Chapter 3.5: Religion and Education
The cathedral of Ösel-Wiek was located in Haapsalu. It can be seen from the castle picture from chapter 3.2, it is the section with the roof on the left.
The cathedral of Tartu was of course in Tartu. 
This is how it used to look like.
Since the Livonian war, it has been in ruins:
St. Mary´s Cathedral (Tallinna Neitsi Maarja Piiskoplik Toomkirik or just Toomkirik), or the one in Tallinn: 
The land was divided between parishes, east parish had their own church, most of which have survived to some extent. (Mostly renovated and rebuilt in later periods).
Some surviving churches from the 13th century, which have not seen changes in later years:
Large towns had several parishes, Tallinn had three, Tartu had two. The ones in Tallinn were based on class:
St. Nicholas (Niguliste kirik)(aka Santa Claus) was for merchants. 105 m high.
St. Olaf (Oleviste kirik) was for craftsmen. (123 m high, used to possibly be higher).
There were also two monasteries with their own churches, but they have been rebuilt so extensively that there is no point to cover them here.
St. John (Jaani kirik) in Tartu, the only surviving mediaeval church there.
The countryside was also filled with chapels on major roads and on the borders of parishes.
There were 11 monasteries by the beginning of the Reformation. Active monastic orders included the Dominicans (2 monasteries), the Franciscans (3), the Cistercians(5, 2 for men and 3 for women) and the Bridgettines (1).
Christianity was of course a fundamental part of an average person's life. Religion would accompany people from their birth until their death, as both of those events were covered by two of the seven Catholic sacraments. (I am going to do something radical and just ignore Catholic Christian teachings because they are universal and I cannot be bothered to translate all the specific vocabulary into English. This is basically sacrilegious because the church and society were EXTREMELY intertwined during the Medieval era, both in the rest of Europe and here as well.)
There were a few destinations in Estonia, which pilgrims visited. They held artefacts, which were connected to either some miracle or saint. For example, in the Pirita monastery (near Tallinn) there were some bones. 
In St. Nicholas in Pärnu, there was a charred cross, which had survived the burning down of the predecessor to the church during the mid 13th century.
The church during 1920/30s.
The church was heavily damaged during WW2 and the ruins were demolished by the Soviet authorities. (This is a running theme during the 1940s, many significant buildings and old towns, which could have been rebuilt, were bulldozed. Mostly for ideological reasons mind you, communism is not that keen on “heritage”, as they were symbols of the past, which had no place in the socialist present. I will try to mention some of the stuff lost as they pop up during our journey.)
Religion among the peasants became a synthesis of Christian teachings and ancient religion. People celebrated the birthdays of saints, who were connected to country life, as well as understood the central concept of Devil (i.e. evil) and God (i.e. good). But they did not really comprehend abstract issues like sins and redemption. People did go to church and believed that they had “power” behind them, but in the meantime they also continued to frequent the ancient holy sites. Many church days were also heavily influenced by pagan rituals. For example, on the eve of St. On John´s day they would light bonfires. (Still a major tradition, “jaanipäev”, something analogous to Swedish Midsummer, is one of the main holidays next to Christmas.) On the 2nd of November, aka “hingedepäev” or All Souls´ Day, people would leave food on the table for the night, so that the ghosts of their ancestors could come and have a feast.
Schools were established near Cathedrals, and children were taught by pastors. The schoolchildren did not have to join the Church, they basically received general education. Most received lessons at home though. Of course education was something that was mostly utilised by higher class children, but thanks to the compassionate leaning of the Church, some poor but talented children were allowed to study as well. Wealthier families sent their offspring to study in German universities.
Writing was only used for religious purposes at first, but later it became widespread among urban populations, as it was needed in commerce, politics, administration and so on. In addition to Latin, people also wrote in Low German. Because Estonian was useless in the previously mentioned fields, Estonian scripture did not develop during the mediaeval time.
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