Hans Peter Boerresen (29 November 1825 – 23 September 1901) was a

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

missionary to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. He and Norwegian missionary

Lars Olsen Skrefsrud Lars Olsen Skrefsrud (4 February 1840 – 11 December 1910) was a Norwegian Lutheran missionary and language researcher in India. Biography Skrefsrud came from the parish of Fåberg situated north of Lillehammer in Oppland, Norway. As a youn ...

were the founders of

Northern Evangelical Lutheran Church Northern Evangelical Lutheran Church (NELC) is a multi-lingual Lutheran Christian church that is centred mainly in four states of North India - Jharkhand, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, and Bengal. The reach of the Church extends into Nepal and the NEL ...

—centered in

North India North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Central ...

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

, and

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

- extending into

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

and

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...

Missionary work

Hans Peter Boerresen was sent to India in 1864 by

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

based Gossner Missionary Society to evangelizing North Indian aborigines. He was initially placed at station

Purulia Purulia is a city and a municipality in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Purulia district. It is located on the north of the Kangsabati River. Geography Location Purulia is located at . It has an average elev ...

, now in

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

to work along with

. In 1867, he and Lars Olsen Skrefsrud left the Gossner Mission along with Edward Colpys Johnson, from the

Baptist Missionary Society BMS World Mission is a Mission (Christian), Christian missionary society founded by Baptists from England in 1792. It was originally called the Particular Baptist Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Amongst the Heathen, but for most of its ...

. They founded

Ebenezer Mission Ebenezer Mission, also known as Wimmera mission, Hindmarsh mission and Dimboola mission, was a mission station for Aboriginal people established near Lake Hindmarsh in Victoria, Australia (near Jeparit) in 1859 by the Moravian Church on the land ...

station at Benagaria in the Santal Parganas. They started the new mission station to work among aborigines (Santals, Bodos, Bengalis, and

Bihari people The Biharis () is a demonym given to the inhabitants of the Indian state of Bihar. Bihari people can be separated into three main Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic groups, Bhojpuris, Maithils and Magadhis. They are also further divided into a vari ...

) on their own. Boerresen became fundraiser for the mission, while Skrefsrud gave the mission its dynamic character and resolute sense of purpose. Skrefsrud learned the

Santali language Santali (, Ol Chiki: ), Bengali: , Odia: , Devanagari: , also known as Santal, is the most widely spoken language of the Munda subfamily of the Austroasiatic languages, related to Ho and Mundari, spoken mainly in the Indian states of Assam ...

and published a Santali grammar in 1873, which was of higher quality than the prior work of

Jeremiah Phillips Jeremiah Phillips(1812–1879) was an American Baptist missionary to the Santals under the Free Baptist Missionary Society in India. He is credited for opening up the first educational facility for the Santals and a farming colony for the Christian ...

which dated to 1852. In 1868, he and Skrefsrud settled in

where they founded

, which centered on North India, with members from among Santals (in majority), Bengali, and Boros. In 1877, Børresen returned to

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

where he continued his work as a priest.

References

External links

Mission History - Northern Evangelical Lutheran Church (NELC)The Lutheran Churches of India
{{DEFAULTSORT:Borresen, Hans Peter 1825 births 1901 deaths Danish Lutheran missionaries Lutheran missionaries in India Danish expatriates in India 19th-century Lutherans

Missionary work

See also

References

External links