The daughter of a Lutheran minister, Sandell grew up in the rectory at Fröderyd, Småland. 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.
Lina Sandell died in 1903 at the age of seventy and was buried at Solna Church in greater Stockholm.
