deeds of which I have heard in my entire ministry was performed by Jonathan Myrick Daniels, Jonathan Daniels." Seminarian and Martyr, 1965 In the years since his death, Daniels' selfless act has been recognized in many ways. Two books have been written about his life, and a documentary was produced in 1999. th August 20, 2015 will mark the 50 anniversary of the Ruby Sayles was so traumatized by Daniels' murder that she nearly lost martyrdom of Jonathan Myrick Daniels in Hayneville, the ability to speak for the next seven months. Despite death threats Alabama. He died in witness to Christ in the cause of made to her and her family, Sales resolved to testify at Tom Coleman's Civil Rights, saving the life of Ruby Sayles, a teen trial. He was acquitted by a jury of 12 white men. The result of the trial and voting rights activist. The Episcopal Church is led to legal challenges and a reform of the jury selection procedures, offering services in commemoration of Jonathan and which had long excluded blacks, first because they were his witness around the country this weekend, disenfranchised from voting before 1965, then because of a including National Cathedral. discriminatory process in developing the jury pool. Jonathan grew up in Keene, New Hampshire. After graduating from the Sayles went on to graduate from Manhattanville Virginia Military Insititute (Valedictorian), 1971, he entered Harvard College and become a Ph.D. candidate at Princeton University to study English Literature. He pondered vocations in University. She earned her Masters of Divinity from ministry, medicine, law, or writing. He began to lose his faith after a Daniel’s alma mater, the Episcopal Divinity School. family death but felt renewed during worship at Church of the Advent in She has worked as a human rights advocate in Boston. Hearing a reading from Isaiah 6:8 (“I heard the voice of the Lord Washington, D.C. She founded The SpiritHouse saying whom shall I send? Who will go for us? Then said I, Here Am I, Project, a non-profit organization and inner-city mission dedicated to Send Me.”), he discerned God was calling him to the Priesthood. Daniels. During Evensong one night at the Episcopal Divinity School in Jonathan Daniels commemoration in our calendar of saints is August Cambridge, Jonathan decided to answer the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther 14th, the date of his arrest. King, Jr.’s appeal for clergy to become more involved in Civil Rights. He wrote that he was particularly moved by a line from the Magnificat, A monument stands near the spot of his death, with the words “He gave which is sung at every Evening Prayer, “‘He hath put down the mighty his life in the fight for the integration of the churches and universal voter from their seat and hath exalted the humble and meek. He hath filled the registration. At the time he was a student at the Episcopal Theological hungry with good things.’ I knew that I must go to Selma. The Virgin’s School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.” song was to grow more and more dear to me in the weeks ahead.” The VMI has created a humanitarian award in his memory, first In August 1965 Jonathan and 22 others were presented to former President Jimmy Carter in 2001 and later to former arrested for participating in a voter rights Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young in 2006. demonstration in Fort Deposit, Alabama, and In England's Canterbury Cathedral, Jonathan Daniels’ name is among transferred to the county jail in nearby Hayneville. the fifteen honored in the Chapel of Martyrs. The Cathedral, the mother Shortly after being released on August 20, Jonathan church of the Anglican Communion, commemorated Jonathan Daniels and Catholic priest accompanied two black in a special evensong earlier this summer. teenagers, Joyce Bailey and Ruby Sayles, to a Hayneville store to buy a soda. Two books about Jonathan, one a biography and the other about his civil rights work, are still in print and available from They were met on the steps by Tom Coleman, a construction worker Amazon and other booksellers. and part-time deputy sheriff, who was carrying a shotgun. Coleman aimed his gun at sixteen year old Ruby Sales; Jonathan pushed her to The film documentary of his life, “Here am I, Send Me” the ground in order to protect her, saving her life. When he heard of the can be seen on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/14117023 or tragedy, Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "One of the most heroic Christian by scanning the QR code. deeds of which I have heard in my entire ministry was performed by Jonathan Myrick Daniels, Jonathan Daniels." Seminarian and Martyr, 1965 In the years since his death, Daniels' selfless act has been recognized in many ways. Two books have been written about his life, and a documentary was produced in 1999. th August 20, 2015 will mark the 50 anniversary of the Ruby Sayles was so traumatized by Daniels' murder that she nearly lost martyrdom of Jonathan Myrick Daniels in Hayneville, the ability to speak for the next seven months. Despite death threats Alabama. He died in witness to Christ in the cause of made to her and her family, Sales resolved to testify at Tom Coleman's Civil Rights, saving the life of Ruby Sayles, a teen trial. He was acquitted by a jury of 12 white men. The result of the trial and voting rights activist. The Episcopal Church is led to legal challenges and a reform of the jury selection procedures, offering services in commemoration of Jonathan and which had long excluded blacks, first because they were his witness around the country this weekend, disenfranchised from voting before 1965, then because of a including National Cathedral. discriminatory process in developing the jury pool. Jonathan grew up in Keene, New Hampshire. After graduating from the Sayles went on to graduate from Manhattanville Virginia Military Insititute (Valedictorian), 1971, he entered Harvard College and become a Ph.D. candidate at Princeton University to study English Literature. He pondered vocations in University. She earned her Masters of Divinity from ministry, medicine, law, or writing. He began to lose his faith after a Daniel’s alma mater, the Episcopal Divinity School. family death but felt renewed during worship at Church of the Advent in She has worked as a human rights advocate in Boston. Hearing a reading from Isaiah 6:8 (“I heard the voice of the Lord Washington, D.C. She founded The SpiritHouse saying whom shall I send? Who will go for us? Then said I, Here Am I, Project, a non-profit organization and inner-city mission dedicated to Send Me.”), he discerned God was calling him to the Priesthood. Daniels. During Evensong one night at the Episcopal Divinity School in Jonathan Daniels commemoration in our calendar of saints is August Cambridge, Jonathan decided to answer the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther 14th, the date of his arrest. King, Jr.’s appeal for clergy to become more involved in Civil Rights. He wrote that he was particularly moved by a line from the Magnificat, A monument stands near the spot of his death, with the words “He gave which is sung at every Evening Prayer, “‘He hath put down the mighty his life in the fight for the integration of the churches and universal voter from their seat and hath exalted the humble and meek. He hath filled the registration. At the time he was a student at the Episcopal Theological hungry with good things.’ I knew that I must go to Selma. The Virgin’s School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.” song was to grow more and more dear to me in the weeks ahead.” The VMI has created a humanitarian award in his memory, first In August 1965 Jonathan and 22 others were presented to former President Jimmy Carter in 2001 and later to former arrested for participating in a voter rights Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young in 2006. demonstration in Fort Deposit, Alabama, and In England's Canterbury Cathedral, Jonathan Daniels’ name is among transferred to the county jail in nearby Hayneville. the fifteen honored in the Chapel of Martyrs. The Cathedral, the mother Shortly after being released on August 20, Jonathan church of the Anglican Communion, commemorated Jonathan Daniels and Catholic priest accompanied two black in a special evensong earlier this summer. teenagers, Joyce Bailey and Ruby Sayles, to a Hayneville store to buy a soda. Two books about Jonathan, one a biography and the other about his civil rights work, are still in print and available from They were met on the steps by Tom Coleman, a construction worker Amazon and other booksellers. and part-time deputy sheriff, who was carrying a shotgun. Coleman aimed his gun at sixteen year old Ruby Sales; Jonathan pushed her to The film documentary of his life, “Here am I, Send Me” the ground in order to protect her, saving her life. When he heard of the can be seen on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/14117023 or tragedy, Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "One of the most heroic Christian by scanning the QR code.