Saint Henrys Chapel

Saint Henry's Chapel is a neogothic style brick chapel in the town of Kokemki, Finland. The chapel was built in 1857 which was used by Saint Henry, the first bishop of Finland. The chapel is located by the river Kokemenjoki, one kilometer from the center of town Kokemki. Holy Henrik was the first bishop of Finland, who arrived in the country with Swedish king Erik's the so-called first crusade in 1150's. The bishop was to spread Christianity to Finland, but was soon killed. After this, he became a saint. Bishop Henry can be considered as the most important figure in the history of finnish religion.

Finnish superstitions
Black cat crossing the road brings bad luck. If black cat does that in front of you, you should spit over your left shoulder three (3) times. Some people play safe and spits seven (7) times. Its an old superstition that spit has magical powers and its believed to have part of the soul of the persons who spitted.

If your ears ring, then someone is thinking about you. If you go through names in your head, and the sounds stops at certain name, that person whose name it is, is thinking about you.

YO

Someone

Story of the Kannis stone

Once upon a time, there lived a giant called Kanni on the south east side of Sksjrvi-lake. The giant was getting really angry because of the noise coming from the other side of the lake. The noise was so annoying that the giant threw a huge stone to the watermill that kept the noise, on the other side of the lake. And thats the legend of the Kannis stone.

Lallis and Bishop Henriks story

Nowadays people still believe that its magical place. The storys watermill was set up in 1700th century. The place is still popular sight. The story tells that when Lalli returned home one day, his wife Kerttu told him that the bishop recently visited their house and had departed without paying for his food, drink, or fodder. When Lalli heard of this, he became really angry and left to chase the bishop. When bishop Henry noticed Lalli coming towards, he told his escort to flee and hide to a nearby islands forest. Henry tried to talk reason to Lalli, but instead of listening Lalli beheaded Henry with an axe. After that Lalli took the bishop's hat from his beheaded head and cut off the bishop's finger to take his ring. The hat became fused to Lalli's head and when he tried to remove it, it tore his scalp off with it. When Lalli tried to remove the bishop's ring from his own finger, it tore his finger off. Afterwards, Lalli drowned in the lake Kylinjrvi. On the same lakes ice that he killed St. Henry. Due to the bishop's last wish, his body parts were collected by his servants and transported with oxen. Where the oxen stopped became the site of the first church in Finland. The legend is famous Finnish folk poem called Henrikin surma ("The Slaying of Henry"). The poem includes such characters as: a talking statue of Christ and the lying wife, who falsely accuses Bishop Henry of theft. This carelessness was probably seen as criminal at the time of the story's setting, but the poem also presents Lalli as a violent madman. One of the versions of the poem is found in the Kanteletar, a collection of old Finnish folk poetry.