The history of Christianity in the world’s largest country can’t be told without acknowledging the female evangelists and pastors who built its church.
Renée of Ferrara sheltered Protestant refugees, wrote bold letters to Calvin and other reformers, and courted the wrath of her own family. But restrictions on women's roles prevented her from having a wider influence.
May 16, 583 (traditional date): Brendan the Navigator, founder of a Celtic monastery in Clonfert, Ireland, dies. Some Irish scholars have asserted that Brendan was among the first Europeans to reach America, nine centuries before Columbus (see issue 60: How the Irish Were Saved).
May 16, 1805: Henry Martyn, a well-educated Englishman, arrives in India to aid William Carey with translation work (see issue 36: William Carey).
