Olaus Petri

Life events

1. Born — 1493

   Olof Persson was born on 6 January 1493 in Örebro, in south-central Sweden, the son of Peter Olofsson, a local blacksmith, and Kristina Larsdotter. He learned to read and write at the local Carmelite monastery before entering formal academic study.

2. Educated — 1518

   After study at the University of Uppsala and the University of Leipzig, Olaus received a Master's degree at the University of Wittenberg in February 1518. There he and his younger brother Lars met Philipp Melanchthon and Martin Luther, encounters that shaped his subsequent reforming work.

3. Ordained — 1520

   Returning to Sweden in 1519, Olaus accepted ordination as a deacon in 1520 in Strängnäs, serving Bishop Mattias Gregersson Lilje as secretary, chancellor of the Diocese of Strängnäs, and canon and dean of the cathedral school.

4. Wrote — 1526

   In 1526 Olaus published the first Swedish translation of the New Testament together with a catechism in Swedish; the following year, the Diet of Västerås formally declared Sweden Lutheran, a shift in which his and his brother's advocacy played a decisive part.

5. Imprisoned — 1540

   On 2 January 1540, after a trial for treason — charges centred on his refusal to disclose to the king a confessional secret about a conspiracy — Olaus was sentenced to death along with Laurentius Andreae. Both were released on bail after heavy fines paid in part by Stockholm's merchants, though their political careers ended.

6. Other — 1543

   After a royal pardon in 1542, likely tied to completion of the Gustav Vasa Bible (c. 1541), Olaus was appointed dean of St. Nicholas' Church — Storkyrkan — in Stockholm in 1543, a position he held for the remaining nine years of his life.

7. Died — 1552

   Olaus Petri died on 19 April 1552 and was buried at Storkyrkan in Stockholm. A large commemorative plaque and statue were erected outside the church in 1898; the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America jointly commemorates him and his brother Lars on that date each year.

Relationships

Documented claims

• Olaus Petri published the first Swedish translation of the New Testament in 1526, making scripture accessible in the vernacular for the first time in Sweden; he also contributed to the complete Gustav Vasa Bible completed around 1541. (likely)
• A set of 42 general rules known as the Rule for Judges, published posthumously in 1616 and attributed to Olaus Petri (c. 1520–1540), forms the basis of Scandinavian legal tradition and appears in the introduction of every Finnish legal code, though never enacted as binding law. (likely)
• The 1535 sun-dog phenomenon over Stockholm, which Olaus Petri witnessed on 20 April 1535, led him to commission the painting Vädersolstavlan — one of the earliest depictions of a sun-dog display — and to preach a series of apocalyptic sermons. (likely)
• August Strindberg made Olaus Petri the central figure of his play Master Olof (Mäster Olof), whose five-hour première opened on 30 December 1881, securing Petri's place in Swedish literary as well as ecclesiastical memory. (likely)
• In 1525, the same year he married in accordance with Lutheran practice, Olaus Petri arranged the first celebration of the mass sung entirely in Swedish, and in 1531 published a simplified Swedish-language version of the Catholic mass. (likely)