Modern Times
1697: Thomas Aikenhead - a medical student, executed for dening the Holy Trinity, an offence under England's Blasphemy Act 1697. On the morning of January 8, 1697, Thomas wrote to his 'friends' that "it is a principle innate and co-natural to every man to have an insatiable inclination to the truth, and to seek for it as for hid treasure. . . So I proceeded until the more I thought thereon, the further I was from finding the verity I desired. . ." Aikenhead may have read this letter outside the Tolbooth, before making the long walk, under guard, to the gallows. He was said to have died Bible in hand, "with all the Marks of a true Penitent".
1942: Norbert Capek – preached religious freedom (including Unitarianism). Was sent to the Dachau concentration camp, and later gassed to death at Hartheim Castle. Founder of the Czech Unitarian Church, and author of many hymns in Czech. Mother Spirit, Father Spirit and View the Starry Realm are both in Singing the Living Tradition, published by the Unitarian Universalist Association.
1965: Viola Liuzzo was a 39-year-old white mother and a civil rights worker from Detroit who came to Alabama to help with voter registration. She was murdered March 25, 1965 en route to a civil rights meeting.
1965: James Reeb clubbed in Selma, Alabama, after responding to a call by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. for a second Selma–to–Montgomery–march. Selma's public hospital refused to treat the Rev. Reeb, who was taken to University Hospital in Birmingham, two hours away. Reeb died on Thursday, March 11, with his wife by his side. His death inspired thousands to join King in the successful third march to Montgomery.
1988: Toribio Quimada, founder of the UU Church of the Philippines, shot on Negros Island by unknown assailants believed to have been responding to his social justice ministry. While Rev. Quimada is listed as a Unitarian martyr, his theology was clearly Universalist, rather than Unitarian. His church was founded with Universalist beliefs, but became Unitarian Universalist about the same time (1961) that the Unitarian and Universalist denominations in the United States merged. The church remains affiliated with the denomination in the United States.
2008 Greg McKendry and Linda Kreager, members of Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Read more about this topic: Unitarian Martyrs
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