Paavo Ruotsalainen

1777-1852. Finnish Pietist leader. Son of a farmer, he already in his youth experienced a personal revival in a Pietistic spirit. His spiritual discernment developed only later through a blacksmith counselor who told him: “Lacking one thing, you lack everything-the inner knowledge of Christ.” This sentence has become a motto for the Pietistic Movement. He appears as one of the greatest leaders in Finland, succeeding in uniting two branches of the Pietistic revival there, and developing what is now the biggest and perhaps the most significant movement in Finland which still influences large groups of people. In their regular annual summer meetings outdoors some 20,000-30,000 people gather. Ruotsalainen has influenced the Christian life in Finland more than anyone else in that country's modern church history.