American Lutheranism, Volume 1: Early History of American Lutheranism and the Tennessee Synod — John Shaqi
American Lutheranism, Volume 1: Early History of American Lutheranism and the Tennessee SynodBente, F. (Friedrich)
History
American Lutheranism, Volume 1: Early History of American Lutheranism and the Tennessee Synod
Bente, F. (Friedrich)
Lutheran Church -- Tennessee -- History; Lutheran Church -- United States -- History
9. New Sweden.--The first Lutheran pastor who set his foot on American
soil in August, 1619, was Rasmus Jensen of Denmark. He was chaplain of
a Danish expedition numbering 66 Lutherans under Captain Jens Munck,
who took possession of the land about Hudson Bay in the name of the
Danish crown. In his diary we read of the faithful pastoral work, the
sermons, and the edifying death, on February 20, 1620, of this Lutheran
pastor. However, the first Lutheran minister to serve a _Lutheran
colony_ in America was Reorus Torkillus. He was born in 1609 at
Faessberg, Sweden, educated at Linkoeping, and for a time was chaplain
at Goeteborg. Gustavus Adolphus already had entertained the idea of
founding a colony in America, chiefly for the purpose of carrying on
mission-work among the Indians. Peter Minuit, a German, who had come to
Manhattan Island in 1626 to represent the interests of the Dutch West
India Company (organized in 1621), led also the first Swedish expedition
to Delaware in December, 1637. Nine expeditions followed, until the
flourishing colony was captured by the Dutch in 1655. The work of
Torkillus, who died September 7, 1643, was continued by John Campanius
(1601 to 1683), who arrived on February 15, 1643. Three years later, one
hundred years after the death of Luther, he dedicated the first Lutheran
Church in America at Christina (Wilmington). His translation of Luther's
Small Catechism into the language of the Delaware Indians antedates
Eliot's Indian Bible, but was not published till 1696. Returning to
Sweden in 1648, Campanius left about 200 souls in the charge of Lars
Lock (Lockenius), who served them until his end, in 1688. In 1654,
Pastors Vertunius and Hjorst arrived with 350 additional souls. Both,
however, returned to Sweden when Stuyvesant took possession of the
colony in 1655, permitting the Swedes in Delaware to retain only Lars
Lock as pastor. Jacob Fabricius, who, after rendering his stay in New
Amsterdam (New York) impossible, was laboring among the Dutch along the
Delaware from 1671 to 1675, before long also began to do mission-work
among the Swedes and Finns, at the same time intriguing against Lock,
whose cup of sorrow was already filled with family troubles and other
griefs. In 1677 Fabricius took charge of the Swedes at Wicaco
(Philadelphia), where he, though blind since 1682, continued faithfully
to wait on his office until his death in 1693 (1696). He preached in
Dutch, which, as reported, the Swedes "spoke perfectly."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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