- Lucian Tapiedi
Lucian Tapiedi (b. ca. 1921—1942) was a Papuan
Anglican teacher who was one of the "New Guinea Martyrs." The Martyrs were 8 Anglicanclergy , teachers, and medicalmissionaries killed by the Japanese in 1942 (a total of 333 church workers of all denominations were killed during the invasion).He was born around 1921,“the nephew of a suspected sorcerer of
Taupota village inMilne Bay district”http://www.abmission.org/special/martyrs/PNG_martyrs.html] , on the north coast of Papua, and was educated at mission schools, where he was influenced by Nita Inman, the schoolteacher, and the Reverend Edwin Nuagoro, a Papuan priest. In 1939, he entered St Aidan's Teacher Training College atDivari and in 1941 he became part of the staff atSangara as a teacher and evangelist. On 21 July 1942 the Japanese invasion of New Guinea began.Death
Tapiedi and 10 others, evading the Japanese, came to a village inhabited by the
Orokaiva people, and found themselves escorted away by men of that tribe. A man named Hivijapa killed Tapiedi with anaxe near a stream byKurumbo village. The remainder of the group perished soon after; six of them beheaded by the Japanese on Buna beach. [(alternatively, he is also said to have been “axed to death by the natives after he had returned to retrieve the station records box and some money.”) http://www.stpaulsmanuka.org.au/Sermon%20by%20Revd%20Dr%20Scott%20Cowdell%2031%20August%202003.htm]Legacy
A statue of Tapiedi is installed among the niches with other 20th-century Christian martyrs over the west door of
Westminster Abbey inLondon . His killer, taking the name Hivijapa Lucian, later converted toChristianity . He built a church dedicated to the memory of his victim atEmbi . Another church taking Lucian Tapiedi as its patronal saint is St Lucian's Nine Mile in the Nine Mile Settlement ofPort Moresby , north ofJacksons International Airport .Tapiedi's grave is at Sangara station.
Notes
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External links
* [http://www.stpaulsmanuka.org.au/Sermon%20by%20Revd%20Dr%20Scott%20Cowdell%2031%20August%202003.htm New Guinea Martyrs]
* [http://www.westminster-abbey.org/history-research/monuments-gravestones/people/13682 Westminster Abbey: Lucian Tapiedi]
* [http://www.abmission.org/special/martyrs/PNG_martyrs.html MARTYRS OF NEW GUINEA]
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