Out of the “Pagan Darkness”: Christian Education in Finnish Lapland

This article examines Christian education for the Sami people in Finnish Lapland from the seventeenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century. During that time, a variety of forms of nationwide education were undertaken in Lapland, but the most enduring solution proved to be catechist education, with a travelling Sami educator visiting homes to teach children the key elements of Christianity. According to contemporaries, the Sami people managed to break out of their “primitiveness” in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Signs of finding the “road to civilisation” included a more Finnish lifestyle, as well as the adoption of the Christian faith: at the turn of twentieth century, the level of Christianity in the Sami area was higher than anywhere else in Finland.