On the west coast of the United States, in the state of Washington, in a locality called Naselle, there is a small cemetery called Peaceful Hill Cemetery. The names engraved on the tombstones say that most of those buried there have Finnish roots. I visited that cemetery in the summer of 2005, but at the time I didn’t notice a tombstone that bore MARTYR on the back. About a week ago, a friend of mine who lives nearby posted a picture of that tombstone. As I saw the picture, I remembered that I had read newspaper articles about a sad event in which the Finnish-born Pentecostal evangelist Antti Lajunen had died.
As always, the special destinies of life aroused my interest and I began to find out the course of Antti Lajunen's life path, the final stop of which was the above-mentioned cemetery. Antti Lajunen was born on August 1, 1877 in the village of Karmala in Sortavala (Karmala no. 5) to the family of farmer Jaakko Henrikinpoika Lajunen (May 24, 1832 - July 7, 1911) and Brita Antintytär Ijäs (November 8, 1841 - October 23, 1902). [1] Antti's parents were married on 12 August 1860 and a total of seven children were born in the family: Henrik (16.3.1863-28.2.1918), Anna (2.6.1867), Helena (11.2.1871), Jakob (7.3.1874), Antti, whose first name is in the book of baptism in the form Anders (1.8.1877), Maria 18.10.1880 and Brita (27.2.1884). [2]
According to Church books, Antti's parents Jaakko and Brita Lajunen have been very diligent in attending communion. And, according to Church books, Antti's father Jaakko has worked as a Sunday school teacher for the local Evangelical Lutheran Church. In the records of the eldest of Antti's siblings, Henrik, there is an indication of "weak-minded", and he never started a family. The eldest of the daughters, Anna, married Matti Pulkkinen, a peasant son from the village of Riekkala in Sortavala on October 21, 1887. [3] The marriage gave birth to six children, but Anna died on the birth of her youngest child on February 21, 1902. The next of Antti's siblings, Helena, took the migration book to Helsinki on March 27, 1900, and after that I have no information about her. The fourth of the family's children, Jaakko (Jakob), married Maria Ollintytär Luostarinen (July 14, 1881-) from Sortavala's Heikkurinsaari on March 6, 1903. [4] Jaakko died at the age of 52 at his home in Sortavala's Karmala on April 12, 1926. In addition to the wife, five children, three sons and two daughters were left to mourn. Antti's sister Maria was married on January 4, 1907 to Juhana Antinpoika Haatanen (4.8.1882-), who was from the same village. [5] Riitta (Brita), the youngest of Antti Lajunen's siblings, was born in 1884 and, like Antti, never married.
Antti Lajunen experienced a spiritual awakening within the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and religious activation can be seen in the busy communion visits in 1898-1903, after which they completely cease. He moved to the Baptists in the early 20th century, and on the basis of communion visits, the could be dated to 1903-1904. Antti Lajunen received adult baptism and performed as a spiritual speaker at Baptist events. An additional pencil entry, Baptist, has been made in communion book of the Sortavala rural parish 1900-1909. The clergy of the Lutheran congregation tried to persuade Antti to give up activities without either success. Antti Lajunen remained a formal member of the Evangelical Lutheran congregation until 1912.
In 1903-1912, Antti Lajunen toured in his hometown area in Karelia to hold spiritual meetings with, among others, the elementary school teacher, the evangelist Pekka Lattu. Lattu has in his book
"Expensively Purchased Freedom" described Antti Lajunen's activities as follows [appendixes in square brackets to improve the comprehensibility of the text]:
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Texts engraved on Antti Lajunen's memorial translated from Finnish to English (Bible text: King James Version)
Martyr, Evangelist Antti Lajunen, born in Finland in 1877, died May 9, 1929 Portland Oregon USA.
"I
saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of
God, and for the testimony which they held." Revelation 6:9.
"Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints." Psalm 116:15. |
“In August 1903 I moved to Sortavala; there I met Brother Antti Lajunen, who had woken up but was afraid of sectarianism, as he himself said. At a meeting with Brother V. Malin, he then said he understood free grace. Immediately after reading the Bible in his home, he was delighted with the Room. 5: 1 so much that [Antti Lajunen's] father noticed it and started warning about the wrong. He was later taken to Pastor Jalkanen of Ruskeala to correct for a false doctrine. But Antti Lajunen wanted to follow the teachings of the Bible and was baptized soon after.
Since then, we have held joint meetings with Brother Antti Lajunen in the countryside, but the pastor of the [Lutheran congregation] announced in the church that [us] should not be given a meeting room. So some of the hosts fearfully closed their doors, but others opened and received the word with joy. Once in the village of Karmala, Antti Lajunen had asked for a room for a meeting, and he go a permission, and then asked me to speak. The crowd had arrived in abundance, but before the meeting began, one farmer, a village elder and a Sunday school teacher, came and frightened the owner of the house with periodic penalty payments, citing a church proclamation. The host then apologized to us for not having to hold the meeting now. I asked then if the host was afraid we were teaching the wrong doctrine. He replied that he did not know what was right and what was wrong, but he would not start paying the fine once it was forbidden.
That’s when I said that once a meeting isn’t allowed, it’s not held. But the Bible explains what is wrong to learn and what are false prophets. Don't you, the host and the assembled people, want to hear, then I read a little from the Bible. Everyone agreed, saying that at least it won’t be a fine if you read the Bible. So I read of true and false prophets, and the people listened and marveled. The master of the house broke down in tears and said, ‘Now I know who is right and who is wrong. I am no longer afraid of threats; these men are allowed to speak in my house, and let him who is afraid go away. '' Those three words against the above went out, the audience stayed to listen, and we continued the meeting. "[6]
Officially, the separation from the Lutheran Church took place on May 15, 1912, when he transferred his church books to the Tampere Baptist Church/Congregation, as there was no parish for the Baptists in Sortavala. [7] At the same time, Lajunen became acquainted with the Pentecostal movement, whose message also inspired him. In the next section, I will talk about Lajunen's work as an evangelist for the Pentecostal movement.
