Constance and Her Companions: The Martyrs of Memphis

Constance and her Companions THE MARTYRS OF MEMPHIS, September 9, 1878

“We give you thanks and praise, O God of compassion, for the heroic witness of Constance and her companions, who, in a time of plague and pestilence, were steadfast in caring for the sick and the dying and loved not their own lives, even unto death. Inspire in us a like love and commitment to those in need, following the example of our Savior Jesus Christ, who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, now and forever. Amen.”— “Collect for Constance and her Companions” (Lesser Feasts and Fast) p. 371.

Let’s journey back in time across the Mississippi River to Memphis for a few minutes. It is the summer of 1878, forty years after St. Mary’s Church was founded from Calvary Church and only eight years since St. Mary’s became the Cathedral. It’s the third epidemic of yellow fever, a mosquito-borne hemorrhagic viral infection, to strike our city on the Mississippi River bluff in a decade. Thirty thousand citizens flee in terror. The death toll averages 200 a day. 

The city becomes so depopulated that Memphis loses its charter and will not reorganize for fourteen years. When the epidemic ends, ninety percent of Memphis’s population has contracted yellow fever, and more than 5,000 people have died. Everyone who can afford to do so packs up their bags, leaves the city, and flees away from the river. Later, we will learn that the disease is mosquito-borne and that high, dry conditions are indeed safer.

 At St. Mary’s Cathedral in Memphis, a community of Anglican nuns from New England has lived there for barely five years. They have the opportunity to leave, but they stay despite the high risk of contracting the disease. They remain to nurse the sick and soothe the dying. They are dedicated to prayer, service, and evangelism. We can identify with them and, for today, become one of the sisters. 

Imagine we are now part of the Sisterhood of St. Mary. We arrive in Memphis in 1873 as sisters tasked with establishing a Girls’ School next to St. Mary’s Cathedral. When the epidemic begins, our cathedral dean, George Harris, and Constance, the superior of the Sisters of St. Mary, organize a relief team that includes the sisters, the rectors of Grace Church and Holy Innocents, and three physicians, two of whom are ordained Episcopal priests. 

This team becomes known as the martyrs of Memphis, and we celebrate their lives and ministry today. Unfortunately, most of them, thirty-eight in all, are killed by the fever. Constance, head of the Community of St. Mary, is one of the first to die on September 9, 1878.

A round stone in Elmwood Cemetery marks the joint grave of four martyred sisters and two priests. Each year, the Cathedral holds a virtual pilgrimage to their gravesite to honor their sacrifice to the church and the city.

Whenever we return to this Cathedral of St. Mary’s, we are moved to go up to the beautiful High Altar. It is a memorial to the four Sisters who died. The Cathedral’s High Altar was consecrated on Pentecost in 1879 and bears the inscription “Alleluia Osanna,” Constance’s last words.

  My family and I are indebted to the sisters for their sacrifice. Bishop Gates confirmed my husband and me at the Cathedral in 1968. Dean Dimmick baptized our two sons, Robert and John, there. Indeed, Dean Dimmick, later the bishop of Northern Michigan, modeled the sisters’ ministry by treating his call to prayer, service, and evangelism as a vocation. In 1968, after the death of Martin Luther King, he took the processional cross from St. Mary’s down Poplar Avenue, leading other Memphis clergy to Mayor Loeb’s office to demand rights for sanitation workers. He eventually lost nearly half of his congregation in protest of his actions.

Elizabeth Boggs, transcriber, Project Canterbury, The Sisters of St. Mary at Memphis: with the acts and Suffering of the Priests and Others Who Were There with Them During the Yellow Fever Season of 1878, New York, 1879.

A Great Cloud of Witnesses (Church Publishing 2016).

St. Mary’s Cathedral Website. www.stmarysmemphis.org  

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/

What I Learned From Dr. Taybi: A Life of Gratitude

What I learned from Dr. Taybi: A life of gratitude

“Before I ventured forth,

even while I was very young,

   I sought wisdom openly in my prayer.” Ecclesiasticus 51:13.

As I prayed today for refugees and those seeking to immigrate to our country, I came across a note from Dr. Hooshang Taybi, posted on Daily Something yesterday. Dr. Taybi wrote the letter three weeks before he died, in response to my email after he learned of his terminal illness. 

If you are a radiologist or pediatrician, you will remember Dr. Taybi, best known for studying children with difficulties that become part of a syndrome. He was professionally acclaimed for his encyclopedic memory of more than 100 journals he read, which led to his classic textbook, The Radiology of Syndromes.

But I most remember his kindness, humility, and care for others, empowering others, and never being too important to spend time with you. 

A colleague shares a line from Dr. Taybi’s favorite Persian poem: “The best way to show your gratitude for having a strong arm is to extend a helping hand to the weak.”1

I see the life of a brilliant man who, near the end of his life, still expresses gratitude to those who helped him more than 50 years earlier. Dr. Taybi still empowers us today by telling stories about children with illnesses, recounting how he was empowered and expressing gratitude for all who touched his life, even to the end. I continue to see every day the difference gratitude can make in a person’s life. 

Today, I will try to remember and give thanks to those who empowered me, and pray that I can pass on empowerment and gratitude to others. I also want to remember Dr. Taybi’s story about the many strangers who helped him throughout his life. I hope to do the same for those who come to our country, remembering Dr. Taybi’s story of how he sought a new life. 

I also remember that if a travel ban had been in place for Muslim countries such as Iran, Dr. Taybi would never have come to America. I think of all of us whose lives would not have been touched by his wisdom, especially the children and their parents, who would have missed his medical expertise.

1Ron Cohen, Charles Gooding, “Memorial Hooshang Taybi,” in AJR, 187:1382-1383, 2006.

Joanna   https://www.joannaseibert.com/

A Letter From Dr. Taybi

A Letter from Dr. Taybi

Shortly before he died, I received this letter from this famous pediatric radiologist who taught us about so many developmental problems in children, who had been a refugee from Iran:

Rev. Joanna J. Seibert: 

Dear Joanna (please call me Hoosh):

Thank you very much for your kind email. Your encouragement is most appreciated. I have accepted my illness and have no trouble dealing with the situation, thanks primarily to the support of my loving wife, Alice, and my children.

I am so thankful for all the opportunities I have been given by my mentors, friends, and, many times, strangers in this country. Your kindness and your email bring me back to 1946, when I was a practicing pediatrician in the city of Hamedan in Iran. An American missionary ran a small hospital and clinic, headed by a young American, Dr. Frame. One day, I told him I planned to go to America to get more education. A son of a missionary, he spoke Farsi fluently. I told him I wanted to learn “American.” He taught me a few words in “American” [English]. 

When I left Iran, Mrs. Frame gave me a letter to deliver to her parents, the Andersons. I arrived in New York City in December 1948, just before Christmas, and found my way to the Andersons’ apartment in Manhattan. Mr. Anderson took me to New York University, met with Professor Tobin, the Dean of Students, and enrolled me in an English class. The Andersons were missionaries who had spent many years in South America’s jungles. 

Their kindness did not end there. Many times, they invited me to their home, and I spent the 1949 Christmas there in New Jersey. The Frames moved back to the USA, and Dr. Frame had a practice in New York City.

In 1964, we offered a course in Pediatric Radiology at Indiana University Medical Center. I invited Dr. Frame to come as my guest and attend the course. He could not attend, but in a kind note he wrote: “I see your ‘American’ has much improved,” referring to my use of American instead of English in 1948!! This type of kindness is unforgettable. To the end of my life, I shall remember what they did for a man from another land and another culture. Two of the Anderson photographs from my album are attached.

I greatly appreciate your family's remembering our meeting this old friend. Please extend my regards to them, and I hope we meet again at another SPR gathering.

Hoosh

Joanna  https://www.joannaseibert.com/