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May 21
Zeno, John Eliot, Elizabeth Fry, and the American Red Cross
David Barnhart
May 21, 2025
Montacute House, England, 2011. Own photo.
Today is the feast day of Saint Zeno, an African fisherman from Mauritania who became a bishop of Verona in the mid-300’s.
Today marks the death, in 1690, of John Eliot, a Puritan missionary who translated the Bible into the Massachusett language. The Episcopal Church observes a feast day for him.
Today is the birthday of Elizabeth Fry, in 1780, a Quaker who was a major force in English prison reform.
Today marks the death, in 1935, of Jane Addams, a philosopher, pacifist, and social reformer who, among other things, developed Hull House, a communal living and educational “settlement house.” She helped develop the modern concept of social work, and co-founded the ACLU.
Today also marks the anniversary of the founding of the American Red Cross by Clara Barton in 1881. After participating in the International Red Cross in 1869 in Switzerland, she decided to establish one in the United States with the help of her friend, Frederick Douglass.
Reflection:
Regarding John Eliot and missionary work to indigenous people: this is a sensitive point in this age of decolonization. Missionaries have often been the leading edge of colonization. It still happens today, as churches from the suburbs frame gentrification of inner cities as social work.
But the root word, “missio” means to be sent—not on behalf of an institution or an empire, but by God, and people who do it well embody a spirit of learning and of cultural sensitivity. At their best, missionaries work at empowering people and serving alongside community organizers, living among and working with people in systems of manufactured poverty and political disempowerment.
Eliot worked to organize self-governing towns of Christian converts, and defended those towns against European expansion. He also wrote a book advocating democratic elections which got banned by the Massachusetts authorities.
A note from Elizabeth Fry reads:
“Does capital punishment tend to the security of the people? By no means. It hardens the hearts of men, and makes the loss of life appear light to them; and it renders life insecure, inasmuch as the law holds out that property is of greater value than life.”
She also wrote:
“I give myself this advice: Do not fear truth, let it be ever so contrary to inclination and feeling. Never give up the search after it; and let me take courage, and try from the bottom of my heart to do that which I believe truth dictates, if it lead me to be a Quaker or not.”
Jane Addams wrote:
“The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.”
and
“It is well to remind ourselves, from time to time, that "Ethics" is but another word for "righteousness," that for which many men and women of every generation have hungered and thirsted, and without which life becomes meaningless.”
Prayer: God who calls us, equips us, and sends us — give us courage, wisdom, and equanimity in a world hostile to your justice and mercy. Amen.