Meet the Middle Ages
BackThe Church
The church was the most important building of the parish. People would come there once a week, to meet and to hear the latest news. The medieval churches of Sevede were rather small and mostly built of wood. There is still a wooden, medieval church in Pelarne.
The peasants of Sevede would probably have met black-friars from the monastery in Kalmar. The friars came in pairs to preach in the country-side. They were called black-friars because they wore black habits. They would preach inside the church or out of doors, but they also brought news from Kalmar and from the rest of the world. The friars would tell about new kinds of food, new spices and new ways to farm the land. They also helped the peasants to write documents, such as deeds or wills. If the peasants of Sevede came to town, they could spend the night at the black-friars convent. The friars had a guest-house for travellers.
The estates once owned by St. Birgitta in Sevede were acquired by the convent she founded, Vadstena. The convent had a bailiff who went to the estates to collect taxes, re-write leases and to make sure that the farms were well cared for. The peasants may have visited the convent from time to time.