Henry Martyn
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (June 2007) |
| ||||||||
Henry Martyn (February 18, 1781 - October 16, 1812), was an Anglican missionary to the peoples of India and Persia. In parts of the Anglican Communion he is celebrated on October 19.
Contents |
[edit] Early life
Martyn was born in Truro, Cornwall. His father, John Martyn, was a "captain" or mine-agent at Gwennap. The lad was educated at Truro grammar school under Dr Cardew and he entered St John's College, Cambridge, in the autumn of 1797, and was senior wrangler and first Smith's prizeman in 1801. In 1802 he was chosen as a fellow of his college. He had intended to go to the bar, but in the October term of 1802 he chanced to hear Charles Simeon speaking of the good done in India by a single missionary, William Carey, and some time afterwards he read the life of David Brainerd, the apostle of the Native Americans.
[edit] Life work
He resolved, accordingly, to become a Christian missionary. On October 22, 1803, he was ordained deacon at Ely, and afterwards priest, and served as Simeon's curate at the church of Holy Trinity, taking charge of the neighbouring parish of Lolworth. He was about to offer his services to the Church Missionary Society, when a disaster in Cornwall deprived him and his unmarried sister of the provision their father had made for them, and rendered it necessary that he should obtain a salary that would support her as well as himself. He accordingly obtained a chaplaincy under the British East India Company and left for India on July 5 1805. For some months he was stationed at Aldeen, near Serampur; in October 1806 he proceeded to Dinapur, where he was soon able to conduct worship among the locals in the vernacular, and established schools. In April 1809 he was transferred to Cawnpore, where he preached in his own compound, in spite of interruptions and threats.
He occupied himself in linguistic study, and had already, during his residence at Dinapur, been engaged in revising the sheets of his Hindustani version of the New Testament. He now translated the whole of the New Testament into Urdu also, and into Persian twice. He translated the Psalms into Persian, the Gospels into Judaeo-Persic, and the Prayer-book into Hindostani (Urdu), in spite of ill-health and "the pride, pedantry and fury of his chief munshi Sabat." Ordered by the doctors to take a sea voyage, he obtained leave to go to Persia and correct his Persian New Testament, whence he wished to go to Arabia, and there compose an Arabic version.
Accordingly, on October 1, 1810, having seen his work at Cawnpore crowned on the previous day by the opening of a church, he left for Calcutta, whence he sailed on January 7 1811, for Bombay, which he reached on his thirtieth birthday. From Bombay he set out for Bushire, bearing letters from Sir John Malcolm to men of position there, as also at Shiraz and Isfahan. After an exhausting journey from the coast he reached Shiraz, and was soon plunged into discussion with the disputants of all classes, "Sufi, Muslim, Jew, and Jewish Muslim, even Armenian, all anxious to test their powers of argument with the first English priest who had visited them."
[edit] Early death
Having made an unsuccessful journey to Tabriz to present the shah with his translation of the New Testament, he was seized with fever, and after a temporary recovery, had to seek a change of climate. On September 12 1812, he started with two Armenian servants, crossed the Araxes, rode from Tabriz to Erivan, from Erivan to Kars, from Kars to Erzerum, from Erzerum to Chiflik, urged on from place to place by a thoughtless Tatar guide, and, though the plague was raging at Tokat, he was compelled by prostration to stop there. On the 16th of October he died.
[edit] Epitaph
Macaulay's youthful lines, written early in 1813, testify to the impression made by his career.
Epitaph on Henry MartynHere Martyn lies. In Manhood's early bloom
The Christian Hero finds a Pagan tomb.
Religion, sorrowing o'er her favourite son,
Points to the glorious trophies that he won.
Eternal trophies! not with carnage red,
Not stained with tears by hapless captives shed,
But trophies of the Cross! for that dear name,
Through every form of danger, death, and shame,
Onward he journeyed to a happier shore,
Where danger, death, and shame assault no more.
[edit] Bibliography
- David Bentley-Taylor, My Love Must Wait: the Story of Henry Martyn, Downers Grove: IVP (1975)
- John Sargent, Memoir of the Rev. Henry Martyn B. D., London: Hatchard (1816)
- George Smith, Henry Martyn, Saint and Scholar, London: Religious Tract Society (1892)
- Constance Padwick, Henry Martyn, Confessor of the Faith, London: Inter-Varsity Fellowship (1953)
- William Wilberforce (ed.), Journal and Letters of the Rev. Henry Martyn B.D., London: Seeley and Burnside, (1837)
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
Categories: Cleanup from June 2007 | All pages needing cleanup | English missionaries | Christian missionaries in India | Christian missionaries in Persia | Bible translators | Anglican missionaries | English Anglican priests | Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge | People from Truro | 1781 births | 1812 deaths | Anglican priests | Anglican saints | People from Kanpur
