[1] John Campanius was born in Stockholm and attended Uppsala University, where he studied theology and graduated in 1633.
He came to accompany the first Swedish settlers to Fort Christina, near present-day Wilmington, Delaware, and served as a missionary to the nearby Lenape Indians.
Campanius had to visit the settlers at their cabins, which ranged all the way up to Fort Nya Gothenburg on Tinicum Island.
For example, he accommodated the Lord's Prayer to the American circumstances by substituting for "daily bread" "a plentiful supply of venison and corn.
This effort, which was not printed until 1696 (Stockholm),[5] is one of the first attempts by a European native to create a written document in one of the indigenous American languages.
There he served as minister of churches at Härnevi and Frösthult in Uppsala County in east central Sweden until his death in 1683.