Lars Levi Laestadius

Lars Levi Laestadius
Laestadius in 1839
Born(1800-01-10)10 January 1800
Died21 February 1861(1861-02-21) (aged 61)
Occupations
  • Lutheran church minister
  • founder of revival movement
  • botanist, incl. expedition member
  • writer
  • Sami mythology chronicler

Lars Levi Laestadius (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈlɑːʂ ˈlěːvɪ lɛˈstɑ̌ːdɪɵs]; 10 January 1800 – 21 February 1861) was a Swedish Sami writer, ecologist, mythologist, and ethnographer as well as a pastor and administrator of the Swedish state Lutheran church in Lapland who founded the Laestadian pietist revival movement to help his largely Sami congregations, who were being ravaged by alcoholism. Laestadius himself became a teetotaller (except for his ongoing use of wine in holy Communion)[1] in the 1840s, when he began successfully talking his Sami parishioners out of alcoholism. Laestadius was also a noted botanist and an author.

  1. ^ L. L. Laestadius, The Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness, trans. The Old Apostolic Lutheran Church of America (August 26, 1988), p.35.