Rachel Saint (January 2, 1914 – November 11, 1994) was an American
evangelical
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...
Christian
missionary
A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
who worked in
Ecuador
Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...
.
Rachel Saint was born in
Wyncote, Pennsylvania
Wyncote is a census-designated place (CDP) in Cheltenham Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It borders the northwestern and northeastern section of Philadelphia. Wyncote is located 11 miles from Center City Philadelphia at the southeaster ...
. She attended the Philadelphia School of the Bible (now
Cairn University
Cairn University is a private Christian university in Langhorne Manor and Middletown Township, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1913, the university has six schools and departments: Business, Counseling, Divinity, Education, Liberal Arts & Sciences, ...
) and then worked at the Keswick Colony of Mercy in
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
.
Career
Saint was sent out by the
Wycliffe Bible Translators
Wycliffe Global Alliance is an alliance of organizations that have objective of translating the Bible into every language. The organisation is named after John Wycliffe, who was responsible for the first complete English translation of the whole ...
, trained by Summer Institute of Linguistics (now
SIL International
SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics) is an evangelical Christian non-profit organization whose main purpose is to study, develop and document languages, especially those that are lesser-known, in order to ex ...
). Her first missionary assignment was to the Piro and Shapira in
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal
, national_motto = "Fi ...
, but she had an interest in the
Huaorani
The Huaorani, Waorani, or Waodani, also known as the Waos, are an Indigenous people from the Amazonian Region of Ecuador ( Napo, Orellana, and Pastaza Provinces) who have marked differences from other ethnic groups from Ecuador. The alternate ...
in Ecuador. In February 1955, she and Catherine Peeke went to a missionary station near Huaorani territory, where Saint's brother was working. Rachel Saint started learning the Huaorani language with the help of
Dayuma, a Huaorani woman who had left her people after a dispute and was sheltered by missionaries.
In January 1956, five missionaries in the area were
killed by Huaorani people, including her brother
Nate Saint
Nathanael Saint (30 August 19238 January 1956) was an evangelical Christian missionary pilot who, along with four others, was killed in Ecuador while attempting to evangelize the Huaorani people through efforts known as Operation Auca.
Earl ...
, who had come to Ecuador in 1948. As a result, Saint considered herself spiritually bonded to the tribe. In 1957, she embarked on a tour of the United States together with Dayuma, appearing with
Billy Graham
William Franklin Graham Jr. (November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018) was an American evangelist and an ordained Southern Baptist minister who became well known internationally in the late 1940s. He was a prominent evangelical Christi ...
at
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...
and on
Ralph Edwards
Ralph Livingstone Edwards (June 13, 1913DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . Pp. 86-87. – November 16, 2005) was an American radio ...
' television show ''
This Is Your Life''.
In the summer of 1958, Saint returned to the Huaorani in Ecuador and, together with
Elisabeth Elliot
__NOTOC__
Elisabeth Elliot (née Howard; December 21, 1926 – June 15, 2015) was a Christian author and speaker. Her first husband, Jim Elliot, was killed in 1956 while attempting to make missionary contact with the Auca people (now known as H ...
, the wife of
James (Jim) Elliot, who had been killed by the Huaorani, continued to evangelize. In February 1959, they were able to move into a Huaorani settlement. Where the five American men had failed to gain entrance into the Huaorani society, these two unarmed women (as well as Elliot's little daughter) were not perceived as a threat. Saint continued in her labor to create a dictionary of the Huaorani language that she had begun before the death of the five missionaries.
Saint also appears in
Joe Kane's book, ''Savages'', in which she is criticized for the negative effects her proselytizing allegedly had on the lifestyle of those Huaorani who chose to live in her village.
Saint died in
Quito
Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha. Quito is located in a valley o ...
from cancer on November 11, 1994. She was buried in Toñampare, Ecuador, where she had lived with the Huaorani.
Film
* Trinkets and beads. Documentary, Ecuador/USA 1996, 52 minutes; Director: Chris Walker; Producer:
Tony Avirgan. “Chris Walker and Tony Avirgan’s films tells the tragi-comic story of the unlikely links between Maxus – a Texas-based oil company – the 79-year-old Wycliffe Bible Translators missionary Rachel Saint, and the Huaorani people of the Ecuadorian Orient, the most fiercely isolated tribe in the Amazon. First introduced to the Indians by the missionaries, Maxus is guilty of poisoning Huaorani land with its drills and flares and leaking pipelines.”
[.]
References
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint, Rachel
1914 births
1994 deaths
People from Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
American evangelicals
American Protestant missionaries
Female Christian missionaries
Translators of the Bible into indigenous languages of the Americas
Missionary linguists
Evangelicalism in South America
Protestant missionaries in Ecuador
Cairn University alumni
Operation Auca
Deaths from cancer in Ecuador
Women linguists
20th-century translators
20th-century women writers
Women lexicographers
American expatriates in Ecuador
20th-century lexicographers
Female Bible Translators