Mikael Agricola

Mikael Agricola. Statue in Turku, Finland. Photo: Anna Amnell. Click and see my other photos of Agricola.

Mikael Agricola, the father of written Finnish studied in Wittenberg in the 16th century. Philip Melanchton was one of his teachers. Mikael Agricola was a translator, clergyman, teacher, husband, father, bishop, diplomat. He died in 1557 while returning from Russia where he had been send with a delegation to meet Ivan the Terrible and negotiate a peace treaty. He was a peaceful and wise man, and perhaps for that reason Reformation was not a violent event in Finland. Agricola's only son became the bishop of Tallinn.