boundaries are the communities of Essington and Lester...
. Johan Campanius dedicated the new church at Tinicum on September 4, 1646. One of the few items which remain from his time of service is a gilded silver chalice
Chalice (cup)
A chalice is a goblet or footed cup intended to hold a drink. In general religious terms, it is intended for drinking during a ceremony.-Christian:...
used in celebrating the Eucharist
Eucharist
The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...
..
Campanius also began to make notable headway in evangelizing the Lenape. He gained a good grasp of their language, and learned how to preach to them with good effect. He also transliterated their words, numbers, and common phrases for the use of later missionaries. After gaining experience in this way, he eventually was able to translate Luther's Small Catechism
Luther's Small Catechism
Luther's Small Catechism was written by Martin Luther and published in 1529 for the training of children. Luther's Small Catechism reviews The Ten Commandments, The Apostles' Creed, The Lord's Prayer, The Sacrament of Holy Baptism, The Office of the Keys & Confession, and The Sacrament of the...
into the Lenape language
Lenape language
The Delaware languages, also known as the Lenape languages, are Munsee and Unami, two closely related languages of the Eastern Algonquian subgroup of the Algonquian language family...
. This effort, which was not printed until 1696, is one of the first attempts by a European native to create a written document in one of the native Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
languages. Campanius also studied the traditions of the natives, and recorded them in his journal. While this did help to preserve some anthropological information on them, it also helped perpetrate the idea that the Native Americans were descendants of the lost tribes of Israel
Ten Lost Tribes
The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel refers to those tribes of ancient Israel that formed the Kingdom of Israel and which disappeared from Biblical and all other historical accounts after the kingdom was destroyed in about 720 BC by ancient Assyria...
.
By 1647, he wrote to his Archbishop
Archbishop
An archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest , and bishop...
in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
that he had gotten weary of his work in New Sweden
New Sweden
New Sweden was a Swedish colony along the Delaware River on the Mid-Atlantic coast of North America from 1638 to 1655. Fort Christina, now in Wilmington, Delaware, was the first settlement. New Sweden included parts of the present-day American states of Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania....
, and requested that he be allowed to return home. In 1648, three other ministers were sent to New Sweden to continue his work and Campanius was allowed to return to Sweden. There he served as minister of churches at Härnevi and Frösthult in Uppsala
Uppsala
- Economy :Today Uppsala is well established in medical research and recognized for its leading position in biotechnology.*Abbott Medical Optics *GE Healthcare*Pfizer *Phadia, an offshoot of Pharmacia*Fresenius*Q-Med...
County in east central Sweden until his death in 1683. Both Johan Campanius and his wife Margareta were buried at the Frösthult Church in Enköping Municipality
Enköping Municipality
Enköping Municipality is a municipality in Uppsala County in east central Sweden. Its seat is located in the city of Enköping.The present municipality consists of nearly forty original local government units...
.
John Campanius Holm Award
Johan Campanius was the first person known to have taken systematic weather observationsWeather forecasting
Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a given location. Human beings have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia, and formally since the nineteenth century...
in the American Colonies. He is considered by some to be the first weatherman
Meteorology
Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...
in America because he kept a daily record of the weather at New Sweden
New Sweden
New Sweden was a Swedish colony along the Delaware River on the Mid-Atlantic coast of North America from 1638 to 1655. Fort Christina, now in Wilmington, Delaware, was the first settlement. New Sweden included parts of the present-day American states of Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania....
. The records included at least 1644 and 1645 and were published in Sweden in 1702. The prestigious John Campanius Holm Award is granted annually to honor cooperative observers for outstanding accomplishments in the field of meteorological observations
History of surface weather analysis
The history of surface weather analysis concerns the timetable of developments related to surface weather analysis. Initially a tool of study for the behavior of storms, surface weather analyses became a work in progress to explain current weather and as an aid for short term weather forecasting...
. No more than twenty-five awards are given annually. The certificate is signed by the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , pronounced , like "noah", is a scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce focused on the conditions of the oceans and the atmosphere...
(NOAA).
Additional Sources
- Clay, Jehu Curtis Annals of the Swedes on the Delaware (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: J. C. Pechin. 1835)
- Myers, Albert Cook, ed. Narratives of Early Pennsylvania, West New Jersey, and Delaware, 1630-1707 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1912)
- Jordan, John W. A History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania (History of Timicun Township. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company. 1914)
- Ward, Christopher Dutch and Swedes on the Delaware, 1609- 1664 (University of Pennsylvania Press. 1930)