Today, the revival movement is growing especially in Southern Finland and abroad. The movement operates in more than 20 countries. In the last two decades, Conservative Laestadianism has spread to South America and numerous African countries.
The revival movement arrived in North-eastern Ostrobothnia in 1859 from the direction of Rovaniemi. At that time, the area in question included the parishes of Pudasjärvi and Kuusamo. Laestadianism first came to Pohjanperä in Pudasjärvi, today’s Ranua. There is no unequivocal and certain information about the movement’s arrival to the Kuusamo area. According to the bishop of Kuopio, Gustaf Johansson, Laestadianism started in Kuusamo around 1860.
The movement’s routes to Kuusamo can be considered either Ranua – Pudasjärvi – Taivalkoski – Kuusamo or Ranua – banks of River Livojoki – Posio – Kuusamo. These routes converge in Kuusamo so that it is assumed that the revival first came to Purnuvaara either after the mid-1860s from Taivalkoski or at the latest in 1869 from Posio in Livojärvi’s Kellinsalmi. The tradition also includes a third option, namely the holding of the conventicle in Vuotunki’s Heponiemi in 1865. At that time, the speakers are said to have come from the north, from the direction of Kuolajärvi, i.e., present-day Salla.
