Rodulff (''Rodulf'') is claimed by a 15th-century chronicle ''Chronicon episcoporum Finlandensium'' to have worked as a missionary "bishop" in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

after

Bishop Henry Saint Henry ( fi, Henrik; sv, Henrik; la, Henricus; died 20 January 1156.) was a medieval English clergyman. He came to Sweden with Cardinal Nicholas Breakspeare in 1153 and was most likely designated to be the new Archbishop of Uppsala, but ...

had died in the 1150s.
Chronicon episcoporum Finlandensium
' by an unknown writer. Part of the Palmsköld collection. In Latin. Rodulff was allegedly from

Västergötland Västergötland (), also known as West Gothland or the Latinized version Westrogothia in older literature, is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden (''landskap'' in Swedish), situated in the southwest of Sweden. Väs ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. No historical records of Rodulff survive, and no Bishop or

Diocese of Finland The Archdiocese of Turku ( fi, Turun arkkihiippakunta, sv, Åbo ärkestift), historically known as '' Archdiocese of Åbo'', is the seat of the Archbishop of Turku. It is a part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, and its see city is ...

is mentioned in a papal letter from 1171 (or 1172) by the seemingly well-informed

Pope Alexander III Pope Alexander III (c. 1100/1105 – 30 August 1181), born Roland ( it, Rolando), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 September 1159 until his death in 1181. A native of Siena, Alexander became pope after a con ...

, who otherwise addressed the situation of the church in Finland. However, the Pope mentions that there were preachers, presumably from Sweden, working in Finland and was worried about their bad treatment by the Finns. Pope had earlier in 1165 authorized the first missionary Bishop of Estonia to be appointed, and was a close acquaintance of both

Eskil Eskil is a town and district of Aksaray Province in the Central Anatolia Region, Turkey, Central Anatolia region of Turkey, situated on the southern shore of Lake Tuz. According to 2000 census, population of the district is 28,952 of which 22,125 ...

, the

Archbishop of Lund List of (arch)bishops of Lund. Until the Danish Reformation the centre of a great Latin (arch)bishopric, Lund has been in Sweden since the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658. The Diocese of Lund is now one of thirteen in the Church of Sweden. Cathol ...

, and Stefan, the

Archbishop of Uppsala The Archbishop of Uppsala (spelled Upsala until the early 20th century) has been the primate (bishop), primate of Sweden in an unbroken succession since 1164, first during the Roman Catholic Church, Catholic era, and from the 1530s and onward un ...

, who both had spent time with him in France where he had been exiled in the 1160s. Following the situation in Estonia, Pope personally interfered in the Estonian mission in 1171. Furthermore, in a surviving list of Swedish bishoprics from 1164, there is no reference, factual or propagandist, to Finland.''Suomen varhaiskeskiajan lähteitä'', 1989. . According to the ''Chronicon'', Rodulff was captured and killed by

Curonians :''The Kursenieki are also sometimes known as Curonians.'' The Curonians or Kurs ( lv, kurši; lt, kuršiai; german: Kuren; non, Kúrir; orv, кърсь) were a Baltic tribe living on the shores of the Baltic Sea in what are now the western p ...

and succeeded by

Bishop Folquinus Fulco was the first known missionary Bishop of Estonia. He was appointed in 1165 by Eskil of Lund, Eskil, the Danish Archbishop of Lund. Before his appointment, Fulco was a Benedictine monk in the abbey of Moutier-la-Celle, near Troyes in France. H ...

. Though other legends possibly place his death in

Piispanristi Piispanristi is a part of Kaarina which is close to the city of Turku Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') ...

References

Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland Finnish Roman Catholic bishops Year of birth missing Year of death missing {{Finland-bio-stub