At a glance
- Age
- 29
- Born
- October 8, 1926
- From
- Portland
- Nationality
- United States
Biography
Most people meet him through a line quoted in a sermon or a caption, without knowing that the man behind it died at 29. He was one of five killed in Ecuador in January 1956 during Operation Auca, an effort to make contact with and evangelise the Huaorani people. That death, rather than anything he built or published in his lifetime, is why his name still circulates.
He was born Philip James Elliot in Portland in October 1926, and worked as a missionary and translator. The Ecuador mission was the last thing he did.
The material on him is short because his life was. What remains is a record of a young American who went to a place he understood to be dangerous, and did not come back — which is the frame in which readers usually encounter him and the reason his words are still passed around.
He was born Philip James Elliot in Portland in October 1926, and worked as a missionary and translator. The Ecuador mission was the last thing he did.
The material on him is short because his life was. What remains is a record of a young American who went to a place he understood to be dangerous, and did not come back — which is the frame in which readers usually encounter him and the reason his words are still passed around.
