St Henry’s Pilgrimage is one of the most important traditions of our diocese. St Henry was the one who brought the Catholic faith to our country. If this faith is to grow in our land, it is important that we honour our origins. Tertullian said that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Christian faith. This is why devotion to St Henry, which reaches its high point twice a year, at the winter and summer feasts of St Henry, is so important. The principal feast on St Henry’s heavenly birthday is of course important, but what distinguishes our diocese from the other Nordic dioceses, which also celebrate St Henry, is that we celebrate him in the summer as well, on the feast of the translation of his relics. On that day we make a pilgrimage to Lake Köyliö, the place where our patron saint died.
In recent years, however, the pilgrimage has suffered somewhat. There are many reasons for this, above all the pandemic, but I am delighted that the pilgrimage is clearly recovering. This year, for the first time in a long while, we went all the way to Turku, thanks to Heikki Nissilä’s organisational skills. I had the privilege of being responsible for the liturgy together with the very experienced Fr Anders Hamberg, who has served as the pilgrimage priest for many years.
The pilgrimage has always been very special to me and my family. We have made it countless times. I do not remember exactly how many times myself, but perhaps around twenty. This year was the first time I had taken part since my time in Rome. It was therefore an extremely emotional experience for me, especially as I walked into Kankaanpää at the end of the last full day of the pilgrimage. All the old memories came together in one powerful moment when I saw the sugar beet fields surrounding Lake Köyliö for the first time in a long while. I realised that I know the area where St Henry planted the seeds for the spread of the faith in Finland as well as I know my own home. And in a way, it is the home of all Catholics in Finland.
The pilgrimage began as a bus pilgrimage as early as the 1950s, but it was not until 1980 that pater Jan Aarts SCJ set out on foot for the first time with a few young people, including my father. The first ecumenical pilgrimage took place in 1983. In 1989, as chairman of Juventus Catholica, my father received from John Paul II the cross that has accompanied the pilgrims countless times since then. The Pope was meeting young people in Vadstena at the time, during his visit to the Nordic countries.
In 1993, my father met my mother on the pilgrimage, and the very next year I made my first pilgrimage in my mother’s womb. The following year I travelled on my father’s shoulders, and it was not long before I made the pilgrimage for the first time on my own two feet.
This is why I have such a strong connection with the summer feast of St Henry. Without St Henry, not only would our diocese not exist, neither would I. I therefore owe an infinite debt of gratitude to St Henry and to the local Church that his martyrdom brought into being.
St Henry’s last wish was that a church should be built where his oxen grew weary. His last words and his last strength were dedicated to the salvation of Finland. We do not realise how much we have to thank St Henry and his martyrdom for.
In Genesis we read how Abel’s blood cries out to God from the ground (Gen 4:10), and in the Book of Revelation the martyrs beneath the altar pray to God to avenge their shed blood (Rev 6:9–11). We know that this prayer of blood does not go unanswered, for the Psalms tell us: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints” (Vulg. Ps. 115:6).
We have evidence of this throughout the history of the Church. Where martyrs die, strong faith grows. We have the example of the early Church, but there are also examples closer to our own time. Mission and martyrdom go together. Many places in Africa and Asia where the faith is now strong had missionary martyrs. In England, the Catholic faith survived the Reformation thanks to the example of its countless martyrs. Even in Finland, where St Henry’s blood cried out to God from the ground, it proved extraordinarily difficult to eradicate the Catholic faith. Finland was one of the last parts of the Swedish realm to adopt the Protestant faith. It is said that people continued to practise the Catholic faith secretly here even a hundred years after the Reformation.
The fact is that we must be grateful to the martyrs who strengthen us in the faith. Martyrdom is the perfect example of the central truth of our Christian faith: the Triune God raised Christ from the dead and will raise us too on the Last Day. Death and all the horrors of this world therefore have no power.
Martyrdom is thus not something gloomy for those who have received this great grace from God, including our own St Henry. In the eyes of the world he was a failed missionary, but in the eyes of heaven he is the foremost of our land, for through his blood we were given a share in the saving blood of Christ.
If we want a new springtime for the Catholic faith in Finland, if we want our small local Church to continue to grow, we must honour with joy and gratitude Lake Köyliö and Kirkkokari, its little island, the holiest place in Finland, consecrated by the blood of St Henry. That blood still cries out today to Almighty God, reminding him to send new men and women to spread the faith that it has sown in our land.
Ergo plebs fennonica gaude de hoc dono, quod facta es catholica verbi Dei sono.
Rejoice, therefore, people of Finland, in this gift: that you have become Catholic through the sound of the Word of God.
Viktor Torres Airava