Mathilda Fredrika "Amanda" Cajander, née Nygren (10 January 1827 – 23 February 1871), was a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

deaconess The ministry of a deaconess is, in modern times, a usually non-ordained ministry for women in some Protestant, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Orthodox churches to provide pastoral care, especially for other women, and which may carry a limited l ...

and a pioneer within medical care in Finland.

Life

Cajander married the doctor Anders Cajander in 1848 and had two children. In 1856, by the age of 29, however, she was widowed and her children had died. After this loss, Cajander moved to train as a deaconess at the Evangelical Deaconess Institute in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

. The wealthy Finnish philanthropist Aurora Karamsin was familiar with the institute and when she decided to open a deaconess institution in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...

she invited Cajander to be its first principal. The institute opened in December 1867, during the great

Famine of 1866–68 A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accomp ...

. To begin with, the institute was modest – a small hospital with eight beds, an orphanage and an asylum – and aimed to primarily help women and children and to care for the sick. In 1869 Cajander founded a children's home in Helsinki. She is buried in the Hietaniemi Cemetery in Helsinki.

Legacy

Cajander and Karamsin are considered the first Christian philanthropists in Finland, and are credited with introducing the new idea of women having a vocation to work for the church. The first deaconess educated in Finland became

Cecilia Blomqvist Cecilia Blomqvist (8 September 1845, Björneborg - 7 December 1910, Helsinki), known as ''Sister Cecilia'', was a Finnish deaconess. In 1877, she became the first deaconess in Finland and a pioneer in her profession. She is mentioned along with Auro ...

. The secular nursing profession for women in Finland did not start until the nursing courses of

Anna Broms Anna Broms (1862–1890), was a Finnish educator and a pioneer within the nursing profession in Finland. In 1889, she became the first principal of the first education courses for nurses in Finland and a pioneer in her profession. Anna Broms studie ...

in the 1880s.

References

External links

Suomen kansallisbiografia (National Biography of Finland)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cajander, Amanda 1827 births 1871 deaths Lutheran deaconesses Finnish philanthropists Burials at Hietaniemi Cemetery 19th-century Finnish women 19th-century philanthropists