Poetry about the Passion of Christ in seventeenth century Estonia, Livonia, and Courland

ABSTRACT Religious poetry, which has once been read and written in different languages in the areas of present-day Estonia and Latvia, has so far remained largely unexplored. In medieval Livonia, there are hardly any traces of local poetry, but the situation changed with the Reformation. During the sixteenth century – linked to the development of congregational singing – psalm poetry became particularly active. In the seventeenth century, the Passion of Christ emerged as a new and well represented topic. The focus of this article is on this distinct genre, which aims to explore in verses the Passion of Christ as a whole.