John Coleridge PattesonPrint Page

The window, erected in 1876 by Reverend P. S. Bailey, commemorates Bishop John Coleridge Patteson. The window is a reproduction of Holman Hunt`s "Light of the World." 

John Coleridge Patteson (1 April 1827 - 20 September 1871) was an Anglican bishop and martyr. He was ordained in 1853 in the Church of England. His old tutor at Eton, George Augustus Selwyn, was the first Bishop of New Zealand, and he persuaded Patteson to become a missionary to the South Seas.

In 1855 Patteson set out to found the Melanesian Mission. He founded a college on Norfolk Island for native boys, toured the islands on the ship Southern Cross, and learned many of the local languages. In 1861 he was made Bishop of Melanesia.

On 20 September 1871 he was murdered on the island of Nukapu in the Solomon Islands, where he had landed alone. The explanation of his death at the time was that natives killed him as revenge for the abduction of some natives by illegal labour recruiters months earlier. These recruiters, known as "blackbirders", were considered to be virtually slave traders by members of the mission, as they enticed or abducted youths to work on plantations.

Church of the Resurrection Windows 1876

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