Your Voice, Your Language
Mikael Agricola created the Finnish standard language with quill and ink.This year will mark the 450th anniversary of his death.
Language has a special significance in the development of one’s culture and identity. Mikael Agricola is known as a comprehensive humanist, a learned theologian and a linguist. Mikael Agricola´s first published work were Abckiria [Ye ABC booke] in 1543 which in fact is a catechism teaching not only the fundaments of Christian faith, but also the alphabet and the numerals. Agricola’s translation of the New Testament was published in 1548. He continued his translation work, intending to translate the entire Bible into Finnish, but due to lack of funds, this was not possible.
The basis of Mikael Agricola’s translations and other literary work was the central idea of the Reformation that the word of God should be made available to the people in their own language. This was to be achieved in two ways: On the one hand, crucial liturgical texts had to be created in Finnish for use by the clergy, thus enabling worship services to be held in Finnish. On the other hand, the Bible had to be translated into Finnish and the people had to be gradually taught to read it. Thus, to Agricola, the Finnish language was not an end in itself, but publishing in Finnish served a purely practical purpose.
Mikael Agricola´s statue
Photo: Hannu Aaltonen/agricola 2007
In the week of festivities April 8 – April 15 in Turku, Helsinki, and around Agricola’s birthplace, Pernaja, a large number of events will take place. A great number of events will be organised in Finland - as in Russia, Estonia, Germany and Sweden - during the Jubilee Year of 2007.