Bilde av Dr Martin Luther's Kirke og Hus House Postille fra ca midten mid 1800s tallet Restauration 1825 trosbilde ballast cargo seilas voyage 2025 Crossings200 Atlanterhavet Atlantic ocean

Dr. Martin Luther’s Church- and House-Postil

An Old Book, A Long Journey, A Deep Faith

As we mark the 200th anniversary of Norwegian emigration to North America, it is worth pausing to think about what the first emigrants carried with them—not just in their coffins, but also in their hearts.
Faith was an important companion on the journey across the Atlantic, and few books symbolize this more strongly than a church and house postil.

Bilde av Dr Martin Luther's Kirke og Hus House Postille fra ca midten mid 1800s tallet Restauration 1825 trosbilde ballast cargo seilas voyage 2025 Crossings200 Atlanterhavet Atlantic ocean
Dr Martin Luther’s Church- and House-Postil (1897)

In the estate of Øistein Svalholm, a former seaman from Bergen who had settled in Bryne, his grandson Daniel Casanovas found such a book.

It was an edition of Dr. Martin Luther’s Church and House Postil from 1897, a book that in its time was commonly read in many Norwegian homes, and which, according to several sources, was most likely aboard Restauration in 1824—though in an earlier edition.

The book contains handwritten notes—names and death dates from a family that once owned it.

The book was given as a gift to the leader of the 2025 voyage.

Advisors to the Bishop of the Stavanger diocese confirm that such postils were central to the life of faith 200 years ago, especially among the Haugeans, who used them both in their homes and at gatherings. It is therefore fitting to include such a book in the commemoration of the emigration anniversary.

The Restauration Friends Association has chosen to place the postil in the ship’s ballast, as a symbol of faith’s role in emigration. Perhaps this old book, with its traces of lived life, can take on new significance – not just as a historical artifact, but as a reminder of the connection between generations, faith, and hope on unknown seas.

The text in Dr. Martin Luther’s House Postil, translated from German to English (1884/2022), can be read as a PDF document here...