List of Christian missionaries

The following are notable Christian missionaries:

Early Christian missionaries
These are missionaries who predate the Second Council of Nicaea so it may be claimed by both Catholic and Orthodoxy or belonging to early Christian groups.


 * Alopen – first missionary to China (Nestorian)
 * Apollos
 * Augustine of Canterbury – missionary to England
 * Saint Barnabas
 * Saint Boniface – influential in the conversion of German peoples


 * Columba – early missionary to Scotland
 * Denis – early missionary to France
 * Frumentius – early missionary to Ethiopia
 * Saint Kilian – Irish missionary killed in Franconia
 * Mark the Evangelist
 * Luke the Evangelist
 * Pantaenus – early missionary to India
 * Saint Patrick – early missionary to Ireland
 * Saint Paul
 * Twelve Apostles – all of the twelve are considered missionaries
 * Ulfilas – missionary to the Goths

Anglican

 * Geoffrey Bingham – missionary in Pakistan
 * James Blair – Scottish-born American clergyman in the Virginia Colony, founder of the College of William & Mary
 * William Duncan – worked with the Tsimshians
 * James Hannington – saint in Anglicanism who was killed in Uganda
 * Richard Johnson – first Christian cleric in Australia
 * Francis Le Jau, missionary to South Carolina
 * Samuel Lyde – missionary to the Alawites of Syria
 * Robert Machray – clergyman and missionary and first Primate of the Church of England in Canada
 * Samuel Marsden – missionary to Australia
 * Henry Martyn – missionary to India
 * William Mitchell – missionary to India
 * Charles Pearson – pioneer of the Church of Uganda
 * Henry Townsend – missionary in West Africa
 * Cecil Tyndale-Biscoe – missionary in Kashmir
 * John Wesley – missionary/evangelist in Europe and America
 * Walter Weston – missionary to Japan, popularized the term "Japanese Alps"
 * George Whitefield – missionary/evangelist to the colonial United States
 * John Burdett Wittenoom – missionary to Australia
 * Charles Stewart Thompson – missionary to India

Baptist

 * Ellen Arnold – Australian Missionary
 * Gladys Aylward – Missionary in China and Taiwan
 * Anne Luther Bagby – Southern Baptist missionary to Brazil
 * Lauran Bethell – missionary to Thailand and Eastern Europe
 * Joseph Booth – missionary to what is now Malawi
 * William Carey (missionary) – Missionary in India Founder of the baptist missionary society
 * Chow Leung – Missionary to Chicago Chinatown
 * William Goldsack
 * Adoniram Judson – American missionary to Burma whose conversion to Baptist beliefs en route to the mission field led to the founding of the first Baptist association in the U.S.
 * Ann Hasseltine Judson – wife of Adoniram Judson and missionary in Burma. Translated portions of the Bible into Burmese
 * George Liele – first American missionary; served in Jamaica
 * Eleanor Macomber – American missionary to Burma
 * Daniel Sharpe Malekebu – Malawian missionary who served in Malawi
 * Isaac McCoy – missionary to the American Indians
 * Lottie Moon – Southern Baptist missionary to China
 * Hopestill Pillow – New Zealand female missionary to India in the 19th century, member of the Zenana Missions
 * Anna Seward Pruitt – part of the "missionary generation" in America, Southern Baptist missionary who worked with Lottie Moon in North China
 * Cicero Washington Pruitt – Southern Baptist missionary to North China
 * Issachar Jacox Roberts – Baptist missionary who, at first unintentionally, inspired Hong Xiuquan
 * William Ward (missionary) – Missionary and printer in India

Plymouth Brethren

 * Jim Elliot – missionary to Ecuador
 * Anthony Norris Groves
 * George Müller – preached in various countries

Congregationalists

 * William Scott Ament – controversial missionary to China
 * Thomas J. Arnold Missionary in China during the Qing dynasty
 * David Bogue – missionary to India, convert from the Church of Scotland
 * Samuel Dyer – 19th-century China
 * William Ellis – missionary to the South Pacific and an author
 * Cynthia Farrar – missionary to India, 1827–1862
 * Cyrus Hamlin – American missionary in Turkey
 * Griffith John Missionary in China and companion of Jonathan Goforth
 * Mary Greenleaf Clement Leavitt - first world missionary for Woman's Christian Temperance Union
 * David Livingstone – missionary and explorer in Africa
 * Walter Henry Medhurst – revised versions of the Bible for his mission in China
 * Luella Miner - missionary in China, 1887 to 1935
 * Robert Moffat – Scottish missionary to Africa
 * Peter Parker – missionary and doctor in 19th-century China
 * Ellen M. Stone - missionary, teacher, author remembered for the Miss Stone Affair
 * Arthur Henderson Smith – missionary and author, more than 50 years in China
 * Betsey Stockton – missionary to Hawaii; a freed slave who was one of the first American single women to go on a foreign mission
 * Lancelot Threlkeld – linguist and missionary linked to the Lake Macquarie mission
 * Mary E. Van Lennep – missionary to Smyrna and Constantinople
 * Charlotte White - missionary to India, 1816-1826
 * John Williams – congregationalist in the South Pacific

Methodist

 * Young John Allen – missionary in Qing China
 * Henry Gerhard Appenzeller - American Methodist missionary to Korea
 * Francis Burns – missionary to Liberia
 * Thomas Coke
 * Thomas Birch Freeman – Anglo-African missionary and colonial official in West Africa
 * Francis Dunlap Gamewell – chief of fortifications, Boxer Rebellion, China
 * Mary Ninde Gamewell – American missionary in China; writer
 * Mary Porter Gamewell – American missionary in China
 * George Richmond Grose – missionary to China
 * Joseph Crane Hartzell – missionary work in Africa
 * Gertrude Howe – American teaching missionary in China
 * William Hughlett – medical missionary to Africa
 * E. Stanley Jones – missionary to India
 * Walter Russell Lambuth – established missionary schools and hospitals in East Asia
 * Mary Ann Lyth – English missionary, translator, teacher
 * J. P. Martin – children's book writer and missionary in Africa
 * Pilipo Miriye – missionary to Nigeria
 * Sioeli Nau – missionary work in Fiji and Tonga
 * Samson Oppong – Ghanaian prophet-preacher
 * Mary Reed – missionary to India
 * Dorothy Ripley – missionary to the United States
 * Samuel Evans Rowe – missionary work in Africa
 * Isaiah Benjamin Scott – African-American missionary to Liberia
 * William B. Scranton - American Methodist missionary to Korea
 * William Taylor (missionary) – Reverend who became Bishop in Africa during the latter half of the 19th century

Moravian

 * Johann Leonhard Dober Missionary in St. Thomas in the Caribbean
 * Alexander Worthy Clerk – Jamaican Moravian missionary to the Gold Coast, now Ghana
 * Christian David – Moravian missionary in Greenland, Livland and Pennsylvania
 * Anna Rosina Gambold – Moravian missionary in Georgia; diarist
 * Rose Ann Miller – Jamaican Moravian educator and missionary to the Gold Coast, now Ghana
 * Catherine Mulgrave – Angolan-Jamaican educator and missionary to the Gold Coast, now Ghana
 * Anna Nitschmann – Moravian missionary
 * David Nitschmann der Bischof – Moravian bishop and missionary in Pennsylvania
 * Christian Jacob Protten – Gold Coast educator and missionary
 * Rebecca Protten – Caribbean Moravian evangelist and missionary to the Gold Coast
 * August Gottlieb Spangenberg – head of the Moravian Church in America in its early days
 * David Zeisberger – Moravian missionary known for his role in the history of the Christian Munsee
 * Nicolaus Zinzendorf – Founder of the Moravian church

Presbyterian

 * Susan Law McBeth – Presbyterian missionary to American Indians and author
 * Horace Grant Underwood – first Protestant missionary to Korea
 * Samuel Austin Moffett - American missionary to Korea and founder of Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pyongyang
 * Samuel H. Moffett - American missionary to Korea and faculty at Princeton Theological Seminary
 * Lloyd Kim - American missionary to Cambodia and the coordinator of Mission to the World
 * Harvie M. Conn - American missionary to Korea and a missiologist
 * John Livingston Nevius - American missionary in China who advocated the Nevius Principle
 * Ralph D. Winter - American missiologist and founder of the U.S. Center for World Mission
 * Michael Oh - American missionary to Japan and executive director of Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization
 * William Chalmers Burns – missionary to China
 * Nicholas Timothy Clerk – Presbyterian missionary in southeast colonial Ghana
 * Peter Hall – Presbyterian missionary in colonial Ghana
 * William Alderman Linton - American missionary to Korea
 * William D. Reynolds - American missionary to Korea
 * David Earl Ross - American missionary to Korean and founder of Jesus Evangelism Band (YWAM Korea)
 * Hunter Corbett – pioneer American missionary to Yantai, Shandong China and Moderator of the General Assembly 1906
 * Alexander Duff – missionary in India
 * William Montague Ferry - Presbyterian missionary who was stationed on Mackinac Island.
 * John Lawrence Goheen – Presbyterian missionary, administer of Ichalkaranji state of British India
 * William Imbrie – American missionary to Japan
 * Samuel Kirkland – American Revolution figure who did missionary work among the Tuscarora
 * Eric Liddell – Olympic athlete who became a Scottish missionary in China
 * Alexander Murdoch Mackay – Presbyterian missionary to Uganda
 * George Leslie Mackay – among the first modern missionaries to Taiwan
 * James Laidlaw Maxwell – among the first modern missionaries to Taiwan
 * Robert Morrison – first Protestant missionary in China
 * John Gibson Paton – Scottish missionary to "the New Hebrides" (now part of Vanuatu)
 * Francis Young Pressly – American missionary to Punjab, Pakistan 1945–1972
 * Carl Christian Reindorf - Gold Coast historian, minister and missionary
 * Mary Slessor – Scottish Presbyterian missionary in Nigeria
 * Absalom Sydenstricker – Presbyterian missionary to China, father of Pearl S. Buck
 * William James Wanless M.D., F.A.C.S – founded the first missionary medical school in India in 1897
 * Aeneas Francon Williams (Rev) – Church of Scotland minister; missionary in the Eastern Himalayas and China
 * Clara Anne Williams (ne. Rendall) – wife of Rev. Aeneas Francon Williams; Church of Scotland missionary in the Eastern Himalayas
 * Asher Wright – missionary to Native American Seneca people
 * Gladstone Porteous – Australian missionary to China of Scottish descent
 * Donald Fraser – Free Church of Scotland missionary to Malawi
 * Robert Grierson – Canadian missionary to Korea
 * Samuel Cochran – American missionary to China
 * George Ashmore Fitch – American missionary to China and Korea
 * Mary Coombs Greenleaf – American missionary who worked among the Chickasaw Indians

Other Protestant

 * Hedvig Posse – Swedish missionary in South Africa, linguist and hymn writer
 * David Asante – Gold Coast native linguist, educator and missionary
 * Reinhard Bonnke – German charismatic Christian evangelist
 * Paul Brand – missionary surgeon in India
 * John Allen Chau – American Evangelical, killed by the Sentinelese people after he approached the island in hopes of converting them
 * Emilie Christaller – German educator and Basel missionary to the Gold Coast
 * Johann Gottlieb Christaller – German linguist and Basel missionary to the Gold Coast
 * Aril Edvardsen – Norwegian evangelical preacher and missionary
 * Jonathan Edwards
 * Hans Egede – Norwegian Lutheran missionary called "The Apostle of Greenland"
 * John Eliot – Puritan missionary to the American Indians
 * Leung Faat – Chinese convert who did missionary work in Southeast Asia and his homeland
 * Mark Finley – Seventh-day Adventist Church
 * Jason Frenn – contemporary missionary to Latin America
 * Theodore Hamberg – Swedish missionary to China
 * Hermann Herlitz – German pastor and missionary to Australia
 * Regina Hesse – Gold Coast educator and missionary
 * Hermann Gundert – German linguist and Basel missionary to India
 * Robert A. Jaffray – Christian and Missionary Alliance missionary to China
 * James Legge – Sinologist and missionary to China
 * Eugen Liebendörfer – German medical missionary to India
 * William Miller – Second Advent Movement
 * Wayman Mitchell – missionary and founder of Christian Fellowship Ministries
 * Hermann Mögling – German missionary to India
 * Volbrecht Nagel – German missionary to India
 * Ludwig Ingwer Nommensen – Lutheran missionary to Sumatra
 * Torill Selsvold Nyborg – Norwegian Lutheran missionary in Arequipa from 1977 to 1982
 * Theophilus Opoku – Gold Coast native linguist, educator and missionary
 * Jorge Armando Pérez – contemporary missionary to Latin America
 * Susanna Carson Rijnhart – Tibet
 * Fritz Ramseyer – Swiss builder and missionary to the Gold Coast
 * Andreas Riis – Danish minister and Basel missionary to the Gold Coast
 * Helen Roseveare – missionary physician in the Congo
 * Albert Shelton – Disciples of Christ missionary to Tibetans
 * John Smith – West Indies
 * George Peter Thompson – Liberian minister and Basel missionary to the Gold Coast
 * Sarah Lanman Smith – Syria
 * Annie Royle Taylor – China and Tibet
 * Hudson Taylor – missionary in China
 * James Springer White – Seventh-day Adventist Church
 * Rosina Widmann – German educator and Basel missionary to the Gold Coast
 * Johannes Zimmermann – German linguist and Basel missionary to the Gold Coast

Other Christian

 * Heidi Baker – co-founder IRIS ministries
 * Sigurd Bratlie – Brunstad Christian Church
 * William F. P. Burton – missionary pioneering in the Congolian rainforests
 * Stephen Grellet – Quaker missionary
 * Thomas Raymond Kelly – Quaker
 * Alexander Hugh Macmillan – Bible Student and Jehovah's Witness
 * Robert Pierce – founder of World Vision International
 * Ockert Potgieter – South African missionary to Ukraine
 * Erika Sutter – Swiss missionary to South Africa
 * Loren Cunningham – founder of Youth with a Mission (YWAM)