This week in Christian history: YMCA founded; Mary Dyer executed; Thomas Becket consecrated

By Michael Gryboski, Editor Sunday, June 01, 2025

Mary Dyer executed – June 1, 1660

An early 20th century depiction of Mary Dyer (1611-1660) being led to her execution in Boston, Massachusetts on June 1, 1660 for violating the colony's ban on Quakers. | Wikimedia Commons

This week marks the anniversary of when Mary Dyer, an English Puritan turned Quaker preacher, was hanged in Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony, for defying a ban on Quakerism.

Dyer had previously been banished from Massachusetts by the Puritan leadership for siding with accused heretic Anne Hutchinson, who had taught that God spoke to people directly rather than just through clergy.

She joined the Religious Society of Friends in the 1650s while in England and then returned to colonial New England to preach Quakerism in defiance of laws prohibiting the group.

Dyer returned to Massachusetts in 1660 and was arrested for preaching Quaker beliefs in public. On May 31 of that year, she was found guilty and was executed the next day in Boston Common.

Reportedly, her last words were, "Nay, I came to keep blood-guiltiness from you, desiring you to repeal the unrighteous and unjust law made against the innocent servants of the Lord. Nay, man, I am not now to repent."

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