Milla Clementsdotter (also known as, Milla Clemensdotter, Maria of Lappland (

Finnish language Finnish (endonym: or ) is a Uralic language of the Finnic branch, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official languages of Finland (the other being Swedish ...

, Lapin Maria; 1 November 1812 – 8 April 1892) was a Swedish Southern

Sami Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise net ...

woman who is remembered for guiding

Lars Levi Laestadius Lars Levi Laestadius (; 10 January 1800 – 21 February 1861) was a Swedish Sami pastor and administrator of the Swedish state Lutheran church in Lapland who founded the Laestadian pietist revival movement to help his largely Sami congregations ...

in questions of Christian faith. She belonged to a revival movement marked by

Pietistic Pietism (), also known as Pietistic Lutheranism, is a movement within Lutheranism that combines its emphasis on biblical doctrine with an emphasis on individual piety and living a holy Christian life, including a social concern for the needy and ...

and Moravian influences, a member of a group known as "Readers", a background shared by Laestadius' mother.

Biography

Milla Clementsdotter was born on 1 November 1812 in Orrnäsfjäll, Föllinge, Sweden. Her parents were Clemmens Andersson and Anna Larsdotter. Because the father was an alcoholic, the family lost all of its property. After her father's death in 1817, his mother remarried Torkel Jonsson. That led to Clementsdotter to having a half-sister, Sara Brita, who was born in 1825. At the age of six, she went to live with a family that farmed, before being removed to various foster families, where she received abusive treatment. She subsequently developed a deep belief in Christianity. In 1840, Clementsdotter married Tomas Pålsson. Clementsdotter and Laestadius probably met on 1 January 1844 in the municipality of

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in Jämtland during an inspection tour of Åsele. According to Laestadius, Clementsdotter had previously met the priest

Pehr Brandell Pehr Brandell, also known as Per, Petrus, and Petter, (1 January 1781 – 4 May 1841) was a Swedish Lutheran priest known for his role in the 19th-century revivalist movement in Norrland. Biography Upbringing, education, and work Brandel ...

of the

Church of Sweden The Church of Sweden ( sv, Svenska kyrkan) is an Evangelical Lutheran national church in Sweden. A former state church, headquartered in Uppsala, with around 5.6 million members at year end 2021, it is the largest Christian denomination in Swed ...

in the parish of Nora in the municipality of Kramfors in

Ångermanland Ångermanland ( or ) is a historical province (''landskap'') in the northern part of Sweden. It is bordered (clockwise from the north) by Swedish Lapland, Västerbotten, the Gulf of Bothnia, Medelpad and Jämtland. The name is derived from ...

, where Brandell freed her from the doubt regarding Christianity. She told Laestadius about her spiritual experiences on her journey to a truly living Christianity, and recited various biblical teachings to Laestadius. The meeting between Clementsdotter and Laestadius was a turning point in Laestadius's life. Afterwards, he felt he had come to understand the secret of living faith. He was inspired by her simple tales of "experiences in the order of grace," as Laestadius himself called it. After the meeting, he started the proclamation which marked the beginning of Laestadianism. This is how the meeting between Clementsdotter and Laestadius gained historical and spiritual significance for many people. Laestadius referred to her as "Mary", and she is known by name as "Lappmarkens Maria",Lundmark, Bo. "Læstadius och samekvinnan Milla från Frostviken". Jämten 2007Wikmark, Gunnar. "Lars Levi Læstadius och lappflickan Maria : vid hundraårsminnet av Lars Levi Læstadius' död". Stockholm, 1961Wikmark, Gunnar. "'Læstadius Maria' identifierad : slutlänken i en beviskedja". ''Från bygd och vildmark i Lappland och Västerbotten'', 1956. "Maria of Lappland", and "Lapin Maija". In 1846, Clementsdotter and Pålsson had a daughter Anna Brita. By 1865, they were living on Halmøya in Flatanger (then part of Fosnes) and in Namdalen as

reindeer Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subsp ...

herding Herding is the act of bringing individual animals together into a group ( herd), maintaining the group, and moving the group from place to place—or any combination of those. Herding can refer either to the process of animals forming herds i ...

nomad A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the po ...

s. In 1875, they lived in Vigen, Hopstad, Roan,

Sør-Trøndelag Sør-Trøndelag () was a county comprising the southern portion of the present-day Trøndelag county in Norway. It bordered the old Nord-Trøndelag county as well as the counties of Møre og Romsdal, Oppland, and Hedmark. To the west is the No ...

, Norway. She died in Roan on 8 April 1892.

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Clementsdotter, Milla 1812 births 1892 deaths Swedish Sámi people Laestadianism Radical Pietism Nomads People from Krokom Municipality People in Sámi history