Henry (; ; ; died 20 January 1156). was a medieval English clergyman. He came to Sweden with Cardinal Nicholas Breakspeare in 1153 and was most likely designated to be the new Archbishop of Uppsala, but the independent church province of Sweden could only be established in 1164 after the civil war, and Henry would have been sent to organize the Church in Finland, where Christians had already existed for two centuries.

According to legend, he entered Finland during the First Swedish Crusade together with the king, Saint Eric of Sweden, and died as a martyr, becoming the patron saint of the Catholic Church in Finland. However, the authenticity of the accounts of his life and ministry are widely disputed and there are no historical records of his birth, death, or even his existence.

Together with his alleged murderer, peasant Lalli, Henry is an important figure in the early history of Finland. His feast is celebrated by the majority Lutheran Church of Finland, as well as by the Catholic Church of Finland. He is commemorated in the liturgical calendars of several Lutheran and Anglican churches.

Legend

Vita and miracula The legend of Bishop Henry's life, or his Vita, was written 150 years after his time, at the end of the 13th century, and contains little concrete information about him. He is said to have been an English-born bishop in 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 do battle with 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. In Latin and in Finnish. All 52 known versions of the legend, many of which are fragmented, can also be downloaded from a server of the University of Helsinki.

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 FinlandBishop of Finland was renamed as the Bishop of Turku by 1259, see in 1259. In Latin. which became a conventional claim later on, also by the church itself.For example, in Bishop Paulus Juusten's Chronicon episcoporum Finlandensium from the mid-16th century (not to be confused with another chronicle of the same name about 100 years earlier), Henry is listed as the first Bishop of Finland without any additional reservations. 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 miracles that various people were said to have experienced sometime after the bishop's death. With the exception of a priest in Skara who suffered 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 Vehmaa A sick woman was healed in Sastamala A Franciscan called Erlend had his headache healed A blind woman got back her eyesight in Kyrö A man with a paralyzed leg could walk again in Kyrö A sick girl was healed A group of fishermen from Kokemäki 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. 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.Original text as hosted by the University of Lund. See also Beckman, Natanael (S1886): Medeltidslatin bland skaradjäknar 1943:1 s. 3. Henry and the crusade do not appear until 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..

Absence from the historical record 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, 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 FinlandThe so-called "chancellor bishops of Finland" have been shown to have been a creation of later historians, especially by Juusten in his chronicle of the Finnish Bishops during the 16th century, by Herman Shück in Historisk Tidskrift 2/1963 in his article "Kansler och capella regis under folkungatiden". As to Ragvald and Kettil, the title "chancellor" rests solely on Juustens imagination and is in contradiction with the real and known chancellors of the time. As to Bero, who is mentioned already in the so-called "Palmskölds fragment" probably from the time of Turku bishop Magnus Tavast from the 15th century (dating by Jarl Gallén in "De engelska munkarna i Uppsala – ett katedralkloster på 1100-talet, Historisk Tidskrift för Finland 1976, p. 17). According to Schück, Bero might have been the King's chaplain. 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 Bengt Birgersson 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..

In 1291 a document by the cathedral chapter makes no reference to Henry even though it mentions the cathedral and election of the new bishop many times. in 1291. In Latin. A papal letter by Pope Nicholas IV from 1292 has the Virgin Mary as the sole patrona in Turku. in 1292. In Latin.

Appearance in the historical record 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. This document, although mentioned many times as a source over the centuries, was not correctly dated until 1910.Diplomatarium Suecanum nr.1746. The document (previously dated to 1295–1296) has been shown by Jarl Gallén to be from 22 April 1391 in his article "Studier i Åbo domkyrkans Svartbok" in Historisk Tidskrift för Finland 1978. The same document has been published twice by Hausen, first with false dating in "Registrum Ecclesiae Aboensis" in the year 1890 (nr.18) and then with correct dating in "Finlands Medeltids Urkunder" in 1910 (nr. 999).

The legend itself is also first referred in a letter by the Archbishop of Uppsala in 1298, where Eric and Henry are mentioned together as martyrs who needed to be prayed to for the sake of the situation in Karelia,. 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 not until 1299..

The first mention of Henry of Uppsala being the patron saint of Turku cathedral is not until 14 August 1320, when he is mentioned as the second patron of the cathedral after Virgin Mary.Hausen's Registrum Ecclesiae Aboensis nr.27 When he is later addressed by Pope Boniface IX as the patronus of the Cathedral of Turku along with the Virgin Mary, and referred to as a saint, it was in the year 1391.. See also History of the Cathedral of Turku by the Archdiocese of Turku. 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..

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 developed in Nousiainen and gradually spread among ordinary people before official adoption. In 1232, the church in Nousiainen was consecrated only to the Virgin Mary, and it was not until 1452 that Henry was mentioned as the patronus of Nousiainen..

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 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, Linköping, Strängnäs Duplex: Uppsala, Lund (Denmark), Västerås, Växjö Semiduplex: Nidaros (Norway) Simplex: SkaraNoteworthy is that king Eric was from Västergötaland, which was a part of the Diocese of 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 20 January (talviheikki, "Winter Henry"), according to traditions the day of his death. Elsewhere his memorial was held already on 19 January,19 January was also the memorial of King Canute IV of Denmark who had been canonized 19 January 1101 by Pope Paschal II. Coincidentally, also his relics were translated in 1300, to the Saint Canute's Cathedral in Odense. since more prominent saints were already commemorated on 20 January. After the Reformation, Henry's day was moved to the 19th in Finland as well.Archbishop Jukka Paarma's speech on Henry . In Finnish. 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 18 June (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 within the late 14th or early 15th century Graduale Aboense.Graduale Aboense in The European Library.

Political dimensions