Carmelite Sarah Brewer
| Carmelite Brewer Christie | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Sarah Carmelite Brewer April 25, 1852 Lee Center, Lee, Illinois |
| Died | October 17, 1931 (aged 79) Eagle Rock, California |
| Nationality | United States of America |
| Occupation | Missionary, educator |
| Years active | 1871-1920 |
| Known for | Assisting Armenians in 1895, 1909 and 1915-1919 in Tarsus Turkey |
| Notable work | Letters & diaries about her daily life in Turkey in both peace and troubled times |
Carmelite Brewer Christie was a Congregational missionary in Turkey from 1877 to 1920 and served as the acting president of the St. Paul's College, during World War I. She was the College's sole American caretaker, though her husband Thomas Davidson Christie was the named president. She wrote letters and kept diaries which are part of the Minnesota Historical Society Christie Collection and provide a first-hand account of the Armenian massacre of 1895, Ottoman Turkish politics in the pre- and post-World War I era, the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and its aftermath. During the 1909 Riots and unrest, she refused to abandon the school, students and refugees who had fled there, guarding up to 5,000 people under her protection and hoisting the American flag.
Sarah Carmelite Brewer, known as Carmelite, was born in Lee Center, Illinois on 25 April 1852 to Elizabeth (née Pratt) and Rev. James Brewer. On her father's side of the family, she was descended from Captain John Brewer, veteran of the French and Indian War and a relative of the Supreme Court Justice, David Josiah Brewer. Carmelite was a cousin of Rev. Josiah Brewer, father of Justice Brewer, who was an early missionary and school founder sent by the American Board to Greece and Turkey. He was one reason Thomas and Carmelite ended up in Turkey.
Her father was a preacher who graduated from Williams College some 30 years after the Haystack Prayer Meeting which resulted in the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. After graduation he taught in schools in the South. He joined his brother Ira after riding from Montgomery, Alabama to Lee County in 1847. James was a farmer and a principal of the new academy in Lee Center in 1850. He was ordained in 1859.
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