Kateri Tekakwitha became the first Native American saint in 2012. Much of her life was marked by violence, disease, and loss brought on by French colonization and conflict with local tribes. The Mohawk woman died at the young age of 24 but her resolute faith throughout her hard life inspired many.  On this episode of Prayer amid Pandemic, Susangeline Patrick, assistant professor of world Christianity at Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City and adjunct professor in the history of...

In 2014, the Ebola outbreak began in West Africa. Over the next two years, more than 11,000 people died, the majority from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. As people struggled to adapt to the new normal brought on by the epidemic, the government and public health workers enlisted church leaders in educating their congregants about the disease. On this episode of Prayer amid Pandemic, John Jusu, a Sierra Leonean missionary with the Association of Evangelicals in Africa who currently serves...

Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz was a renaissance woman from 17th century Mexico. Born an illegitimate daughter of a Spanish Captain and a Criolla mother, Juana went on to become a scholar, nun, theologian, and poet. At age 46 she died after tending to her sick sisters after the plague arrived in Mexico City in 1695. On this episode of Prayer amid Pandemic, Joel Morales Cruz, the Histories of the Latin America Church and a contributor to Christian History’s issue on Latin American Christianity,...

Perpetua was a noblewoman from Carthage who had a guaranteed life of comfort ahead of her. Born in the late 100’s, she lived with her husband, her son, and her slave. Then she converted to Christianity, a decision that changed everything. On this episode of Prayer amid Pandemic, Megan DeVore, associate professor of church history and early Christian studies at Colorado Christian University, shares about how Perpetua’s brother’s death left an impression on the saint, what strengthened her...

Philomena Percival has counseled and cared for hundreds of AIDS patients in Guyana for more than 25 years. She joins Prayer amid Pandemic to discuss how an ectopic pregnancy led her to care for those afflicted by AIDS, how witnessing this suffering up close changed her faith, and why Christians should spend more time with the sick.  This episode’s prayer is from Miguel Castillo, the coaching coordinator for M4 Spain, who resides in Madrid. Read Christianity Today’s latest coronavirus...

The most famous siblings of the early church are likely two brothers, Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, and their sister Macrina. “She was deeply precious to them for her love, her insight, and her wisdom; they even called her “Teacher,” wrote David Hutchings for Christianity Today last year. Macrina ultimately died after a long battle with an unknown illness. Her life and suffering inspired several works by Gregory of Nyssa, including the Life of Macrina and On the Soul and the...

The village of Eyam sits about 30 miles East of Manchester in the UK and according to the 2011 British census, it has less than 1,000 residents. But during the 17th century, this unassuming town was hit by the bubonic plague. In the coming months, it killed dozens of residents. Then, just when town leaders thought the crisis had abated, it struck again. On this episode of Prayer amid Pandemic, Mathew Knell, the program leader and lecturer in historical theology and church history at the...

Much of Catherine of Siena’s life was defined by sickness and plagues. The future saint was born in 1347. The next year, the Black Death began—an epidemic that killed more than 20 million people over the next five years. Despite growing up surrounded by death, Catherine was unafraid. When a plague struck again less than two decades later, the 20-something convinced her followers to stay and serve the sick. Catherine was relentless in her work. According to historian Philip Schaff she “day and...

The man who would become St. Cyprian of Carthage was born in North Africa around 200 A.D. Cyprian did not convert to Christianity until later in his life but became a bishop shortly after his conversion. In his 10 years in office, Cyprian led his church through a period of intense persecution, a devastating plague, and another round of persecution that ultimately ended his life. On this episode of Prayer amid Pandemic, Franklin Norton,a Latin and church history teacher at Covenant School,...

Perhaps no American community is as polemic as the Puritans. One of its biggest personalities was Cotton Mather, a New England minister whose life is largely remembered in connection with the Salem Witch Trials. But another key part of his legacy are his scientific interests, specifically Mather’s response to a smallpox outbreak in his community, one inspired by his slave Onesimus’s life story. On this episode of Prayer amid Pandemic, Jan Stievermann professor the history of Christianity in...

Rebekah Naylor spent more than 35 years serving with the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board's in Bangalore India. She worked as a surgeon and in hospital administration at the Bangalore Baptist Hospital. Naylor pursued her medical studies in the late 1960s and early 1970s. She completed surgical training at Southwestern Medical Center and Parkland Hospital in Dallas Texas where she was the first woman in general surgery. In 2017, Naylor was named the American College...

The future Presbyterian minister Francis Grimké was born in 1850. His father was a slaveholder and his mother was enslaved. While Grimké was still young his father died of the yellow fever epidemic and although his father had tried to preventatively take care of his family before he passed, the death catapulted Grimké and his siblings’ childhoods into hardship and mistreatment. After the Civil War concluded in 1865, an academic mentor helped him relocate to Philadelphia, where Grimké began...

One of the biggest names in 19th-century British preaching was a man named Charles Spurgeon. Spurgeon’s preaching career began in the countryside. Though he was not formally trained, the then-teenage orator’s sermons drew the public’s attention and at the age of 19 he moved to London. “Spurgeon’s language was graphic, emotionally charged, occasionally maudlin and sentimental,” wrote Patricia Stallings Kruppa for Christian History. Though the world knew him for his showmanship, Spurgeon,...

"All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.” That these 17 words were uttered by a woman named Julian of Norwich may be the only thing you know about this 14th-century English saint. Historians don’t necessarily know that much more. We’re not even sure her real name. So why do we remember her? In this episode of Prayer amid Pandemic, Amy Laura Hall, the author of Laughing at the Devil: Seeing the World with Julian of Norwich and a Christian ethics...

No list of the great men of Protestantism is complete without John Calvin. Born in 1507 in Lyon, France, most of us today know Calvin for his theology. But Calvin also spent much of his life in excruciating pain. The Reformer suffered from hemorrhoids, kidney stones, gout, an enlarged spleen, heartburn, indigestion and chronic insomnia, according to the medical journal Hektoen International. Calvin also likely died from tuberculosis. Much of Calvin’s ministry occurred in Geneva, Switzerland,...

Since the 1980s, the AIDS epidemic has had deadly repercussions for millions of Africans. The only two comparable outbreaks: the Spanish Flu of 1918 that killed some 25 million people and the Black Death, which one historian made a strong case killed 50 million people in the 14th century. Cameroon reported its first AIDS case in 1985 and grew exponentially from there. In the first episode of Christianity Today’s Prayer amid Pandemic, Elias Bongmba, the author of Facing a Pandemic: The African...

Prayer amid Pandemic is a podcast to encourage and sharpen the church during this season of coronavirus. Twice a week we’ll give you stories of Christian individuals and communities whose lives and faith were shaped by sickness. We’ll also get an update on the latest on the COVID-19 situation and pray together, hearing from Christians around the world. Rate Prayer amid Pandemic on Apple Podcasts Follow the podcast on Twitter Follow our host on Twitter: Morgan Lee  Prayer amid Pandemic is...