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Fulco was the first known missionary Bishop of
Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...
. He was appointed in 1165 by
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 Danish
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 ...
. Before his appointment, Fulco was a
Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...
monk in the abbey of Moutier-la-Celle, near
Troyes Troyes () is a commune and the capital of the department of Aube in the Grand Est region of north-central France. It is located on the Seine river about south-east of Paris. Troyes is situated within the Champagne wine region and is near to ...
in France. His ancestry is not known. After his appointment, Fulco appears in sources only once. In 1171,
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 ...
asked the Archbishop of Trondheim to assign an Estonian monk Nicolaus living in
Stavanger Stavanger (, , American English, US usually , ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the fourth largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the a ...
to go to Fulco's assistance. No further information survives about Fulco's work in
Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...
, or whether he ever even got there.


Identification with Folquinus

Fulco is sometimes speculated to be the same person as a certain ''Folquinus'', a late 12th century
Bishop 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 ...
, briefly mentioned in a mid-15th century chronicle ''Chronicon episcoporum Finlandensium'' after equally legendary Rodulff and before quite historical
Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...
. The chronicle claimed him to be Swedish by birth. Folquinus was again mentioned in another chronicle of the same name by Paulus Juusten, the
Bishop of Turku 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 ...
, about 100 years later, adding that during a Novgorodian attack to Finland in 1198 he was still in office. The name "Fulco" appears in unrelated Scandinavian sources as the Latinized form of "
Folke Folke is a parish in the county of Dorset in southern England, situated in the Blackmore Vale, approximately south-east of Sherborne. The parish has an area of and is made of the villages of Folke and Alweston, and the hamlet of Bishops Down. ...
". Also Folquinus is known to have stood for Folke in various medieval texts, as the Latin suffix ''-inus'' (meaning "pertaining to") in the name just emphasizes its first part. As the two bishops had similar names and they worked roughly around the same time in neighboring areas under Lund's missionary supervision, possibility for the identification remains, although the church in Finland is officially sceptical about it. Noteworthy is that while organizing assistance to the Estonian mission, Pope Alexander III was also closely following the situation in Finland, something that no previous Pope is known to have done. Eskil 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 had also been appointed to his high office by Eskil in 1164, were both close acquaintances with the Pope, having met in France while the Pope had been exiled there in the 1160s. In Pope's letter to Stefan in 1171 (or 1172), he complains how Finns only turned to God at the time of war, harassing preachers as soon as the peril was over. No Diocese or Bishop of Finland is mentioned in the papal letter, and no information survives, whether it prompted any actions. In the apparent shortage of missionaries, it can be speculated that the frustrated Pope may have organized Fulco to deal with the Finns as soon as his assistant Nicolaus could have taken over the missionary work in Estonia. If information about Folquinus still being in office in 1198 is correct, his identification with Fulco would require him to have worked in missionary assignments for more than 30 years, in any case reaching a rather high age for a man of his times. In a letter by
Pope Innocent III Pope Innocent III ( la, Innocentius III; 1160 or 1161 – 16 July 1216), born Lotario dei Conti di Segni (anglicized as Lothar of Segni), was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1198 to his death in 16 J ...
to
Anders Sunesen Anders Sunesen (also ''Andreas'', ''Suneson'', ''Sunesøn'', Latin: ''Andreas Sunonis'') (c. 1167 – 1228) was a Danish archbishop of Lund, Scania, from 21 March 1201, at the death of Absalon, to his own death in 1228. He is the author ...
, the Archbishop of Lund, in 1209, an unnamed Bishop of Finland is mentioned to have died "lawfully" (i.e., a natural death) sometime earlier. By repeating Archbishop's own words, the letter makes it clear that the dead bishop had been appointed by the Lund archbishopric or at least with its approval, and that the "recent" establishment of the church in Finland was work of the Danes or their close allies, "caretaking of a few noble men". The Archbishop had also complained to the Pope how difficult it was to get anyone to be a bishop in Finland and planned to appoint someone without formal adequacy, which the Pope approved of without questioning Archbishop's opinions. In surviving lists of Swedish bishoprics from 1164, 1189 and 1192, there is no reference, factual or propagandist, to the Diocese or Bishop of Finland.''Suomen varhaiskeskiajan lähteitä'', 1989. .


See also

*
Henry (bishop of Finland) 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 th ...
*
Thomas (bishop of Finland) Thomas ( fi, Tuomas) is the first known bishop of Finland. Only a few facts are known about his life. He resigned in 1245 and died in Visby three years later. Biography The only reference to Bishop Thomas during his episcopate in Finland is ...
*
Theoderich von Treyden Theoderich (or Theoderich von Treyden) (died 15 June 1219) was the second known missionary in Livonia after Saint Meinhard, the first Bishop of Livonia. He was previously a Cistercian monk working as a priest in Turaida (1191–1202), the first ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fulco People of medieval Estonia Finnish Roman Catholics 12th-century Roman Catholic bishops