Lars Olsen Skrefsrud (4 February 1840 – 11 December 1910) was a Norwegian Lutheran missionary and language researcher in

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 ...

Biography

Skrefsrud came from the parish of

Fåberg Fåberg is a former municipality in the old Oppland county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until 1964. Now, it is part of Lillehammer Municipality in Innlandet county. The administrative centre was the village of Fåberg. History ...

situated north of

Lillehammer Lillehammer () is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. Some of the more notable villages in the municip ...

Oppland Oppland is a former county in Norway which existed from 1781 until its dissolution on 1 January 2020. The old Oppland county bordered the counties of Trøndelag, Møre og Romsdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Akershus, Oslo and Hedmark. The co ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. As a young man he was imprisoned for three years, and during his incarceration started to both read the Bible and study languages. Upon his release, he studied at the missionary school of Johannes Evangelista Goßner in

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 ...

, where he was prepared for his mission. In 1863, he left for India. Together with

Hans Peter Børresen Hans Peter Boerresen (29 November 1825 – 23 September 1901) was a Danes, Danish missionary to India. He and Norwegian missionary Lars Olsen Skrefsrud were the founders of Northern Evangelical Lutheran Church—centered in North India - Bihar, ...

he is regarded as the founder of the Norwegian Santal Mission (''Den norske Santalmisjon'') (from 2001 a part of Normisjon). Skrefsrud learned the language of the

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

and

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

. He published a songbook in 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 ...

with Christian texts for local melodies and later a grammar for the Santal people. In 1881–83, he traveled to Denmark and Norway to gain support for the mission. In 1882, he was ordained by Bishop

Carl Peter Parelius Essendrop Carl Peter Parelius Essendrop (6 June 1818 – 18 October 1893) was a Norwegian Lutheran priest, educator and Bishop of Oslo. Biography Essendrop was born Christiania (now Oslo), Norway. He was the son of Peter Essendrop (1776-1819) and ...

in Kristiania (now Oslo). Skrefsrud died during 1910 in the village of Benagaria in

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . It ...

, India. He was followed at the mission by the missionary, linguist and folklorist

Paul Olaf Bodding Paul Olaf Bodding (2 November 1865 – 25 September 1938) was a Norwegian missionary, linguist and folklorist. Biography Paul Olaf Bodding was born at Gjøvik in Oppland, Norway. He was the son of Edward Olsen Bodding (1825–1905) and Betz ...

. The mission he established in India has grown to a church with over 150,000 members in the Indian states of

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 ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

. In the 1950s it became an independent institution - The

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 ...

(NELC).

References

External links

Normisjon website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Skrefsrud, Lars Olsen 1840 births 1910 deaths People from Lillehammer Norwegian clergy Norwegian Lutheran missionaries Linguists from Norway Lutheran missionaries in India Missionary linguists Norwegian expatriates in India 19th-century Lutherans

Biography

References

Related reading

External links