This week in Christian history: Billy Graham born; Pliny Fisk sets sail for the Middle East

Pliny Fisk leaves for Middle East – Nov. 3, 1819

This week marks the anniversary of when Pliny Fisk, an American-born missionary best known for his evangelism work in the Middle East, set sail for the Turkish city of Smyrna.

A founding member of the Christian group Palestine Mission, Fisk was ordained in 1818 at the age of 26 but did not leave the United States for the mission field until the following year.

Fisk set sail with a colleague from Boston, Massachusetts, arriving in the Ottoman Empire the following January. Fisk then traveled to Beirut, where he helped to distribute Bibles and engaged in translation work despite opposition from various religious groups.

"Catholics in the area instigated the Muslims to buy and burn all copies. Opposition peaked when a Muslim magistrate arrested Fisk and Isaac Bird for dealing in the unlawful books in 1824," noted the Christian History Institute.  

"Fisk lived to see only one convert — who was soon martyred. He did manage to nearly complete an Arab-English dictionary. Contracting a fever, the missionary wrote in one of his last letters: 'The history of my life has been a history of mercies, and — of sins! My only hope is in the unmerited mercy of Christ.' He died in October 1825, just thirty-three."