Harriet Bedell

On January 8, the Church remembers Harriet Bedell, Deaconess and Missionary, 1969. This is her biographical sketch from A Great Cloud of Witnesses. 

Harriet Bedell was born in Buffalo, New York, on March 19, 1875.

Inspired by an Episcopal missionary, she enrolled as a student at the

New York Training School for Deaconesses, where she was instructed

in religion, missions, teaching, and hygiene. She then became a

missionary-teacher among the Cheyenne at the Whirlwind Mission in

Oklahoma. In 1916, Bedell was sent to Stevens Village, Alaska, where

she was finally set apart as a deaconess in 1922. She also served as a

teacher and nurse at St. John’s in the Wilderness at Allakaket, just 40

miles south of the Arctic Circle, from which she sometimes traveled

by dogsled to remote villages. During her last years in Alaska, Bedell

opened a boarding school.

In 1932, hearing about the plight of the Seminoles in Florida, Bedell

used her own salary to reopen a mission among the Mikasuki Indians.

There, she worked to revive some of their traditional crafts: dollmaking,

basket-weaving, and intricate patchwork designs. The arts

and crafts store that they established to sell their handicrafts improved

the economy of the Blades Cross Mission. Though officially forced

to retire at age 63, Bedell continued her ministry of health care,

education, and economic empowerment until 1960 when Hurricane

Donna wiped out her mission.

Active into her eighties, Deaconess Bedell drove an average of 20,000

miles per year during her ministry. She was one of the most popular

writers in the national Episcopal mission periodical, The Spirit of

Missions. Bedell won the respect of indigenous people through her

compassion and respect for their way of life and beliefs. While active

in ministry among the Cheyenne, she was eventually adopted into the

tribe and given the name “Bird Woman.” The Diocese of Southwest

Florida has long celebrated Harriet Bedell Day on January 8, the

anniversary of her death in 1969.

This is the collect for her day.

Holy God, you chose your faithful servant Harriett

Bedell to exercise the ministry of deaconess and to

be a missionary among indigenous peoples: Fill us

with compassion and respect for all people, and

empower us for the work of ministry throughout

the world; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives

and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,

for ever and ever. Amen.