Kristín Helgadóttir Kristjánsson (1888-1962)
Kristín was a fairly known medium in Iceland, enough that she had two biographies written about her. In 1912, Kristín was visiting Björn Jónsson and his family. She was with them when he passed away in November 1912. Björn was deeply engaged with spiritism and one of the founding members of its society. It didn't take long for the spiritists to realize her abilities and offered her a job as the society´s medium. Kristín declined because she was heading to Canada to live with her family. (Photo by unknown).
Vision of healing
Altar at Strandarkirkja by Tracy Hunter licensed under CC BY 2.0
People experience visions in different ways. Kristín’s visions often came to her as images in front of her. One such vision happened after she got a cut on her foot and it became severely infected. The doctors told her the only way she would survive the infection was to amputate her foot. As she lay in bed, she thought about how horrible it would be to lose her foot. There had to be another way. Then suddenly she saw an altar tablet in front of her depicting the resurrection and the letters Strandarkirkja below.
She heard a faint whisper saying that if she made a vow to Strandarkirkja she’d get to keep her foot. Fully aware of the church’s reputation on magic and miracles, she did as the vision told her and went to Strandarkirkja to make a vow. Soon after, her foot got its normal color back. By the time she went back to the doctor, the foot was fine. The doctor was in disbelief and awe. He couldn’t figure out how her foot could have gotten better with no treatment. This made no sense to him. He knew people have visions, and he was glad Kristín had the wits about her to listen to them… at least in this case.
Vision of history
Another person who had visions of this magical church was Árni Óla (1888-1979), the editor for the newspaper Morgunblaðið and author of several books. He was a very talented writer and wrote many fascinating historical pieces, especially on the old Reykjavík.
In 1963, the Women’s Society and the Brethren Society of the Langholt parish invited elderly people in the parish on an excursion. Árni Óla was invited to join the bus tour as a group leader. One stop on the tour was Strandarkirkja, the church of miracles and visions. The weather was optimal and an overwhelming amount of people gathered for the service. The church was full to its utmost capacity with people crowding the doorway and some even stood outside.
After the opening hymn, rev. Árelíus opened the meeting and introduced the congregation to their guest speaker. Árni Óla got up and began his speech about the church's history.
He had been sharing the holy tale of the sailors for about 12-14 minutes when he said, “... therefore, it was called Engilsvík (Angel's Bay) and honoring this incident there was a statue of an angel on the hill." As he spoke these words, he looked out the window over to Engilsvík. The hill was bathing in the bright sunlight. Then suddenly in that same moment, the church and the people in it disappeared. He wondered if this is what happens when people have visions.
Árni Óla photo published in “Eining” by Timarit.is licensed under CC PDM 1.0
Árni Óla found himself out in the open field surrounded by a large crowd of people he had never seen before. They spoke to him and he soon realized they were teaching him the real story of the church. From the looks of their clothing, they were from a different era. As they spoke, the church's history appeared before him like a movie or silhouettes. But it was neither. It was like the film soared in the glowing bright air above the crowd and each image showed a scene from history.
Although he tried, Árni Óla couldn’t figure out the context of what they were showing him. Just as he finished the thought, the people nearest him moved to the side, and an older generation who knew better appeared. They all dressed according to their era so Árni Óla could tell which generations appeared before him. The crowd kept getting older and older, each sharing their history with him. The crowd grew into the thousands.
In two worlds at once
Árni Óla pointed his finger out towards the statue of the angel. It was a strange experience. He clearly heard everything the spirits shared with him, yet at the same time, he heard his voice as he spoke to the congregation from the podium. But it was as if his voice was coming from mid-air. He didn’t bother listening to his voice as he was more interested in what the crowd told him and the images they showed him. He did not know what was going on inside the church during the vision. His body stood at the podium, but he forgot all about that. He had been pulled out of his life and transplanted elsewhere.
Someone in the large crowd said it would be best to go get Skafti. Árni Óla guessed they were referring to the wisest and the most versed in the law, the law speaker Skafti Þóroddson (d. 1030) from Hjalli in Ölfus. In that same instant, he heard the voice of Rev. Árelíus calling that his time was up.
He stared at the papers he held in his hands. Confused and disoriented, he finished his speech and walked off the podium. He sat down in a chair right next to the podium in a daze.
As he sat next to the podium, the visions continued, but this time they were hazier. He could still see the images hovering above the crowd and he knew they were telling him the church history in its truest form.
“iceland-220” by Bryn Davies is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
He asked himself, “How could Skafti Þóroddson have anything to do with the church history?”. As far as Árni Óla knew, they did not build the church until after Skafti’s death. This mind-boggling event had him questioning history as he knew it.
As soon as he had this questioning thought, the vision quickly disappeared. It was like a curtain falling on a stage or chalk images erased with a sponge. Unfortunately, as the images disappeared, so did his memory of it.
As the memories disappeared and Árni Óla came back to consciousness, he looked around the church but didn’t know where he was. He saw Rev. Árelíus sitting on a chair and Rev. Halldór Kolbeins up on the podium speaking. He couldn’t figure out what he was saying. Where was he? This wasn’t Strandarkirkja, and these weren’t his travel companions. How in the world did he get to this unknown place?
Árni Óla was almost in despair. Was this his vision? Where was the church crowd he was speaking to? What had he told the congregation while he had the vision? Did he speak about what he had seen and heard? He did not know. From the time he looked out the window out to Engilsvík, he had been in another world and rushed through many eras with an unfathomable speed.
After the vision
As he walked out the door after the meeting, he was still trying to figure out what was going on. He looked over to his wife and asked her if he had spoken utter nonsense up there. She said he did not, but he had repeated one sentence after another and that wasn’t like him. Árni then told her what had happened and that he thought the rumors of magic and miracles in the church were true. He then asked her if he had appeared strange standing up there. She said that nothing seemed unusual, except the repetition of sentences.
Árni was beside himself all that evening, he didn’t recognize the surrounding landscape, nor did he recognize the people traveling with him.
During the vision, he knew that the people he saw had lived in the area. He saw one generation after the other, the oldest being 900 years old. When he calculated how long he had been gone, he realized his vision had only lasted a couple of minutes. During that time, he was in two places simultaneously. Neither part of him was aware of the other, yet their connection was intact.
What bothered him the most was that as soon as the two united, his memory of the vision faded. It was mind-boggling to him how he could have communicated with 25-30 generations in only a couple of minutes, but such was the nature of the magic and miracles. It is a great gift that people have visions in various ways, he thought. Each experience gives us a deeper insight into the unknown world.
