John Coleridge Patteson

Infobox Saint
name= John Coleridge Patteson
birth_date = 1 April 1827
death_date = 20 September 1871
feast_day= 20 September
venerated_in= Anglican Communion


caption=John Coleridge Patteson
birth_place= England
death_place = Nukapu, Solomon Islands
titles=Bishop and Martyr
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issues= Anglican Portal

John Coleridge Patteson (April 1, 1827 - September 20, 1871) was an Anglican bishop and martyr.

Patteson was educated at The King's School, Ottery St Mary, Eton and then Balliol College, Oxford. He was ordained in 1853 in the Church of England. His old tutor at Eton, George Augustus Selwyn, was the first Bishop of New Zealand, and he persuaded Patteson to become a missionary to the South Seas. In 1855 Patteson set out to found the Melanesian Mission. He founded a college on Norfolk Island for native boys, toured the islands on the ship "Southern Cross", and learned many of the local languages. In 1861 he was made Bishop of Melanesia.

On 20 September 1871 he was murdered on the island of Nukapu in the Solomon Islands, where he had landed alone. Natives killed him as revenge against the abduction of some natives by white men months earlier. His death became a "cause celebre" in England and increased interest both in missionary work and in improvement of the working conditions in Melanesia.

His life is celebrated in the Church of England as a saintly one, and he is commemorated with a Lesser Festival on 20 September.

Biographies

* [http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/dnzb/default.asp?Find_Quick.asp?PersonEssay=1P10 Dictionary of New Zealand Biography]
* "Life of John Coleridge Patteson" by Charlotte Mary Yonge
* [http://www.janeresture.com/patteson/index.htm Bishop Patteson the first bishop of Melanesia]

References

* [http://anglicanhistory.org/cmyonge/patteson.html Life by Charlotte Yonge]
* [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PAS_PER/PATTESON.html Biographical entry from Volume V20, Page 937 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica]
* [http://world-history-blog.blogspot.com/2007/01/death-of-bishop-patteson.html The Death of Bishop Patteson]