This week in Christian history: First St. Patrick’s Day parade in the US, George Mackay born, Alfred Edersheim dies
George Leslie Mackay born – March 21, 1844
This week marks the anniversary of when George Leslie Mackay, a Canadian Presbyterian missionary to what is now Taiwan, was born in the Township of Zorra, Oxford County, Ontario.
One of six children, Mackay studied at Princeton College of Theology in New Jersey and Scottish Edinburgh University Seminary before being ordained by The Presbyterian Church in Canada in 1871.
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Mackay established a mission in Tamsui, Taiwan in 1872, and would go on to found around 60 churches, multiple schools, and a hospital as part of his evangelism efforts in the Asian island.
“Mackay ministered to the bodies of the people to whom he preached as well as to their souls. He became an expert in extracting diseased teeth, which gained him much favor with Chinese and aborigines of all classes,” stated the Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity.
“[Mackay] asked the Foreign Missions Board to send a qualified physician to assist in the work. The Rev. J.B. Fraser, M.D., arrived in January of 1875, but had to return to Canada in 1877 after the death of his wife. Others were sent over the years, however, leading to the establishment of a strong medical component to the Presbyterian mission in North Formosa.”
