This week in Christian history: John Eliot, Thomas à Kempis, Methodism comes to Australia

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, August 04, 2019

John Eliot baptized – August 5, 1604

John Eliot (1604-1690), Puritan missionary known for evangelizing Native Americans. | (Photo: Public Domain)

This week marks the anniversary of when John Eliot, the Puritan evangelist who famously ministered among Native Americans, was baptized.

A native of Widford, Hertfordshire, England, Eliot was baptized at Church of St. John the Baptist in Widford. He moved to Boston, Massachusetts in 1631.

“Eliot’s eighty-six years earned him respect and the legacy as the ‘Apostle to the Indians.’ He was a Puritan who cared deeply for the Native Americans of New England—an unpopular stance in the colonies,” explained the Museum of the Bible.

“Eliot learned to speak the Wôpanâak language fluently, and with the help of a Native American named John Sassamon, he translated the Bible into that language.”