Mary Lyon was born in South Hadley, Massachusetts. After years as a scholar and educator, she opened Mount Holyoke in 1837 as the United States' first college exclusively for women. Her students were encouraged to train for missionary work.
John Knox was born at Giffordgate, Scotland. In 1536 he was ordained as a Catholic priest, but five years later he experienced a conversion through the preaching of George Wishart, a Scot who had spent some time in Switzerland, and returned to his native land to preach the Gospel. (Wishart was burned at the stake as a heretic in 1546). Life was never easy for Knox, and made him a stern man. At one time he was a "slave" sentenced to row in a French galley. But he was always a leader, often with more power than the throne. His vision brought revival to his native land and firmly established the Presbyterian Church.
Wilfred Grenfell was born in Cheshire, England. Converted to the Christian faith in one of D. L. Moody's evangelistic services in 1885, Grenfell became a medical missionary, and undertook his famous work as missionary and physician first among the North Sea fishermen and then among the fisherfolk of Labrador and Newfoundland in 1892. He was noted for his immense gusto.
