Mary Reed
Missionary to the Lepers of Chandag
Mary Reed went from an Ohio schoolroom to missionary work in north India, until failing health sent her home. Resting in America, she learned the strange numbness in her finger and the spot on her cheek were leprosy — and took it not as a sentence but as a calling to the leprosy sufferers of the Himalayan hills. She returned to India and spent the rest of her life leading the leper asylum at Chandag.
- First served in India as a teacher (at Gonda and in the Pithoragarh hills) before illness forced her home. reed-missionary-to-lepers p.18
- Took charge of the asylum for lepers at Chandag, high in the Himalayas, and devoted her life to its patients. reed-missionary-to-lepers p.33
- Served with the Mission to Lepers in India, continuing to work among sufferers after her own diagnosis. reed-missionary-to-lepers p.30
- 1890Returned to America in failing health after years of mission work in north India. reed-missionary-to-lepers p.18
- 1890While resting in Cincinnati, learned her illness was leprosy — and resolved that the Himalayan sufferers would be her flock. reed-missionary-to-lepers p.19
- 1891Linked with the Mission to Lepers in India to take up work among leprosy patients. reed-missionary-to-lepers p.30
- 1892Took charge of the leper asylum at Chandag. reed-missionary-to-lepers p.33
Reed became a widely told emblem of self-giving — a missionary who, herself a leper, chose to live among lepers — and her Chandag work helped fix attention on leprosy care in the Himalayan hills.
- Chandag Leper Asylum — Chandag, Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand historical
“Say not one word in praise of Mary Reed.” — Mary Reed reed-missionary-to-lepers p.20
This account was written while Mary Reed still lived and at the mission's own request — a reverent, contemporary devotional biography rather than a critical one, so its tone leans toward praise.
reed-missionary-to-lepers— pp. 18, 19, 20, 30, 33
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