Latter Day Saint martyrs
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Latter Day Saint martyrs are persons who belonged to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) or another church within the Latter Day Saint movement who were killed or otherwise persecuted to the point of premature death on account of their religious beliefs, or while performing their religious duties.
Although the term "martyr" is not frequently used in Latter Day Saint terminology[citation needed], Latter Day Saints recognize a number of prophets, apostles, and other religious persons as recorded in the Bible, including both the Old Testament and New Testament, and Book of Mormon as martyrs within the same religious tradition (albeit at an earlier time) to which they subscribe.[1] For Latter Day Saints, the most notable martyr is Jesus Christ. Other scriptural examples include Abel ("the first martyr"),[2] John the Baptist, James, the brother of John, Stephen whose stoning is recorded in the Book of Acts, Abinadi,[3] women and children of Ammonihah,[4] etc.[5] Latter Day Saints also acknowledge as "Early-day Saint" martyrs those early Christians who were killed for their faith prior to or as a result of the Great Apostasy.
The most notable post-Biblical Latter Day Saint martyrs are Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum Smith.[6]
Individuals who die "in the Lord's service" are believed to be rewarded with eternal life: "And whoso layeth down his life in my cause, for my name's sake, shall find it again, even life eternal."[7] Joseph F. Smith, LDS Church president, declared: "I beheld that the faithful elders of this dispensation, when they depart from mortal life, continue their labors in the preaching of the gospel ... in the great world of the spirits."[8]
In 1989, following the death of two LDS Church missionaries in Bolivia, apostle L. Tom Perry noted that from 1831 until 1989, "only seventeen LDS missionaries [were] killed by assassins." Also at that time, apostle M. Russell Ballard "indicated that of the 447,969 missionaries who have served since the days of Joseph Smith, only 525—about one-tenth of 1 percent—have lost their lives through accident, illness, or other causes while serving. 'When you contemplate that number,' he said, 'it appears that the safest place to be in the whole world is on a full-time mission.'"[9]
Missionaries who died from illness or accident are not listed. However, depending on the circumstances of their death, they could be deemed "martyrs" for having died while in religious service.[10][11][12][13][14]
Many Mormon pioneers and other early church members who suffered privation and early death on account of their religious beliefs would likely qualify as "martyrs." However, they are too numerous to list here. This list also does not include early Mormon settlers who were killed in encounters with Native Americans during the Mormon settlement of the American West.
List of Latter Day Saint martyrs
| Death date | Location | Name | Church | Cause of death | Age at death |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 7, 1832 | Pomfret, Vermont | Joseph B. Brackenbury (missionary) | Church of Christ | Poisoning | 43 |
| November 5, 1833 | Battle near the Blue, Jackson, Missouri | Andrew Barber | Shot in battle [November 4] by Robert Patten - died the next day[15] | 17 | |
| October 25, 1838 | Battle of Crooked River, Missouri | Gideon Carter | Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints | Killed in battle | |
| Patrick O'Banion | Killed in battle by John Lockhart | ||||
| David W. Patten (apostle)[16] | Killed in battle | 39 | |||
| December 1838 | Haun's Mill, Missouri | Hiram Abbott | Massacre; died in December 1838 from wounds[17][18][19][20][21] | 25 | |
| October 30, 1838 | Elias Benner Sr. | Massacre[22][19][20][21] | 43 | ||
| John Byers | Massacre[23][19][20] | ||||
| Alexander Campbell | Massacre[24][19][20][21] | ||||
| October 31, 1838 | Simon Cox | Massacre; mortally wounded and lived until the next morning[17][25][19][20][21] | |||
| October 30, 1838 | Josiah Fuller | Massacre[17][26][19][20][21] | 35 | ||
| Austin Hammer Sr. | Massacre[17][27][19][20][21] | 34 | |||
| John Lee | Massacre[17][28][29] | ||||
| Benjamin Franklin Lewis | Massacre; shot by Mr. Rockholt, lived a few hours[17][30][19][20][21] | 35 | |||
| Thomas White McBride (justice of the peace) | Massacre; shot in chest by Jacob Rogers with his own gun; head and body hacked with a corn knife[17][31][19][20][21][32][33][34] | 62[35] | |||
| November 1838 | Charles Merrick (from Kirtland Camp) | Massacre; died 25 November 1838 from wounds[17][36][19][20][21] | 9 | ||
| October 30, 1838 | Levi Newton Merrick (from Kirtland Camp) | Massacre[17][37][19][20][21] | 30 | ||
| William Napier Sr. | Massacre[38][20][21][39] | 43 | |||
| George Spencer Richards (from Kirtland Camp) | Massacre[17][24][19][20][21] | 15 | |||
| Sardius Washington Smith (from Kirtland Camp) | Massacre; top of skull blown off from musket shot by William Reynolds[17][40][19][20][21][33] | 10 | |||
| Warren Smith (from Kirtland Camp) | Massacre[17][41][19][20][21][33] | 44 | |||
| October 31, 1838 | John York Jr. | Massacre; mortally wounded and died the next day[17][42][19][20][21] | 62 | ||
| May 27, 1840 | Nauvoo, Illinois | Edward Partridge (bishop) | Persecution[43] | 46 | |
| August 20, 1840 | Marietta Carter Holmes | Mob attack in her home[44][45]
Note, it is disputed if a mob attack even occurred for Joseph Johnston claims there are no national news articles at the time, as was done for violence perpetrated against Mormons in 1840. Additionally, John Smith, uncle of the prophet, listed her cause of death as disease.[46] |
20 | ||
| June 27, 1844 | Carthage Jail, Illinois | Joseph Smith, Jr. | Mob assassination | 38 | |
| Hyrum Smith | 44 | ||||
| July 30, 1844 | Nauvoo, Illinois | Samuel Harrison Smith (one of Eight Witnesses) | Attributed to internal injuries sustained while fleeing a mob on horseback on the day his brothers were murdered[47][48] | 36 | |
| November 15, 1845 | Hancock County, Illinois | Edmund Durfee | LDS Church | shot in the back by arsonists | 57 |
| July 9, 1856 | St. James Township, Beaver Island, Michigan | James Strang (president of the church) | Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite) | Shot on June 16, 1856 by Thomas Bedford, a member who Strang had had flogged for adultery; Strang died in Voree, Wisconsin | 43 |
| May 13, 1857 | near Van Buren, Arkansas | Parley P. Pratt (apostle) | LDS Church | Shot and stabbed by Hector McLean, the ex-husband of one of Pratt's plural wives | 50 |
| July 21, 1879 | Varnell, Georgia | Joseph Standing (missionary) | Mob murder | 24 | |
| August 10, 1884 | Cane Creek, Tennessee | William S. Berry (missionary) | Mob assassination | 46 | |
| John H. Gibbs (missionary) | 32 | ||||
| W. Martin Conder | 20 | ||||
| John Riley Hutson | 27 | ||||
| May 1898 | Sanderson, Florida | George P. Canova | Shot and killed | ||
| May 4, 1912 | Diaz, Galeana, Chihuahua, Mexico | James D. Harvey | 49 | ||
| August 27, 1912 | Colonia Pacheco, Mexico | Joshua Stevens | Killed by Mexican rebels | ||
| 1915 | San Marcos, Hidalgo, Mexico | Rafael Monroy (branch president)[49] | Execution by Liberation Army of the South | ||
| Vicente Morales[49] | |||||
| August 20, 1972 | Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico | Joel LeBaron (president of the church) | Church of the Firstborn of the Fulness of Times | Shot and killed by Daniel Jordan on the orders of Ervil LeBaron, Joel's brother and a rival fundamentalist Mormon leader | 49 |
| October 1974 | Austin, Texas | Gary Darley (missionary) | LDS Church | Murder by an unidentified individual (Robert Elmer Kleason was convicted for the crime but his conviction was later overturned); presumably dismembered with chainsaw[50] | 20 |
| Mark Fischer (missionary) | 19 | ||||
| May 10, 1977 | Murray, Utah | Rulon C. Allred (head of church) | Apostolic United Brethren | Shot and killed by Rena Chynoweth and another woman on orders of Ervil LeBaron, a rival fundamentalist Mormon | 71 |
| December 15, 1979 | North Charleston, South Carolina | Elizabeth King (missionary) | LDS Church | Found beaten and shot to death in a car in a parking lot | 66 |
| Ruth Teuscher (missionary) | 65 | ||||
| February 1987 | Lisbon, Portugal | Roger Hunt (missionary) | Shot and killed by a security guard who thought he had stolen a car | 19 | |
| May 24, 1989 | La Paz, Bolivia | Todd Ray Wilson (missionary)[9][51] | Assassination in terrorist attack by Zarate Willka Armed Forces of Liberation | 20 | |
| Jeffrey Brent Ball (missionary)[9][51] | 20 | ||||
| May 27, 1990 | Dublin, Ireland | Gale Stanley Critchfield (missionary) | Stabbed to death | 20 | |
| August 22, 1990 | Huancayo, Peru | Manuel Antonio Hidalgo (missionary) | Assassination in terrorist attack by Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement | 22 | |
| Cristian Andreani Ugarte (missionary) | 21 | ||||
| March 6, 1991 | Tarma, Peru | Oscar Zapata (missionary) | Shot and killed after getting off a bus | 20 | |
| October 17, 1998 | Ufa, Russia | José Manuel Mackintosh (missionary) | Stabbed outside the lobby of a building where he and his companion had been visiting Church members | 21 | |
| April 24, 1999 | Abidjan, Ivory Coast | Jonathan Philip Barrett (missionary) | Stabbed while walking to a teaching appointment. | 19 | |
| January 2, 2006 | Chesapeake, Virginia | Morgan W. Young (missionary)[52] | Fatal shooting | 23 | |
| August 29, 2010 | Visalia, California | Clay R. Sannar (bishop)[53] | Killed by an ex-member of the church while performing his duties as bishop. | 40 | |
