Helena Konttinen (18 June 1871 in

Uukuniemi Uukuniemi is a former municipality of Finland. It was located in the province of Southern Finland and was part of the South Karelia region. The municipality had a population of 516 (2003) and it covered an area of 156.58 km² of which 54.8 ...

(today's

Parikkala Parikkala () is a municipality of Finland located in the province of Southern Finland and is part of the South Karelia region, from Lappeenranta and from Joensuu. The town center of Parikkala is about from the Russian border. The municipality ...

and part of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

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 ...

– 24 April 1916 in Uukuniemi, Finland) 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 ...

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...

, a "

sleeping preacher A sleeping preacher, also called trance-preacher, is a Christian, most often Protestantism, Protestant person who preaches, Prophecy, prophesies or addresses a public audience while "sleeping," that is, in a state of trance. History The first rep ...

", whose religious activities were between the years 1893 and 1916, mostly located at

. Konttinen was married and she had four children. Konttinen's activity resulted in revivalism called "uukuniemiläisyys".

Biography and career

Helena Konttinen was a modest, uneducated peasant woman from Uukuniemi who was unable to write. She lived an extremely poor life with her husband taking care of his closest relatives. Konttinen had always been religious and belonged to the

Lutheran Church Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

like many other Finnish people during those years. In 1905, at age 34, she became a

claiming to be a prophet of God. Konttinen, when falling into a trance, was telling people that what she experienced were divine truths and soon gained authority as a channel of heavenly powers. According to the pastor, K. Sarlin, Helena Konttinen was a mouthpiece of God. Sarlin collected her talks and recollections in the book ''A Prophet of Our Times'' which had been published in 1916, the same year of Konttinen death.

References

Literature

* Aarni Voipio: ''Sleeping Preachers: a Study in Ecstatic Religiosity'', Helsinki, 1951.

External links

Parikanniemisäätiö's website
(in

) 1871 births 1916 deaths Prophets Angelic visionaries Finnish Christians {{Christianity-bio-stub