Religion in Latvia - History

History

Latvia was one of the last regions in Europe to be Christianized. The inhabitants of the region that is now Latvia once practiced Baltic and Finnic paganism, but this practice gradually diminished through the course of centuries. In the 12th to 13th centuries Latvia first fell under the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, as the Christian kings of Denmark, Sweden and the North German Livonian and Teutonic military orders fought for influence in the region in what later became known as the Northern Crusades.

Parts of Eastern Latvia (notably the Koknese and Jersika principalities) shortly came under the influence of the already assimilated Viking rulers of the Rurik dynasty, accepting Orthodox Christianity already in the 12th century. After succumbing to the Livonian Order in the 13th century, the influence of the Orthodox Church faded away until the 19th century.

Despite the Christianization, the local populace in the countryside maintained their faith for several centuries, with pockets of paganism surviving in Latvia up until the 17th century. Along with the rest of the traditional holidays, Christmas (Ziemassvētki) and Easter (Lieldienas) in Latvia still largely retain their pagan roots.

During the Protestant Reformation the teachings of Lutheranism from northern Germany and Scandinavia completely changed the religious landscape in the country, and eventually only Latgale remained Catholic due to the influence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Both due to the policy of atheism during the Soviet era and the general European trend of secularization a growing percentage of Latvians claim to follow no religion.