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History of Christianity in Latvia - great "saints" and heroes of the faith in Latvia

The Baltic region, including what is now Latvia, was one of the last outposts of European paganism, and was only evangelised and converted from the 1100s. 

Bishop Meinhard (1134-1196) was one of the first to successfully plant the gospel in Latvian soil. An Augustinian canon (similar to a monk), he served as the first bishop of the see of Üxküll (now Ikšķile, Latvia). However, the murder of his successor led to a more violent imposition of Christianity.  This was in the context of the Northern Crusades (Livonian Crusade) whereby peoples/tribes inhabiting this region, including the Latgalians, Selonians, Semigallians and Curonians, came to embrace the Christian faith.

Andreas Knoepken (1490-1539), a disciple of Luther, was the one who "brought" the Protestant Reformation to Latvia in its Lutheran form. 1521 is considered the date of the Protestant Reformation in Latvia; by the mid 1500s the majority of people had become Protestant.

The Bible was translated into Latvian by Johann Ernst Glück in 1694. Incidentally, this German translator is also credited with an early translation of the Bible into Russian. 

Latvia was successively under German (1182-1561), Lithuanian/Polish (from 1561), Swedish (from 1621) and Russian hegemony (from 1710), before achieving independence 1918-1940, and again in 1991. 

In 1729, a mission from Moravian church (Unitas Fratrum) arrived in Latvia from Germany under the leadership of Christian David. The Moravians spearheaded education of the common people. The Moravian church in Latvia experienced several seasons of revival. Two of the "most prominent representatives of Latvian Moravianism" were Ķīša Pēteris (1699– 1771) and Jānis Šteinhauers (1705–1779).  

Baptist churches were first formed in Latvia from 1862. Adams Gertners was the first Latvian Baptist pastor. William Fetler (1883-1957) was a Baptist pastor, native to Latvia. He trained at Spurgeon's College, and personally experienced the 1904 Welsh revival. Fetler came under the influence of Holiness teaching and had some sympathy with the Pentecostal movement, but remained a Baptist all his life. He was involved in the construction of the House of the Gospel in St Petersburg, Russia (1912), and later Salvation Temple in Riga (1927). He was expelled from Russia in 1914, and moved from Latvia in 1939 just prior to the Soviet invasion.  

Peteris Krievs (1915-)

Juris Rubenis (1961)
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