PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: mission
Christian Apostle
St. Paul the Apostle was 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...
Christian Apostle
St. Peter the Apostle was a 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...
Meet the first American pope in the history of the Roman Catholic Church.
Leo XIV is the pope, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. He was elected on May 8, 2025, succeeding Pope Francis and becoming the first American pope in history. An Augustinian friar who performed...
pope
St. Gregory the Great ; Western feast day, September 3 [formerly March 12, still observed in the East]) was the pope, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, from 590 to 604. A reformer and excellent...
American theologian
Jonathan Edwards was the greatest theologian and philosopher of British American Puritanism, stimulator of the religious revival known as the âGreat Awakening,â and one of the forerunners of the age of...
Spanish historian and missionary
Bartolomé de Las Casas was an 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...
Christian theologian
St. Clement of Alexandria ; Western feast day November 23; Eastern feast day November 24) was a Christian Apologist, missionary theologian to the Hellenistic (Greek cultural) world, and the second known...
Roman Catholic nun
Mother Teresa ; canonized September 4, 2016; feast day September 5) was the founder of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic congregation of women dedicated to the poor, particularly...
Christian missionary
St. Francis Xavier ; canonized March 12, 1622; feast day December 3) was the greatest Roman Catholic missionary of modern times. He was instrumental in the establishment of Christianity in many parts of...
American evangelist
Billy Graham was an 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...
Italian Jesuit missionary
Matteo Ricci was an 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...
German religious leader
Nikolaus Ludwig, count von Zinzendorf was a religious and social reformer of the German Pietist movement who, as leader of the Moravian church (Unitas Fratrum), sought to create an ecumenical Protestant...
English missionary
St. Boniface ; feast day June 5) was an English missionary and reformer who is often called the âApostle of Germanyâ for his role in the Christianization of that country. Boniface set the church in Germany...
Islamic mystic
Al-កallÄj was a controversial writer and teacher of Islamic mysticism (áčąĆ«fism). Because he represented in his person and works the experiences, causes, and aspirations of many Muslims, arousing admiration...
English preacher and missionary
George Fox was an 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...
American religious leader
Father Divine was a 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...
Christian martyr
St. Stephen ; feast day December 26) was a Christian deacon in Jerusalem who is believed to have been the first Christian martyr. His apology before the Sanhedrin (Acts of the Apostles 7) points to a distinct...
Christian missionary
St. Columba ; feast day June 9) is an Irish saint who is credited with having had a main role in the conversion of Scotland to Christianity in the 6th century. He is a patron saint of Scotland and one...
Roman Catholic nun
St. Katharine Drexel ; feast day March 3) was an American heiress and Roman Catholic nun who founded the Blessed Sacrament Sisters for Indians and Colored People (now Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament),...
Jesuit missionary
Pierre-Jean de Smet was a Belgian-born Jesuit missionary whose pioneering efforts to Christianize and pacify Indian tribes west of the Mississippi River made him their beloved âBlack Robeâ and cast him...
American missionary
Marcus Whitman was an 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....
Catalan mystic
Ramon Llull was a 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...
Sikh Guru
Guru Ram Das was the fourth Sikh Guru (1574â81) and founder of Amritsar, the center of Sikhism and the site of the Sikhsâ principal place of worshipâthe Golden Temple. Guru Ram Das continued the missionary...
Portuguese author and diplomat
AntĂłnio Vieira was a 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...
American religious leader
Alma Bridwell White was an 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...
Spanish priest and Jesuit superior general
Pedro Arrupe was the 28th superior general (1965â83) of the Society of Jesus. Known for his spiritual depth and commitment to justice, Arrupe helped guide the Jesuit order through the changes of the Second...
American missionary
Lucy Whitehead McGill Waterbury Peabody was an 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...
bishop of the Goths
Ulfilas was a 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...
French saint
St. Martin of Tours ; Western feast day, November 11; Eastern feast day November 12) was a Roman Catholic bishop in what is now France who is considered the father of monasticism in Gaul and the first...
archbishop of Canterbury
St. Augustine of Canterbury ; feast day in England and Wales May 26; General Roman Calendar May 27; traditional calendar May 28 ) was the first archbishop of Canterbury and the apostle to England, who...
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) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. His name in Aramaic (TeÊŸoma)...
Belgian priest
St. Damien of Molokai ; canonized October 11, 2009; feast day May 10) was a Belgian priest who devoted his life to missionary work in Hawaii helping people with Hansenâs disease (leprosy). In 2009 he was...
American librarian and missionary
Mary Elizabeth Wood was an 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...
East Timorese bishop
Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo is a former Roman Catholic bishop of Dili (1988â2002) who, with JosĂ© Ramos-Horta, received the 1996 Nobel Prize for Peace for their efforts to bring peace to East Timor (Timor...
French prelate
Saint Germanus of Auxerre ; feast day: Wales, August 3; elsewhere, July 31) was a Gallic prelate who was twice sent on crucial missions to England that helped effect the consolidation of the British church....
Anglo-Saxon missionary
Saint Willibrord ; feast day November 7) was an 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...
French missionary
Alexandre de Rhodes was a 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....
Spanish religious reformer
St. John of Ăvila ; canonized 1970; feast day May 10) was a Roman Catholic reformer, author, and spiritual director. One of the greatest preachers of his time, his religious leadership in 16th-century...
Jesuit missionary
St. Jean de Brébeuf ; canonized 1930; feast day October 19) was a Roman Catholic missionary to New France and martyr who became one of the patron saints of Canada. Brébeuf entered the Society of Jesus...
American missionary and educator
Mary Mills Patrick was an American missionary and educator who oversaw the evolution of a girlsâ high school into a major college for Turkish women. Patrick graduated from the Lyons Collegiate Institute...
missionary and archbishop
St. Ansgar ; canonized 865; feast day February 3) was a missionary of medieval Europe and the first archbishop of Hamburg. He is venerated as the patron saint of Scandinavia. Of noble birth, Ansgar entered...
British missionary
William Carey was the founder of the English Baptist Missionary Society (1792), a lifelong missionary to India, and an educator whose mission at Shrirampur (Serampore) set the pattern for modern missionary...
American church worker
Belle Harris Bennett was an 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...
Roman Catholic saint
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini ; canonized July 7, 1946; feast day November 13) was an Italian-born Roman Catholic nun and founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart. She was the first United States...
American missionary
Fidelia Fiske was an American missionary to Persia who worked with considerable success to improve womenâs education and health in and around Orumiyeh (Urmia), in present-day Iran. Fidelia Fisk (she later...
American missionary
Isabella Thoburn was an American missionary to India whose work in education there culminated in the founding of an important womanâs college in Lucknow. Thoburn attended local schools and the Wheeling...
American missionary and educator
Susan Lincoln Tolman Mills was an American missionary and educator who, with her husband, established what would become the first U.S. womenâs college on the west coast. Susan Tolman graduated from Mount...
American scholar and minister
Alexander Crummell was an 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,...
English clergyman
Saint Chad ; feast day, March 2) was a 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,...
American missionary
Adoniram Judson was an 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,...
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