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Mikael Agricola (c. 1510 – April 9, 1557) - the sculpture beside the Cathedral of Turku visible - was a Finnish clergyman who became de facto founder of written Finnish and one of the prominent proponents of the Protestant Reformation in Sweden-Finland. He is often called "the father of Finnish written language." Agricola was consecrated as the bishop of Turku in 1554 without papal approval. As a result, he began a reform of the Finnish church along Lutheran lines. He translated the New Testament, the prayerbook, hymns, and the mass into Finnish, and through this work set the rules of orthography that are the basis of modern Finnish spelling.

Mikael Agricola

Mikael Agricola was born in 1510 to a rather wealthy peasant family. When still a child, he was very eager to learn and was especially talented. His first teacher, a parson of Pernaja, noticed his gifts and persuaded his parents to send him, as a young boy, to Latin school in Vyborg. There he took Agricola ("farmer") as his surname, according to his fathers occupation.
After 8 years of studying, the 18 year old Agricola was close to the immediate circle of the bishop of Finland. In the beginning of 1530's he was ordained a priest, at the same time as the reforms of the Reformation were carried out. Agricola was sent to the university of Wittenberg in Germany in 1536, where Martin Luther was living and acting. In 1539 Agricola passed his "Master of Arts" examination, and was chosen as a rector of a Cathedral school in Turku.
In 1543 Agricola finished off the first Finnish "ABC-book", after which in 1548 he translated the New Testament to Finnish. Agricola was nominated as the bishop of Turku, after King Gustav Wasa divided Finland's church into two dioceses; Turku's and Vyborg's.
Agricola died in 1557 after having had a severe fit on his way from Moscow, where he had been sent to settle a dispute with the Russians about borderlines.

Turku

Turku is a city situated on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of Aura river. It is located in the region of Finland Proper in the Province of Western Finland. It is believed that Turku came into existence during the end of 13th century which makes it the oldest city in Finland. Turku was for a long time the most important population center in Finland: it was the first capital city of Finland from 1809 to 1812 and continued to be the largest city by population in Finland until the end of 1840s. Nowadays its significance nationwide is not the same as it used to be, but Turku is still a regional capital and important location for business and culture.

As of February 28, 2009 Turku’s population was 175,689, which makes it the fifth largest city in Finland by population. As of 31 August 2008 there were 303,492 inhabitants living in the Turku sub-region, which makes it the third largest urban area in Finland after the Greater Helsinki area and Tampere sub-region. (Source: finnguide & turku.fi)