Rachel Saint (January 2, 1914 – November 11, 1994) was an American
evangelical
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...
Christian
missionary
A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who 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.Thoma ...
who worked in
Ecuador
Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...
, with her language helper Dayuma translating the Gospel of Mark and the book of Acts into the Wao tededo language of the
Waorani people.
Rachel Saint was born in
Wyncote, Pennsylvania. She attended the Philadelphia School of the Bible (now
Cairn University) and then worked at the Keswick Colony of Mercy in
New Jersey
New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
, a rehabilitation facility for people with alcohol addiction.
Career
Saint was sent out by the
Wycliffe Bible Translators, trained by Summer Institute of Linguistics (now
SIL International
SIL Global (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics International) is an evangelical Christian nonprofit organization whose main purpose is to study, develop and document languages, especially those that are lesser-known, to expan ...
). Her first missionary assignment was to the
Piro and Shapira tribes in
Peru
Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...
. Her work there began to become well-known after the publication of the life of Tariri, a Shapra chief who left head-hunting after being introduced to Christianity.
However, even at that time, Saint had an interest in the
Waorani people of Ecuador. In February 1955, she and Catherine Peeke went to a missionary station near Waorani territory, where Saint's brother was working. Rachel Saint started learning the Waorani language with the help of
Dayuma, a Waorani woman who had left her people after her father lost his life in a revenge killing. She fled to the plantation of Don Carlos Sevilla, where she worked on his plantation for eight years before being contacted by Rachel Saint, who expressed an interest in learning her language.
In January 1956, five missionaries in the area were
killed by Waorani people, including her brother
Nate Saint
Nathanael Saint (30 August 19238 January 1956) was an evangelicalism, evangelical Christian missionary Aviator, pilot who, along with four others, was killed in Ecuador while attempting to Evangelism, evangelize the Huaorani people, Huaorani peop ...
, 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 Evangelism, evangelist, ordained Southern Baptist minister, and Civil rights movement, civil rights advocate, whose broadcasts and world tours featuring liv ...
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 Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eig ...
and on
Ralph Edwards' television show ''
This Is Your Life''.
In the summer of 1958, Saint returned to the Waorani in Ecuador and, together with
Elisabeth Elliot, the wife of
James (Jim) Elliot, who had been killed by the Waorani, continued to evangelize. In February 1959, they were able to move into a Waorani settlement. Where the five American men had failed to gain entrance into the Waorani 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 Waorani language that she had begun before the death of the five missionaries.
Saint 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 Waorani who chose to live in her village.
Saint also appears in
Nemonte Nenquimo’s book, ''We Will Be Jaguars'', published September 2024. The book includes a photo of Saint welcoming an oil company executive to Nenquimo’s village, and Nenquimo accuses Saint of helping foreign oil companies to take over indigenous land.
Saint died in
Quito
Quito (; ), officially San Francisco de Quito, is the capital city, capital and second-largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its metropolitan area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha Province, P ...
from cancer on November 11, 1994 at the age of 80. She was buried in Toñampare, Ecuador, where she had lived with the Waorani.
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
Relevant literature
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint, Rachel
1914 births
1994 deaths
20th-century American women writers
20th-century evangelicals
20th-century American lexicographers
20th-century American translators
American Evangelical writers
American expatriates in Ecuador
Cairn University alumni
Deaths from cancer in Ecuador
Evangelical missionaries
Evangelicalism in South America
Female Bible translators
Female Christian missionaries
American missionary linguists
Operation Auca
People from Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
Protestant missionaries in Ecuador
Translators of the Bible into indigenous languages of the Americas
Women lexicographers
American women linguists