Thursday, October 30, 2025

It is the 30th of October 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

A few weeks ago, I was strolling through Geneva- well, leading a tour- but it was lunchtime and I was in the old town where I found a large group of people, just off the church square, taking photos. We were near John Calvin’s church on the Rue Calvin, so I assumed it was something Calvin-related… but it was a gathering for a son of Geneva who, at one point in his life, would have been shocked to hear that he was being remembered, with praise, in his hometown.

He was Henry Dunant, born in 1828 to a merchant and his wife. Born into a Calvinist home, his parents were especially attentive to the downtrodden there in 19th-century Geneva- serving the poor and sick. This would leave an impression on Henry, who —while not a good student —would spend his youth serving in the local church and was influenced by the “reveil” —a revival movement amongst the Swiss Reformed in the early 19th century. He would go on to co-found the YMCA in Geneva. 

He was apprenticed and went to work with the Bank of Geneva. One of his projects involved building a mill in Algeria, which would sell flour to Europe and make him and his investors a good return. He ran into problems with the French administration that ran the colony, and in an effort to smooth the situation, he left to make a personal entreaty to Napoleon III. He would go to Lombardy, where the Emperor was leading his troops in war against the Austrians. It was there that he came across the battlefield at Solferino, where he saw wounded soldiers from both parties- abandoned and left to die, many of whom would have survived with medical attention.

Back home, this pathetic sight was burned into his brain, and he wrote “The Memory of Solferino”- this, in 1862, would do for the battlefield wounded what Uncle Tom’s Cabin did for the awareness of the condition of the enslaved.

The overwhelming support for his vision: a neutral humanitarian party of doctors and other aides to assist the wounded of all parties, and to be given free space to do so under international law, became known as the International Committee of the Red Cross. The symbol would be, appropriately, the inverted Swiss Flag- a red cross on a white background. The following year, he would help to found the Genevan Convention.

Due in part to his work with the Red Cross as well as conditions in Algeria, his business failed, and in 1868, he was found guilty of fraudulent bankruptcy and his reputation- and financial situation- was ruined. On account of this, as well as a rivalry with another member of the ICRC, his name was erased from its history. At the Paris World’s Fair, he was to be honored for his work, but personal rivalry led to his name being taken off the award.

He was destitute and became a wanderer across Europe, eventually settling into the small North Eastern Swiss village of Heiden. It was there, in 1895, that a Swiss reporter, while visiting, heard of a man who had claimed to be the founder of the Red Cross. The article found its way into periodicals, and soon, the once-forgotten founder was being feted. An 1897 book on the History of the Red Cross elevated his status, and he would be awarded a pension from the Empress, a Lutheran turned Orthodox, Maria Feodorovna. 

When the Nobel Peace Prize was first awarded in 1901, it went to Dunant and the French pacifist, Frederick Passy. He would take the award money but would not spend any of it- instead putting it into his will to service organizations. He would not even move from the small village of Heiden- he would eventually live out his last days in a nursing home before dying on this, the 30th of October in 1910. Born in 1828, Henry Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross, was 82 years old.

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and the 1st chapter of 2nd Corinthians:

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 30th of October 2025, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who once met a man wandering in the Swiss hills claiming to be the forgotten founder of an international organization… it wasn’t the same. He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who was a Blue Jay at Brywood Elementary School for a few years… and I had a Canadian Great Grandfather… so, those are my reasons… Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.