Reigin pappi

by Aino Kallas

"Reigin pappi" by Aino Kallas is a historical novella written in the early 20th century. It is a confessional narrative set in 17th-century Hiiumaa, where Pastor Paavali Lempelius recounts his fall from worldly favor and the spiritual and earthly trials that beset his household; his quiet wife Catharina and a newly arrived deacon, Jonas Kempe, stand at the heart of the drama. The opening of the narrative presents Lempelius’s own preface, warning the proud through a Job-like lesson, then traces his origins: a powerful, quick-tempered scholar-priest who rises in Tallinn, marries the delicate Catharina, and enjoys honor before a classroom incident leads to a student’s accidental death. Though a courtroom ordeal clears him, public scorn ruins his name; he loses his post, sinks into poverty, and their two children die of plague. Appointed at last to remote Reigi, he finds bleak coasts, hunts seals with his parishioners, and fights superstition, while Catharina grows increasingly restless and estranged. He blesses the sea and privately prays for her, but unease deepens when the finely dressed, worldly deacon Jonas Kempe arrives; a convivial first supper, songs, and the deacon’s allure signal the tensions to come.