Friday, July 25, 2008

Martyrs of Memphis

I found this when I was looking for something else in Flickr today. Apparently, they were martyred by yellow fever. Is that possible?

Just thought it was interesting, click through on the picture for the full story.

1 comment:

Lynnster said...

Yup, yup. As a cradle Episcopalian and native Tennesseean, I have heard the story of the Martyrs since birth practically. Of course, you know, being martyred in the Anglican Church is not quite the same as being martyred in the Catholic Church, but yeah. During that worst of the epidemics, they pretty much singlehandedly cared for the yellow fever victims in the city until they died themselves and if it hadn't been for St. Mary's opening up to the sick, many more would have died (or died sooner), I'm sure.

Martyrs Park downtown is one of the nicer parks and has one of the most interesting memorials in the city (my opinion anyway).

"The yellow fever was eradicated in the 1880's by a new sewage system (the first of its kind anywhere) and the discovery of an artesian water supply restored health to Memphians. Memphis remains famous for its pure water to this day."