An Estonian Missionary: The Story of Reverend John Sillak
Dave Kiil and Maret Watson
A missionary is someone sent out by his church to preach and teach. In 1891, John (Jaan) Sillak received a call from the Iowa Synod of the Lutheran Church to serve as Pastor Missionary for Estonians, Latvians (Letts), Germans and Russians in North America.
He and his wife Anna (nee Loorberg) arrived in New York the following year. John Sillak was ordained on July 7, 1901 in Springfield, Illinois. A few months earlier, Rev. Sillak had been contacted by the German and Lettish St. Peter’s congregations at Josephsburg in Assiniboia (now Alberta) to become their Pastor. He and his wife embarked on their westward journey and, by 1902, Rev. Sillak was serving ten Preaching Stations in western Canada. He served the Josephsburg congregation for about 18 months before moving to Medicine Hat in 1903. The Crimea Estonians would arrive the following year.
Born in Dorpat ( Tartu), Estonia, in 1864, John Sillak was educated in Estonian, Russian, and German universities, and later pursued language studies in England. In London, he was offered a position as professor of Greek, Hebrew and Latin at a college in central India. After considering the offer with his wife Anna, he decided to refuse it.
An interesting sidelight involving Anna’s family includes her inheritance of an old and rare Giuseppe Guarnerius Del Gesu, Cremona 1741 violin from the Tusman family. The violin originally belonged to a Dr. Karrell, a personal physician to Czar Nicholas I (1825-1856), who in turn presented it to his godson Johannes Tusman, a theological student in St. Petersburg, Russia and later, at St. Chrischana, near Basil, Switzerland. This much-travelled violin also accompanied Tusman to Africa, Jerusalem and Brazil before finally returning to Estonia in 1884. The violin continued its journey with the Sillak family to North America, and was purported to still being played during the time of Rev. Sillak’s service in Alberta.
By all accounts, Rev. Sillak pursued his work in true missionary style. Members of his family remember his patience and his dignity, and he always appeared to have a secret smile. Grand niece Maret recalls that Grace was always said before dinner:
Reverend Sillak had a profound belief in God and he continued to champion his cause with single-minded passion the way he understood it in his day and age.
Sillak covered a huge region from Manitoba in the east, to the Dakotas and Montana to the south, Oregon and Washington States to the west, and Edmonton to the north. The three major Estonian communities in Alberta-Barons, Stettler and Medicine Valley-were part of his “constituency”. Stories abound about him singing at the top of his lungs while travelling across the prairies with horse and buggy on his way to hold services….
A group of settlers in the Stettler-Big Valley area were Lutherans and they asked Reverend Sillak to join them at a gathering to discuss the formation of a congregation. As a result of the meeting, a chapel and cemetery were established in 1906, about one mile east of the well-known Linda Hall. It was known as the St. John’s Lutheran Congregation. Reverend Sillak also presided at functions in the Barons area.
Reverend Sillak was tireless in his efforts to serve the needs of Alberta’s Estonians during the first several decades of the 1900s. He held strong views about what it meant to be a Christian. Confirmed Lutherans benefited from his services as a congregational Pastor.
John Sillak was a renowned linguist, reportedly speaking as many as 17 languages fluently. His language skills enabled him to translate the Lutheran Confessions into Estonian and Latvian.
This major work earned him the degree of “Doctor of Philosophy” from the Canadian Lutheran College. Other translations include Luther’s Small Catechism and the Augsburg Confession. This major work was written meticulously in his own hand writing on some 3,000 sheets of paper. His accomplishments are recognized in several issues of Canadian Lutheran magazine.
In 1936, Reverend Sillak also completed an unpublished major work entitled “History of the Christianizing of Estonia and Latvia, from 1157-1936, or “A religious and political essay about the former Baltic Provinces of the Russian Empire”. It is based on an incredible amount of research, and champions the tenets of the Lutheran Church.
The neatly handwritten tome makes for interesting reading. The author was obviously well read and a meticulous researcher. He had planned to send the manuscript to a Pastor Baueurle in Arensburg (Kuressaare) on Saaremaa, but was advised not to do so because of risk of damage during the Atlantic crossing in the late 1930s.
Rev. Sillak was elected Life Member to the Canadian Lutheran College on June 1, 1946.
Rev. Sillak passed away in Medicine Hat in 1953. Sillak Street is named after him in the city, commemorating him as one of our early pioneers and respected citizens.
Rev. Sillak’s headstone in Hillside Cemetery, Medicine Hat, Alberta
This article is based on materials made available by Maret Watson, grand niece of Reverend John Sillak
