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The Rev. Brian Hobden, 14th rector of St. John's, and the Rev.
Derek Harbin, 16th and current rector, bless a bronze plaque at the
Rev. James Chisholm's grave.
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In 2010, the Rev. James Chisholm was added to
the Episcopal Church's calendar of saints for giving his life in service
to others during the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1855. His feast day is
September 15. Chisholm was the first rector of St. John's, Portsmouth.
Chisholm sent his
family away to safety, staying behind to
provide whatever care for the sick he could. Chisholm provided food,
medical assistance, and pastoral care. He was even known to have dug
graves for those who had died. According to "History of
Portsmouth, Virginia," "During that awful summer of 1855, Mr. Chisholm
labored night and day among people of every denomination." "He was,
however, spared to comfort the pest-ridden sufferings until the disease
had abated; then his frail body, worn out by privation and toil,
succumbed to the fever." Chisholm died on September 15, 1855 in the
Portsmouth Naval Hospital.
St.
John's honored Chisholm with series of events over the weekend,
including tours of Olde Towne and the original Naval Hospital building,
highlighting Chisholm's work. Sunday afternoon's event included the
dedication of a new bronze plaque and the reading of a city
proclamation by Portsmouth Mayor Kenneth Wright. A collection in
Chisholm's honor will pay for mosquito bed nets. A fitting tribute since
Yellow Fever, although now eradicated, was a mosquito-borne disease.
Today, the nets could help prevent malaria, which causes 200 million
illnesses and kills 600,000 people a year.
