Lina Sandell

Lina Sandell (full name: Karolina Wilhelmina Sandell-Berg) (3 October 1832–27 July 1903) was a Swedish poet and author of gospel hymns.

The daughter of a Lutheran minister, Sandell grew up in the rectory at Fröderyd parish in the Diocese of Växjö in Småland, Sweden. At the age of 26 she accompanied her father, Jonas Sandell, on a boat trip across Lake Vättern, during which he fell overboard and drowned in her presence. The tragedy inspired some of her first hymns as she poured out her broken heart in many of her songs.

Sandell went on to write over six hundred hymns, including Tryggare kan ingen vara (Children of the Heavenly Father)and Blott en dag (Day by day).

Sandell’s popularity owed much to the performances of Oscar Ahnfelt, who set many of her verses to music. He played his guitar and sang her hymns throughout Scandinavia. Of him she once said, "Ahnfelt has sung my songs into the hearts of the people". The "Swedish Nightingale" Jenny Lind also promoted Sandell's hymns by singing them in concert and financing their publication.

She was married in 1867 to wholesale merchant and future member of the Swedish Parliament, Oscar Berg (1839–1903). They established their residence in Stockholm. In 1892, she became ill with typhoid fever. Their only child died at birth. Lina Sandell died in 1903 at the age of seventy and was buried at Solna Church in greater Stockholm. Oscar Berg died due to complications caused by diabetes in October that same year.