September 20: John Coleridge Patteson, Bishop, and His Companions, Martyrs, 1871

The Collect of the Day

John Coleridge Patteson

Almighty God, who called your faithful servant John Coleridge Patteson and his companions to witness to the gospel, and by their labors and sufferings raised up a people for your own possession: Pour out your Holy Spirit upon your church in every land, that, by the service and sacrifice of many, your holy Name may be glorified and your kingdom enlarged; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

John Coleridge Patteson

Almighty God, who didst call thy faithful servant John Coleridge Patteson and his companions to witness to the gospel, and by their labors and sufferings didst raise up a people for thine own possession: Pour out thy Holy Ghost upon thy church in every land, that, by the service and sacrifice of many, thy holy Name may be glorified and thy kingdom enlarged; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

1 Peter 4:12–19
Psalm 121
Mark 8:34–38

The death of Bishop Patteson and his companions at the hands of Melanesian islanders, whom Patteson had sought to protect from slave-traders, aroused the British government to take serious measures to prevent piratical man-hunting in the South Seas. Their martyrdom was the seed that produced the strong and vigorous Church which flourishes in Melanesia today.

Patteson was born in London on April 1st, 1827. He attended Balliol College, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1849. After travel in Europe and a study of languages, at which he was adept, he became a Fellow of Merton College in 1852 and was ordained the following year.

While serving as a curate of Alphington, Devonshire, near his family home, he responded to Bishop George Augustus Selwyn’s call in 1855 for helpers in New Zealand. It is said that he learned to speak some twenty-three of the languages of the Melanesian people, and he established a school for boys on Norfolk Island to train native Christian workers. On February 24th, 1861, he was consecrated Bishop of Melanesia.

On a visit to the island of Nakapu, Patteson was stabbed five times in the chest, in mistaken retaliation for the brutal outrages committed some time earlier by slave-traders. In the attack, several of Patteson’s company were also killed or wounded. Bishop Selwyn later reconciled the natives of Melanesia to the memory of one who came to help and not to hurt.

Lessons and Psalm

First Lesson

Psalm

¹I lift up my eyes to the hills; *from where is my help to come?

²My help comes from the Lord, *the maker of heaven and earth.

³He will not let your foot be moved *and he who watches over you will not fall asleep.

⁴Behold, he who keeps watch over Israel *shall neither slumber nor sleep;

⁵The Lord himself watches over you; *the Lord is your shade at your right hand,

⁶So that the sun shall not strike you by day, *nor the moon by night.

⁷The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; *it is he who shall keep you safe.

⁸The Lord shall watch over your going out and your coming in, *from this time forth for evermore.

Gospel

¹²Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. ¹³But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. ¹⁴If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory, which is the Spirit of God, is resting on you. ¹⁵But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, a criminal, or even as a mischief maker. ¹⁶Yet if any of you suffers as a Christian, do not consider it a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear this name. ¹⁷For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God; if it begins with us, what will be the end for those who do not obey the gospel of God? ¹⁸And “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinners?” ¹⁹Therefore, let those suffering in accordance with God’s will entrust themselves to a faithful Creator, while continuing to do good.