Olaus Petri

Olaus Petri (born Olof Petersson in Örebro, 1493; died in Stockholm, 1552) was a clergyman, writer, judge and one of the central figures of the Protestant Reformation in Sweden. He wrote in Swedish at a time when Latin dominated religious and learned life, which is why he is counted among the authors who did most to shape early printed Swedish. His younger brother Laurentius Petri later became the first Evangelical Lutheran archbishop of the country.

The family was modest; their father was a blacksmith. Olaus studied at Uppsala, Leipzig and Wittenberg, where he met Melanchthon and Luther, and he took his master's degree in 1518. Back in Sweden he lived through the upheaval of the Stockholm Bloodbath of 1520. After the war of liberation he entered the service of the new king, Gustav Vasa. From the capital he promoted Lutheran ideas, married in 1525 and helped bring about the first Swedish-language mass.

His work was mostly practical and pastoral: translations, a catechism, a hymnal, a liturgical handbook and many sermons and polemical writings. In 1526 he published the first Swedish translation of the New Testament, and he took part in translating the whole Bible, known as the Gustav Vasa Bible. His Chronicle of Sweden, though not free of historical errors, remains a valuable record. Contemporaries found him energetic and insistent, especially on matters he held strongly.

In 1539 he was put on trial for treason and in 1540 he was sentenced to death together with Laurentius Andreae. He was eventually pardoned and ended his career as dean of Storkyrkan in Stockholm. His legacy lies in his role in shaping written Swedish and the Lutheran church of the country. Since 1898 a statue outside Storkyrkan has honoured him, and legal texts are attributed to him, although that attribution is disputed.