Pliny Fisk
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Pliny Fisk (born in Shelburne, Massachusetts, 24 June 1792; died in Beirut, Syria, 23 October 1825) was an American Congregationalist missionary to Europe and the Middle East.
Biography
[edit]He graduated from Middlebury College in 1814, and from Andover Theological Seminary in 1818.[1] He was appointed, with Levi Parsons, by the American Board, to the Palestine mission in 1818, and sailed from Boston for Smyrna, 3 November 1819.[2] They served together until Parsons’ death in Alexandria in 1822.[3]
Fisk travelled extensively in Greece, Egypt, Palestine, and Syria all then parts of the Ottoman Empire.[2] During the course of his work, he served alongside Jonas King, William Goodell and Isaac Bird.[1][2] In May 1825 he joined a mission already established in Beirut. He died there of fever in the following October.
His niece, Fidelia Fisk, was also a noted missionary.[4]
Abolitionist Photius Fisk met Pliny when he was a missionary in Malta in 1822. Photius modeled his life after Pliny and legally changed his name from Kavasales to Fisk by an act of Congress in 1848. Photius Fisk was a teenager when he met Pliny and dedicated his life to the service of the poor and destitute.[5] Pliny also helped another Greek American travel to the United States by securing his passage to the country. Pliny was very impressed by Gregory Anthony Perdicaris. Perdicaris met Fisk while he was briefly in Jerusalem the young Perdicaris spoke five languages. Perdicaris later became the first American consul to Greece and he was also one of the richest Greek Americans in U.S. history.[6]
Work
[edit]Fisk's ability to preach in Italian, French, Greek, and Arabic eminently fitted him to be a missionary. On the day of his death he completed an “English and Arabic Dictionary.” He wrote numerous papers for the Missionary Herald.
References
[edit]- 1 2 "Fisk, Pliny (1792-1825): Pioneer of the Near East mission of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM)". Boston University. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
- 1 2 3 "Fifty-three years in Syria: The Seven Pioneers of Syria Mission Work". Arabic Bible Outreach Ministry. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
- ↑ "Levi Parsons". Middlebury College. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
- ↑ "Fiske, Fidelia (1816-1864): First single woman missionary in Persia and founder of the Nestorian Female Seminary". Boston University. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
- ↑ Hodge, Lyman F. (1891). Photius Fisk A Biography. Boston, Mass: Lyman F. Hodge. p. 46.
- ↑ "More Greek Youth" (PDF). Connecticut Courant Vol. 62 No. 3207. Digital Academic Archive. July 10, 1826. Retrieved June 9, 2021.
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1900. This work in turn cites a life of Pliny Fisk by Alvin Bond (Boston, 1828).
- . Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.
External links
[edit]
- Alvan Bond (1828). Memoir of the Rev. Pliny Fisk, A.M., late missionary to Palestine. Boston: Crocker and Brewster.
- Pliny Fisk (1823). Pliny Fisk journal, 1821-1823. Internet Archive.
- Pliny Fisk (1824). Pliny Fisk journal, 1823-1824. Internet Archive.
- Memoir of Rev. Levi Parsons: first missionary to Palestine from the United States, 1830 (online copy)
- 1792 births
- 1825 deaths
- Middlebury College alumni
- American Congregationalist missionaries
- Congregationalist missionaries in Europe
- Congregationalist missionaries in Asia
- Protestant missionaries in Greece
- Protestant missionaries in Egypt
- American expatriates in Egypt
- Protestant missionaries in Palestine (region)
- Congregationalist missionaries in Syria
- Protestant missionaries in Lebanon
- People from Shelburne, Massachusetts
- American expatriates in the Ottoman Empire
- Abolitionists from Massachusetts
- Multilingual writers
- Lexicographers of Arabic
- American lexicographers