Святое Евангеліе отъ Матөея на языкѣ лопарей, живущихъ въ Русской Лапландіи, пограничной съ Норвегіей, близь океана. Отъ Архангельскаго Комитета Православнаго Миссіонерскаго Общества печатать разрѣшается. 1894 года Августа 12 дня.
Skolt Saami
Skolt (Koltta) is a form of Sámi (Saami), spoken in the Kola peninsular, in the Arctic region of Russia neighbouring Scandinavia. Most members of the original people resettled in Finland after the area was ceded to the Soviet Union after the Soviet invasion of Finland.
Gospel of Matthew
In the 1880s the Russian Orthodox Church began to establish parish schools in the eastern Sámi area, called Russian Lapland. At most church schools the language of instruction was Russian. However the parish school of Pasvik was an exception. In this school Skolt Sámi was taught by a priest Konstantin Shchekoldin, Orthodox priest in Petsamo (Пече́нга), who learnt the Sámi language. He translated the Gospel according to St Matthew into Skolt Sámi, working with local Skolt speakers. It was written, with the help of native speaker consultants, in pre-Revolution Russian Cyrillic orthography.
Publication
The Gospel of Matthew was published as Матъвеестъ Пасъ Евангеліе in Archangelsk in Russia 1884. Shchekoldin also published a primer in Skolt Sámi in 1895.
Digital Edition
The Gospel of Matthew in Pasvik Skolt Saami was digitised from an original copy at the British Foreign Bible Society archives at Cambridge University, with the help of MissionAssist in 2022.
