Kaari Utrio recalls how she took a nun to the University’s Faculty of Theology.

“For the subsidiary component of my degree I studied ecclesiastical history in the Faculty of Theology, since it could hardly be avoided if you wanted to have an understanding of the Middle Ages. I had a Hungarian friend who was a nun in the Helsinki parish of St Henrik’s. She wished to visit the theology faculty, so we climbed to the top floor where it was located – a stairway to heaven.

In the downstairs lobby sat a porter, who took a note of visitors. When he saw the nun accompanying me he was completely beside himself. He had no idea whether he should bid her “good morning” or indeed how to relate to a nun at all. It wasn’t that he was impolite, just that he was completely unfamiliar with the situation – a nun in the theology faculty. I remember thinking that Finnish Protestantism probably is the most extreme in the world. It’s hard to imagine a similar situation occurring nowadays.”