Francis Xavier: Xavier was born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilcueta in the Castle of Xavier (modern
Spanish Javier) near
Sangüesa and
Pamplona, in
Navarre,
Spain. He was born to an aristocratic family of Navarre. In 1512, many fortresses were devastated, including the family castle, and land was confiscated. Francis' father died in 1515. At the age of 19, Francis Xavier went to study at the
University of Paris, where he received a
licence ès arts in 1530. He furthered his studies there in
theology, and became acquainted with
Ignatius Loyola. Xavier, Ignatius, and five others founded the
Society of Jesus on
August 15,
1534, taking a vow of poverty and chastity where is now Montmartre in Paris.
Chet Bitterman: was an
American linguist and
missionary who was
kidnapped and killed by revolutionaries of the
19th of April Movement (M-19) in
Colombia in 1981. Originally from
Pennsylvania, Bitterman attended
Columbia Bible College in
South Carolina, where he first heard of the Christian mission organization
Wycliffe Bible Translators. After graduation, he received linguistics training from the
Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) in
North Dakota, and married Brenda Gardner, a fellow alumna of SIL's training program. Together, they traveled to
Colombia to begin mission work with Wycliffe in 1979. As an inexperienced missionary, Bitterman was not immediately assigned to a tribal group where he could begin to translate the Bible into a new language as many Wycliffe missionaries do. Instead, he worked primarily at Wycliffe's base in Lomalinda, first working in the radio tower and later serving as security coordinator. Their time at Lomalinda was broken up by a six-month service trip in
Bogotá where Bitterman and his wife assisted a more experienced translator couple. However, by 1981, plans began to fall into place for Bitterman and his wife to attempt to reach the
Carijona tribe in the Colombian jungle. But at 6:30 a.m. on
January 19,
1981, seven
M-19 guerrillas entered the Bitterman's home. Not finding the director of SIL, they kidnapped Bitterman instead. Several days later, the guerillas demanded that Wycliffe leave the country. Finally, 48 days after his abduction, on
March 7,
1981, Bitterman's body was found in a bus near Bogotá, having been shot in the chest.
William Carey: (
August 17,
1761 –
June 9,
1834) was an
English Protestant missionary and
Baptist minister, known as the "father of modern missions." Carey was one of the founders of the
Baptist Missionary Society. As a missionary in
Serampore, India, he translated the
Bible into
Bengali,
Sanskrit, and numerous other languages and dialects.
John Eliot: (baptized
5 August 1604 -
21 May 1690) is one of the many colonial immigrants who would find a religious purpose for their life in the New World. Eliot was born in a small village near London,England.
Widford,
Hertfordshire,
England. Records show that his father was a middleclass farmer by the name of Bennett Eliot. Eliot attended Jesus College in Cambridge. From the beginning, he showed an ability to work well with philology. Some believe that he may have gone into ministry of the Established Church soon after graduation. In 1629, Eliot began teaching at a school near Chelmsford. As an assistant and guest in the home of Rev. Thomas Hooker, John Eliot may have picked up on the Puritan influence and converted. In 1630, Eliot left the school around the time Puritan persecutions by The Church of England forced his spiritual idol, Hooker, to exile to Holland. The persecutions and the oppression he faced led Eliot to move to America on November 3, 1631.On the voyage to the New World, Eliot served as the chaplain on the ship called the ""Lyon"". He arrived in New England and settled in Boston, Massachusetts. In that town he founded the
Roxbury Latin School in 1645. Eliot would later become an ordained minister at a church in Roxbury where some members were those he sailed to the New World with. Records also show that one year after his arrival in 1631, Eliot married Hanna Mumford and conceived six children with her. The Encyclopedia Americana quoted her to be "dear, faithful, pious, purdent, prayerful wife." While preaching at Roxbury, John Eliot picked up an increasing interest in the surrounding Indian population. This newfound interest sparked him to want to convert their religion. Eliot found a young Indian servant, captured in the Pequot War of 1646, to come live in his home and help teach the Algonquin Indian Language. Once he was comfortable with the language, he translated teaching material, Eliot successfully preached to the Native Americans in October 1646 at Nonantum. His first sermons were in English but within the year he began preaching in the Indians native tongue. Many Indians claimed to be Christians after just a few meetings. The conversion of the Indians provoked Eliot to ask the Massachusetts General Court to give specific areas of land for the Indians to reside on. These towns would be built away from the colonial towns in order to help preserve the Indian culture, except for their religion. The court ruled in favor of this decision and also established an annual election to choose two clergymen to preach to the Indians. Support for Eliot's plan flooded from both the New and Old England. Many people donated a great deal of money to help his endeavors. Old England also induced Parliament to establish the "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England," which showed their support in Eliot's work. Six Puritan churches were built in the settlements. Eliot organized the first settlement for the "Praying Indians" in a place called Natick. The town had a school and meeting-house. Eliot also went to further establish his purpose by printing out the first Algonkian Bible in America. This Bible would be printed almost 120 years before an English language Bible in America. Although King Phillip's War disrupted Eliot's work, he still made major religious contributions in America. He died on May 20, 1690 in Roxbury. His legacy was left behind in many writings such as ""Up-bookum Psalmes, The Indian Primer, The Harmony of the Gospels, The Communion of the Churches, the Bay Psalm Book, and The Christian Commonwealth.""
