Henry, Bishop of Uppsala Totally Explained

Everything about Henry Bishop Of Uppsala totally explained

Saint Henry (pyhä Henrik or piispa Henrik in Finnish, Biskop Henrik or Sankt Henrik in Swedish, Henricus et cetera in Latin; died allegedly 20 January circa 1150
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.) which became a conventional claim later on, also by the church itself. Henry stayed in Finland out of pity, but was never appointed as a bishop there. The legend doesn't state whether there had been bishops in Finland before his time or what happened after his death; it doesn't even mention his burial in Finland. The vita is so void of any concrete information about Finland that it could have been created anywhere. Henry's Vita is followed by the more local miracula, a list of eleven miracles 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:

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's no information on either Henry or the crusade. Henry and the crusade are both fully present only in a version of Eric's legend that dates to 1344. The appendix of the early 13th century Västgötalagen, which has a short description of Eric's memorable deeds, also makes no reference to Henry or the crusade. 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. Noteworthy in the development of the legend is that the first canonically selected 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 "chancellor" bishops 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 in 1296 (or 1297), when he's addressed by Pope Boniface VIII as the patronus of the Cathedral of Turku along with the Virgin Mary. Boniface also called him a "saint". Five years earlier, 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 don't 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's first mentioned only in 1452. Still in 1232, the church in Nousiainen was consecrated to the Virgin Mary only.

Veneration

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'd 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, Linköping, Strängnäs

Duplex: Uppsala, Lund (Denmark), Västerås, Växjö

Semiduplex: Nidaros (Norway)

Simplex: Skara 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. Listen to the introit:

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' couldn't hit their "poisonous teeth against the innocent". 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.

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 Kaland, 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 Scottish origins.
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's only little in common with the official Henry in the church vita. Kokemäki was one of the main parishes in Satakunta already in the late Iron Age.

Death and burial

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.
   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.
   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. Whether the original poem was constructed by one or more individuals, is debated. The writer has however had superficial understanding of the church legends. 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, couldn't 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. 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 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.

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 Stefan, who was appointed as the archbishop in 1164.
A certain Henry is mentioned in Incerti scriptorts Sueci chronicon primorumin 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's certain from other sources that Nicholas really was in Sweden in 1153. If this was just a conclusion by the writer himself based on the fact that also Nicholas was an Englishman, isn't known. However, there's 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. Historians from different centuries have also suggested various other years from 1150 to 1158. He is apparently the same Bishop Henry who died at the Battle of Fotevik in 1134, fighting with the Danes after being banished from Sweden. Henry is said to have fled to Denmark from Sigtuna, the see of the early bishops before it was moved a few kilometers to its later location in Uppsala sometime before 1164. This Henry is known from the Chronicon Roskildense written soon after his death and from Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum from the early 13th century. He is never mentioned in any Swedish sources, unless he's 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.

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, 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'd 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 Archibishop 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 hasn't 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'd 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.
   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. No list of Swedish bishops survives from the era, so the bishop's possible position under Uppsala's primacy remains unverified. 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 was located in the church of Nousiainen, presumably meaning that all the bones hadn't 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.
   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

Although Henry has never been officially canonized, he's been referred to as a saint since as early as 1296 according to a papal document of the time, 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.

Notes and references

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