E.R. Baierlein
Christ showed grace to Eduard Raimund Baierlein despite repeated rejections and setbacks. Disowned by his father after Eduard embraced the Lutheran faith at age 21, Baierlein struggled to find purpose and direction in his life until he began studies to be a missionary of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission of Leipzig. Here he studied the Bible and the Lutheran Confessions under “old Lutheran” Karl Graul, preparing to be sent to share the Gospel with the people of India.
However, Baierlein became ill a few days before the ship was scheduled to leave for India. While he was recovering, the Leipzig Mission received a request to send a missionary to work under F. A. Craemer in evangelizing the local Chippewa Indians in Michigan. (Craemer had been sent to begin mission work in Michigan in 1845 by Wilhelm Löhe of Neuendettelsau, Germany.) The Leipzig Mission board selected Baierlein to assist Craemer in America. Baierlein and his wife arrived in Frankemuth, Michigan on June 10, 1847, after suffering from attacks of fever and cholera during the 44 day voyage in close quarters. Baierlein begins to learn the Chippewa / Ojibwa language. They decide that Baierlein would be much more effective if he would live among a neighboring tribe who would welcome his evangelism and the schooling of the children of the tribe.
He is welcomed by Chief Bemassikke and his people and begins to live with them on July 19, 1848. Baierlein begins to minister to the physical and spiritual needs of the people and names the mission outpost “Bethany.” After almost 6 years of mission work in Michigan, Baierlein is called by the Leipzig Mission to travel to India. On May 19, 1853, Baierlein, his wife and three small children leave Michigan for Germany. He is commissioned in Leipzig August 30, 1853 and leaves for India, arriving in Madras on December 17. He is assigned to the Sadras mission and to the poor fisher-people there. While continuing his study of Tamil, Baierlein opens a school and orphanage. On March 8, 1855, Baierleins’ mourn the loss of their fourth child, Theodosius, who dies of cholera. Eduard begins to build a little church building utilizing blocks from the old and abandoned Dutch settlement.
The church is dedicated on July 29, 1855, and Baierlein preaches to the gathered crowd in Tamil. Mark 1:15 is painted over the church doors: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel.” On January 4, 1856, Baierlein becomes seriously ill and travels to Tranquebar for treatment. The doctor sends him to a more temperate climate in the mountains in order to recover. The family is blessed with their fifth child, Peregrina. From the end of 1857 until the summer of 1858, Baierlein resumes missionary work, but in Tranquebar to fill in for absent director Cordes. He then returns to Cuddalore—as the Cuddalore and Sadras mission posts have been combined by decision of the annual missionary conference.
Baierlein moves from Sadras to Cuddalore and dedicates a new church building there on December 25, 1859. It is at this time that missionary Ochs begins to demand renunciation of caste for all converts to Christianity. Other Leipzig Mission missionaries disagree with Ochs’ demand to eat a meal or drink a cup of tea from someone of another caste as a prerequisite for becoming a member of a local Lutheran congregation. Baierlein is sympathetic but renounces this demand and threatens to resign. Leipzig informs the missionaries in India to solve the caste problem among themselves—with Christian love and patience. Baierlein is struck with fever in 1860 and is sent back to Germany to recover.
Peregrina dies while the couple is in Germany. Undaunted, Baierlein returns to India in November of 1862 to rebuild the church in Cuddalore. Despite successes there, Baierlein’s wife becomes seriously ill and returns to Germany. Eduard, suffering from severe headaches and weakness also returns to Germany in March of 1871. The couple returns to India in December of 1872. Baierlein is assigned mission work in Bangalore. In the spring of 1886, he suffers a heart attack and is ordered to return to Germany. He dies in Clarens, Switzerland, on October 12, 1901.