Writing begins from the church,
People begin from the Book
(Hando Runnel)

Estonia has belonged to the Christian cultural space for more than 700 years. Unfortunately, we have to admit that the Christianisation of both Estonia and the whole of Europe was characterised by compulsion - partly influenced by the efforts of the popes to perpetuate their power in the countries newly won over to the Christianity, and partly by the rapid invasion of Islam into Europe, which seemed to justify the spreading of Christian principles with the help of fire and sword. The Catholic Church based its actions on St. Augustine's (354-430) teachings De Civitate Dei (The City of God); among other matters, he argued that if countries and peoples do not voluntarily choose to believe in the Gospel and submit to the Christian Church, they have to be subdued by force. Augustine, the Church Father, in turn, relied on the teachings of Jesus Christ and on the parable of the great supper: when the lord bids his guests to supper and they do not come, the lord sends out his servant to compel them to come (St. Luke XIV:21:24). St. Augustine held that the Christian state should follow the same principle, since the state could only be a Christian state. Such a notion was a norm throughout the Middle Ages. War is indeed bad, but since the world is full of sin, war proves to be necessary because its ultimate aim is to serve peace and God. The two states (civitas terrena and civitas Dei - the worldly state and the state of God) were created by two loves: 1) in the worldly state, love of self and contempt for God prevailed; 2) the Godly state was dominated by love of god and contempt for self.

malev toom. tsässon or an orthodox prayer-house in meldova in setumaa

Although today we cannot speak of Estonia as a Catholic country, in more emotional moments Estonians still refer to their beloved fatherland as the (holy) Land of Mary. And the Greek Catholic, or Orthodox (the right belief), Setu people, an ethnic minority in the border area between Estonia and Russia, up to this day sing songs about how difficult it has been for them to create their own home between two worlds, on the land of Mary, Mother of the Holy Christ. The story of the dedication of Estonia and Livonia to the Virgin Mary is the story of how the new faith and the new order of life were brought to the inhabitants of North and South Estonia; it is an important chapter in the history, particularly the cultural history, of the local people.

In the country, the units of church order were the parishes, which retained their ancient Estonian names for a while, but later were renamed after one or another Catholic saint. The oldest Estonian parishes are, for example, Võnnu (1232), Palamuse (its Estonian name derives from St. Bartholomew), Paistu, Tarvastu, Otepää, Pilistvere, Põltsamaa and Valjala (according to the Pope's letter of 1243). The church that was located in the parish centre was called a baptismal church, because only this church had the right to baptise the inhabitants of its parish. Since the numerous Catholic chapels had no right to offer spiritual guidance, they could only hold burials and services.

Christian education was mainly provided by churches not schools. Religious plays, based on the Bible or dealing with some educational problems, were very popular and wide-spread in the 14th century. But the performing of plays in churches was prohibited in 1428.

The Catholic period (from the 13th to 16th centuries) was characterised by the cult of saints. In addition to the Virgin Mary (numerous Lady Days in the Estonian folk calendar), people worshipped St. Anthony (Estonian Tõnn or Tõnis), St. Margaret (Maret), St. Michael (Mihkel) and other saints. The previous animistic cult of the dead was, in Estonia, replaced by the worshipping of saints. People went on pilgrimages to Vastseliina and Pärnu and to the St. Brigitta Convent in Pirita, founded in 1407. People's donations to the Church were used to found hospitals and poorhouses at the town chapels that were always dedicated to the Holy Spirit.

The folk calendar adopted more and more holidays dedicated to Christian saints, the spiritual content of which were often unknown to peasants. Only the names of the holidays of Christian origin became a part of the tradition (for example, the Days of the Virgin Mary on 2 February and 8 September, St. Matthew's Day on 21 September, St. George's Day on 23 April, Michaelmas Day on 29 September, St. Nicholas's Day on 6 December, and St. Lawrence's Day on 10 August). During this period people became more familiar with the notion of Sunday as a regular Christian holiday. The system of holidays of Catholic origin was so strongly mixed with the folk tradition that, after the Reformation, the Lutheran Church had to fight against many folk holidays that, while they still bore Christian names, were actually surviving pagan holidays. The regional differences in the folk calendar can, in many cases, also be explained by the patron saints of the churches and chapels of the parishes. The popularity of these saints helped to fix the corresponding holidays in the folk calendar: a church or a chapel bearing the name of its patron saint, which was erected on a traditional holy place of Estonians, became popular among local people, which, in turn, inspired the building of new churches dedicated to the same saint.

Starting from this period, the transition rites that were important to an individual or his family or the community, such as births, marriages, funerals and the complex of traditions and beliefs accompanying these rites, were no longer the internal affairs of the community, based on the notions of traditional culture, but were connected with the traditions of the Christian Church.

Concerning spiritual guidance, the Catholic Church offered seven sanctifying acts or sacraments to bring a person nearer to God (Latin sacramentum - 'sanctification'): baptism, confirmation, communion, anointing of the sick or the last rites, marriage, holy orders and reconciliation. The sacrament of anointing the sick was considered very important; it was administered on the deathbed, together with confession and communion. The parish priest had to visit the dying person at his home, where he could see to the situation of the whole family.

In relation to deaths and burials, the Christian church had to deal with two more important problems: changing the burial place and burial rites and fighting against excessively copious funeral feasts (wakes).

People had generally given up cremation burials by that time and returned to burial of the body - in this sense, the rules of Christianity were not new. But in other aspects, the traditions of the ancestors were stubbornly observed: the dead were probably buried without coffins, and the Christian tradition of crossing the dead person's hands on his breast was adopted very reluctantly. The Catholic Church demanded that the dead be wrapped in shrouds and put into coffins and buried in the consecrated soil of the churchyard. Archaeological finds continue to reveal grave-goods (burials in South Estonian village graveyards are well-known for their rich jewellery finds and especially for knives, sewing needles and coins that had been put into the graves of women). The amount of grave-goods gradually diminished, and finally, weapons were no longer put into the graves.

People used the opportunity to bury their dead near their homes and far from the churches, at numerous chapels, which had often been built on top of ancient places of sacrifice; burials were carried out according to ancient traditions. In such a way, many village graveyards came into being in the Middle Ages on the sites of 13th-century underground burial-places. It is also possible that a burial ground that had once been created by the richest family of the village later belonged to the whole village. But in contrast to Western and Central Europe and the Nordic countries, where pre-Christian burial sites were abandoned after Christianisation and churchyards became the only burial places, in Estonia, village graveyards co-existed with church graveyards and they were widely used until the 1720s. Numerous village graveyards can be found in historical Võrumaa County, where the using of ancient burial grounds was supported by the fact that the number of parish churches and church graveyards was remarkably small in comparison with other regions of Estonia. People often called the ancient burial places and Christian chapels by one and the same name - village graveyards are often known as Church and/or Chapel Hills.

From the viewpoint of the church, the pre-Christian tradition of holding copious funeral feasts to honour the dead and the offering of sacrifices to the dead - not only in a consecrated churchyard, but also in the church - were also unacceptable and needed to be rooted out. On certain commemorative days, people brought food to the graves and had symbolic meals with their departed relatives.

The Catholic Church attempted to influence the indigenous people with the pomp and grandeur of services, the abundance of images, and the rich clothing of priests and chorals. Special interpreters translated sermons into the local language but, despite the effort, Christian culture was adopted very slowly. Although Estonians were outwardly Christians, they held to their pre-Christian traditions and beliefs, which started to mix with Christian customs only over the course of many centuries. The history of the Christianisation of other European nations shows that this is all very common, since mediaeval "village Christianity" was everywhere closely connected with notions and beliefs originating from ancient animistic religions.

According to an old story, when one peasant from Virumaa County was asked by a visiting clergyman why he and other people from his village did not want to bury their dead in a decent way in the consecrated soil of the churchyard, he answered ...The Land of Holy Mary [is] in All Places ... And although today burial in a churchyard is a common tradition in Võrumaa, and personal or family graveyards can be found only rarely, people still have not entirely given up the pre-Christian tradition of grave-goods, and copious funeral feasts are still held.

Marju Torp-Kõivupuu, folklorist, senior lecturer at Tallinn University of Educational Sciences.