100 YEARS AGO THE FIRST MISSIONARY ARRIVED ...

An Icelandic Centenary
FRIENDSHIP BROUGHT A CONVERT
By Thomas Buck BOARD a plane in Prestwick
and you can be stepping out on to the wind-swept tarmac of Iceland's great air port within four hours. There you will find a country rich in history, from its discovery by Irish monks over a thousand years ago to the quite recent engineering feat of heating all the houses in Reykjavik, the capital, with water from the natural hot springs.
One of the most fascinating episodes in Icelandic history is that of the founding of its modern Catholic community by two French missionary priests, the centenary of whose arrival in the island Icelandic Catholics have been celebrating this month.
The present Bishop of Iceland, Bishop Johannes Gunnarsson, is a son of their first convert; and the Cathedral of Christ the King, quite the finest church in Iceland today, stands on land in Reykjavik which they purchased in the face of great opposition soon after their arrival.
FR. BAUDOIN, a priest from
Rheims, arrived on May 13, 1858, and though his goodness quickly won him friends, there was a sharp reaction from the press and the Lutheran clergy as soon as he began to talk publicly of religion.
Fr. Bernard, who followed him to Iceland, made the first real progress when he bought a plot of land on a hill just outside the capital. There the missionaries built a small church and a school.
Though they learned the language and Fr. Baudoin wrote several works of apologetics in Icelandic, they failed to win any converts and Fr. Bernard returned discouraged to France while Fr. Baudoin stayed on to labour in appallingly primitive conditions.
He tended the sick without payment, preached to the merely curious all over Iceland and eventually formed the friendship which was to be the turning-point of his mission. Einar Asmundsson, his friend, was a farmer in the north of Iceland and a member 01 the Icelandic parliament. He never became a Catholic but was so impressed by Fr. Baudoin that he sent his son Gunnar to study under the Jesuits in Denmark.
GUNNAR was received into the Church and when he returned to Iceland was for more than 20
years the only Catholic in the country. His steadfastness was rewarded; for his son Johannes became a priest and in 1942 was consecrated Bishop of Iceland, the first Icelander to hold this dignity since the last pre-Reformation Catholic Bishop was martyred in 1550.
Today, Iceland has just over 460 Catholics out of a total population of about 145,000. Eight priests, two Icelanders and six Dutchmen, and 60 nuns assist Bishop Gunnarsson in his efforts to win back Iceland to the Faith. And though the Catholic community is small, there is a growing realisation among Icelanders of the true greatness of their Catholic heritage.