PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: mission
Christian Apostle
St. Paul the Apostle, one of the leaders of the first generation of Christians, often considered to be the most important person after Jesus in the history of Christianity. In his own day, although he...
Christian Apostle
St. Peter the Apostle, disciple of Jesus Christ, recognized in the early Christian church as the leader of the 12 disciples and by the Roman Catholic Church as the first of its unbroken succession of popes....
pope
St. Gregory the Great, ; Western feast day, September 3 [formerly March 12, still observed in the East]), pope from 590 to 604, reformer and excellent administrator, “founder” of the medieval papacy, which...
American theologian
Jonathan Edwards, greatest theologian and philosopher of British American Puritanism, stimulator of the religious revival known as the “Great Awakening,” and one of the forerunners of the age of Protestant...
Spanish historian and missionary
Bartolomé de Las Casas, early Spanish historian and Dominican missionary who was the first to expose the oppression of indigenous peoples by Europeans in the Americas and to call for the abolition of slavery...
Christian theologian
St. Clement of Alexandria, ; Western feast day November 23; Eastern feast day November 24), Christian Apologist, missionary theologian to the Hellenistic (Greek cultural) world, and second known leader...
Italian Jesuit missionary
Matteo Ricci, Italian Jesuit missionary who introduced Christian teaching to the Chinese empire in the 16th century. He lived there for nearly 30 years and was a pioneer in the attempt at mutual comprehension...
American evangelist
Billy Graham, American evangelist whose large-scale preaching missions, known as crusades, and friendship with numerous U.S. presidents brought him to international prominence. The son of a prosperous...
Christian missionary
St. Francis Xavier, ; canonized March 12, 1622; feast day December 3), the greatest Roman Catholic missionary of modern times who was instrumental in the establishment of Christianity in India, the Malay...
English missionary
Saint Boniface, ; feast day June 5), English missionary and reformer, often called the apostle of Germany for his role in the Christianization of that country. Boniface set the church in Germany on a firm...
English religious leader
George Fox, English preacher and missionary and founder of the Society of Friends (or Quakers). His personal religious experience made him hostile to church conventions and established his reliance on...
German religious leader
Nikolaus Ludwig, count von Zinzendorf, religious and social reformer of the German Pietist movement who, as leader of the Moravian church (Unitas Fratrum), sought to create an ecumenical Protestant movement....
Islamic mystic
Al-Ḥallāj, controversial writer and teacher of Islāmic mysticism (Ṣūfism). Because he represented in his person and works the experiences, causes, and aspirations of many Muslims, arousing admiration in...
Roman Catholic nun
Mother Teresa, ; canonized September 4, 2016; feast day September 5), founder of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic congregation of women dedicated to the poor, particularly to...
Christian martyr
St. Stephen, ; feast day December 26), Christian deacon in Jerusalem and the first Christian martyr, whose apology before the Sanhedrin (Acts of the Apostles 7) points to a distinct strand of belief in...
American religious leader
Father Divine, prominent African American religious leader of the 1930s. The Depression-era movement he founded, the Peace Mission, was originally dismissed as a cult, but it still exists and is now generally...
American missionary
Marcus Whitman, American physician, Congregational missionary to the Indians in the territories of present-day Washington and Oregon, and a pioneer who helped open the Pacific Northwest to settlement....
Jesuit missionary
Pierre-Jean de Smet, Belgian-born Jesuit missionary whose pioneering efforts to Christianize and pacify Indian tribes west of the Mississippi River made him their beloved “Black Robe” and cast him in the...
Roman Catholic nun
St. Katharine Drexel, ; feast day [U.S.] March 3), American founder of the Blessed Sacrament Sisters for Indians and Colored People (now Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament), a congregation of missionary...
Catalan mystic
Ramon Llull, Catalan mystic and poet whose writings helped to develop the Romance Catalan language and widely influenced Neoplatonic mysticism throughout medieval and 17th-century Europe. He is best known...
American religious leader
Alma Bridwell White, American religious leader who was a founder and major moving force in the evangelical Methodist Pentecostal Union Church, which split from mainstream Methodism in the early 20th century....
Portuguese author and diplomat
António Vieira, Jesuit missionary, orator, diplomat, and master of classical Portuguese prose who played an active role in both Portuguese and Brazilian history. His sermons, letters, and state papers...
bishop of the Goths
Ulfilas, Christian bishop and missionary who evangelized the Goths, reputedly created the Gothic alphabet, and wrote the earliest translation of the Bible into a Germanic language. Although his life cannot...
American missionary
Lucy Whitehead McGill Waterbury Peabody, American missionary who was an influential force in a number of Baptist foreign mission societies from the 1880s well into the 20th century. Lucy McGill graduated...
Christian Apostle
St. Thomas, ; Western feast day December 21, feast day in Roman and Syrian Catholic churches July 3, in the Greek church October 6), one of the Twelve Apostles. His name in Aramaic (Teʾoma) and Greek (Didymos)...
French saint
St. Martin of Tours, ; Western feast day, November 11; Eastern feast day November 12), patron saint of France, father of monasticism in Gaul, and the first great leader of Western monasticism. Of pagan...
archbishop of Canterbury
Saint Augustine of Canterbury, ; feast day in England and Wales May 26, elsewhere May 28), first archbishop of Canterbury and the apostle to England, who founded the Christian church in southern England....
Anglo-Saxon missionary
Saint Willibrord, ; feast day November 7), Anglo-Saxon bishop and missionary, apostle of Friesland, and a patron saint of the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The son of the hermit St. Wilgis, Willibrord was...
missionary
Saint Ansgar, ; canonized 865; feast day February 3), missionary of medieval Europe, first archbishop of Hamburg, and the patron saint of Scandinavia. Of noble birth, Ansgar entered the Benedictine abbey...
French prelate
Saint Germanus of Auxerre, ; feast day: Wales, August 3; elsewhere, July 31), Gallic prelate who was twice sent on crucial missions to England that helped effect the consolidation of the British church....
American missionary and educator
Mary Mills Patrick, American missionary and educator who oversaw the evolution of a girls’ high school into a major college for Turkish women. Patrick graduated from the Lyons Collegiate Institute in Lyons...
French missionary
Alexandre de Rhodes, Jesuit missionary who was the first Frenchman to visit Vietnam. De Rhodes was admitted to the Society of Jesus at Rome in 1612 and in 1619 went to Indochina to establish a mission....
American church worker
Belle Harris Bennett, American church worker whose energetic efforts on behalf of Christian education and missions culminated in the granting of full lay status to women in the Southern Methodist Church....
British missionary
William Carey, founder of the English Baptist Missionary Society (1792), lifelong missionary to India, and educator whose mission at Shrirampur (Serampore) set the pattern for modern missionary work. He...
American missionary and educator
Susan Lincoln Tolman Mills, American missionary and educator who, with her husband, established what would become the first U.S. women’s college on the west coast. Susan Tolman graduated from Mount Holyoke...
American librarian and missionary
Mary Elizabeth Wood, American librarian and missionary, whose efforts brought numerous libraries to China and established a strong program in that country to train librarians. Wood grew up and attended...
Spanish religious reformer
St. John of Ávila, ; canonized 1970; feast day May 10), reformer, one of the greatest preachers of his time, author, and spiritual director whose religious leadership in 16th-century Spain earned him the...
American missionary
Adoniram Judson, American linguist and Baptist missionary in Myanmar (Burma), who translated the Bible into Burmese and wrote a now standard Burmese dictionary. At Andover Theological Seminary, Massachusetts,...
Celtic missionary
St. Ninian, ; feast day September 16), bishop generally credited as the first Christian missionary to Scotland, responsible for widespread conversions among the Celts and possibly the Southern Picts. The...
American missionary
Fidelia Fiske, American missionary to Persia who worked with considerable success to improve women’s education and health in and around Orumiyeh (Urmia), in present-day Iran. Fidelia Fisk (she later restored...
Mohawk chief
Joseph Brant, Mohawk Indian chief who served not only as a spokesman for his people but also as a Christian missionary and a British military officer during the American Revolution (1775–83). Brant was...
American missionary
Isabella Thoburn, American missionary to India whose work in education there culminated in the founding of an important woman’s college in Lucknow. Thoburn attended local schools and the Wheeling Female...
American scholar and minister
Alexander Crummell, American scholar and Episcopalian minister, founder of the American Negro Academy (1897), the first major learned society for African Americans. As a religious leader and an intellectual,...
emperor of Vietnam
Minh Mang, emperor (1820–41) of central Vietnam who was known for his anti-Western policies, especially his persecution of Christian missionaries. Prince Chi Dam was the fourth son of Emperor Gia Long...
Belgian priest
St. Damien of Molokai, ; canonized October 11, 2009; feast day May 10), Belgian priest who devoted his life to missionary work among the Hawaiian lepers and became a saint of the Roman Catholic Church....
Anglican bishop of Natal, South Africa
John Colenso, controversial liberal Anglican bishop of Natal. He made numerous converts among the Zulus, who caused him to abandon certain religious tenets and thus be subjected to trial for heresy. Colenso...
English clergyman
Saint Chad, ; feast day, March 2), monastic founder, abbot, and first bishop of Lichfield, who is credited with the Christianization of the ancient English kingdom of Mercia. With his brother St. Cedd,...
British missionary
John Eliot, Puritan missionary to the Native Americans of Massachusetts Bay Colony whose translation of the Bible in the Algonquian language was the first Bible printed in North America. Educated in England,...
Vietnamese statesman
Le Van Duyet, Vietnamese military strategist and government official who served as a diplomatic liaison between Vietnam and France and defended Christian missionaries against the early Nguyen emperors....
English missionary
Charles Freer Andrews, English missionary whose experiences in India led him to advocate for Indian independence and for the rights of Indian labourers around the world. Andrews was the son of a minister...
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