Dcn Leah Sandwell-Weiss

Dear friends,

Who do you think of when you hear the word “martyr?”

My first thought is of Christians who died by violence as witnesses to the Christian faith. People like St Stephen the Deacon; those who died in the arenas during Roman persecutions; or, in more recent history, Archbishop Oscar Romero and Jonathan Myrick Daniels. But not all who die for their faith die violently.

Today the Episcopal Church honors another group of martyrs who witnessed to their Christian faith: the Martyrs of Memphis: Sisters Constance, Thecla, Ruth, and Frances from the Community of Saint Mary, along with The Rev’d Charles Parsons and The Rev’d Louis Schuyler.

Sisters Constance and Thecla arrived in Memphis in 1873 to establish a community of their order outside New York and a school. They weren’t nurses. Before they could start the school year, yellow fever broke out in Memphis. The sisters jumped in to help provide support to the sick and abandoned.

In 1878, yellow fever broke out again. Historians estimate that 25,000 people fled, leaving 20,000 behind, without adequate medical care, food, or support. The faith community stepped in again, but this outbreak was more virulent. It’s estimated that at its height, 200 people died a day. Ninety percent of the people who remained contracted the fever and more than 5,000 people died.

Sisters Constance and Thecla were at the Mother House in New York for a rest when they got word of the outbreak, but immediately returned to Memphis. Sisters Ruth and Frances joined them, as did The Rev’d Louis Schuyler from Hoboken. The Rev’d Charles Parsons, a priest from Memphis, died first, followed by the rest within the month. Amid sweltering heat and scenes of indescribable horror, these women and men of God knew the risks of what they were doing but stayed in Memphis to give relief to the sick, comfort to the dying, and homes to many orphaned children, witnessing to their faith in God.

We give you thanks and praise, O God of compassion, for the heroic witness of the Martyrs of Memphis, who, in a time of plague and pestilence, were steadfast in their care for the sick and dying, and loved not their own lives, even unto death; Inspire in us a like love and commitment to those in need, following the example of our Savior Jesus Christ; who with you and the HolySpirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever.

—Dcn Leah