The Church in Denmark
The first Danish Latter-day Saints were baptized in the United States in 1842, and missionaries arrived in Denmark in 1850. The Book of Mormon was translated into Danish in 1851, producing the first non-English translation of the sacred text. In 2004 the Copenhagen Denmark Temple was dedicated.
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History of the Church in Denmark
A few Danes joined the Church in the United States during Joseph Smith’s lifetime. One of these converts, Peter Hansen, even began work translating the Book of Mormon into Danish. In 1849 Hansen and Elder Erastus Snow of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles were called to open a mission in Scandinavia. The Copenhagen branch was organized shortly after their arrival in 1850. In 1851 the Danish translation of the Book of Mormon became the first edition of the book printed in a language other than English.
Most Danish converts in the 19th century emigrated to help build up Zion in the American West: in the 1850s and 1860s Latter-day Saints made up almost half of the total emigrants from Denmark, while many remained at home to build the Church. In 1906, for example, Frederick Samuelsen of Aarhus became the first Latter-day Saint elected to a European Parliament.
A wave of rapid growth in the 1960s helped the Church become more firmly established in Denmark, and the first stake was organized there in 1974. Since then, a faithful core of Saints have kept the faith. In 2004 a temple was dedicated in Copenhagen.
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Notes
- Allen, Julie K. Danish But Not Lutheran: The Impact of Mormonism on Danish Cultural Identity 1850–1920. Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press, 2017.
- Allen, Julie K. “Double Jeopardy in Pleasant Grove: The Gender and Cultural Challenges of Being a Danish Mormon Missionary Grass Widow in Territorial Utah.” In Rachel Cope, Amy Easton-Flake, Keith A. Erekson, and Lisa Olsen Tait, eds, Mormon Women’s History: Beyond Biography. Lanham, Maryland: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2017.
- Ashby, Leland Hansen, ed. An Autobiography of Peter Olsen Hansen, 1818–1895: Mormon Convert and Pioneer Missionary, Translator of the Book of Mormon into Danish. Salt Lake City: Leland Hansen Ashby, 1988.
- Baugh, Alexander L. “Defending Mormonism: The Scandinavian Mission Presidency of Andrew Jenson, 1909–12.” In Reid L. Nielson and Fred E. Woods, eds., Go Ye into All the World: The Growth & Development of Mormon Missionary Work. Provo, Religious Studies Center, 2012, 503–41.
- Bikuben, vols. 1–60. 1876–1935. Church History Library, Salt Lake City.
- Christensen, Marius A. History of the Danish Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1850–1964. 1966. Church History Library, Salt Lake City.
- Egdal, Margit. Miraklet på Fyn: De Sidste Dages Hellige på Fyn og Langeland. Otterup, Denmark: Otterup Lokalhistoriske Arkiv og Forening, 2002.
- Jensen, Richard L. “Mr. Samuelsen Goes to Copenhagen: The First Mormon Member of a National Parliament.” Journal of Mormon History, vol. 39, no. 2 (Spring 2013): 1–34.
- Jenson, Andrew. History of the Scandinavian Mission. Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1927.
- Lund, Jennifer L. “Out of the Swan’s Nest: The Ministry of Anthon H. Lund, Scandinavian Apostle.” Journal of Mormon History, vol. 29, no. 2 (Fall 2003): 77–105.
- Mulder, William. Homeward to Zion: The Mormon Migration from Scandinavia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1957.
- Paulsen, Jesper Stenholm. De Danske Mormoners Historie. Copenhagen: A. Broberg Forlag, 2012.
- Samuelsen, Frederik Ferdinand. Diary. Salt Lake City. Church History Library, MS 7640, box 2, folder 1.