Susan Knapp of Japan

20 November

Susan Trevor Knapp, deaconess and missionary to Japan, died in Los Angeles about 20 November 1941.

Susan Trevor Knapp was born in 1862. She graduated from the New York Training School for Deaconesses in 1894 and was consecrated deaconess at Grace Church, New York, in 1899 by Bishop Henry Potter. In 1903 she was made dean of the school commonly called St. Faith’s. She was a leader in both the American and worldwide deaconess movement. Because of a power struggle with the board of directors, Knapp was removed as dean in 1916 and offered the position of house mother. She declined and spent the next twenty-two years as a missionary in Japan, teaching English and Bible studies to Japanese and Korean college students. She returned to the United States in 1939 when Japan began to expel foreign missioners. She died in Los Angeles about 20 November 1941, shortly before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. [research of Deacon Geri Swanson]

Murder capital of the world

Murdered in the New Orleans metro area this week:

11/12/09 Brandon Cotton 18 M Shot Orleans
11/14/09 Alex Soler 33 M Shot Orleans

Please pray for the victims, their families, and their murderers.

Faustus of Alexandria

19 November

Faustus, deacon and martyr of Alexandria in Egypt, killed 4th c. Faustus was the companion in exile of bishop Dionysius of Alexandria. He was killed in extreme old age.

Romanos of Caesarea

18 November

Romanos of Caesarea, deacon and martyr, killed at Antioch in Syria in 303 or 304.

At the beginning of the Diocletian persecution, a deacon called Romanos of Caesarea in Palestine suffered martyrdom at Antioch. On the proclamation of Diocletian’s edict, Romanos strengthened the Christians of Antioch and openly exhorted the weaker brothers and sisters, who were willing to offer heathen sacrifices, not to waver in the faith. He was taken prisoner, condemned to death by fire, and bound to the stake; however, as the Emperor Galerius was then in Antioch, Romanos was brought before him. At the emperor’s command his tongue was cut out. Tortured in various ways in prison, he was finally strangled.

Eusebius speaks of his martyrdom in De martyribus Palestin, c. ii. Prudentius (in Peristephanon, X in PL, LX, 444 sq.) relates other details and gives Romanos a companion in martyrdom, a Christian named Barulas. Several historians, among them Baronius, consider that there were two martyrs named Romanos at Antioch, though more likely there was but the one whom Eusebius mentions. Prudentius introduced legendary features into his account, and his connection of the martyrdom of Barulas with that of Romanos is probably arbitrary.

Eugene of Florence

17 November

Eugene, deacon at Florence under Zenobius, and a disciple of Ambrose of Milan, died in 422.

Zachaeus of Caesarea

17 November

Zachaeus, deacon and martyr, with Alpheus, beheaded at Caesarea in Palestine in 303. In the first year of Diocletian’s persecution, Zachaeus and Alpheus received capital punishment after having undergone many tortures.

Abidus of Edessa

15 November

Abidus, deacon and martyr of Edessa in Syria (modern Urfa in Turkey), killed by burning in 322.