William Tobias Ringeltaube(1770- ?) was the first Protestant missionary in the far south of India. He spent much of his time in Travancore. He was the first child of Gottlieb Ringeltaube, Vicar of Scheidelwitz (today Szydlowice), near Brzeg, in Silesia. He was born on 8 August 1770. The cause and date of his death are uncertain, but it is widely believed that he died of liver failure whilst on a voyage to Africa. Others believe that he was killed by the natives whilst on a mission to Jakarta (then called Batavia).
Five days after his birth he was baptized and given the name William Tobias Ringeltaube. For seven years Ringeltaube grew up in the quietness of a country home; after this his father went to Warsaw in Poland, and spent nine years in the city. During this time, William was educated by his father before attending the University of Halle.
When he was 16, his father became a Court Preacher and General Superintendent at Oels, in Silesia. There, the young boy attended the Gymnaesium, but the boy was naturally shy and shunned all interaction with fellow students. In his 18th year he went on a walking tour, on which he made many friends. During this time, he made the decision to become a Christian missionary. Ordained according to the Lutheran rite at Wernigerode 1796; recommended to and accepted by the S.P.C.K. in 1797, in which year he and Holtzberg were charged by the Rev. John Owen at the S.P.C.K. office before their departure for India. Ringeltaube went to Calcutta and was welcomed by David Brown the Chaplain. There he remained less than two years, and returned to Europe in 1799 to the great disappointment of the S.P.C.K. He then associated himself with the Moravians, and in 1803 offered his services to the L.M.S. and was accepted.
He along with two other missionaries Cran and Des Granges sailed from England in Feb 1804 with intention to commence a mission among the heathen on the coast of Coramandel. They had been students in the missionary seminary of Gosport. They arrived in Tranquebar by ship. While Cran and Des Granges fixed them selves to Visakapatinam, Ringletaube determined to direct his labours to the southern part of the penissula. He arrived at Tranquebar in July 1804 and remained there till January 1806. His stay was not a happy one, for he had as great a difficulty in living at peace with the Tranquebar missionaries as he had had at Calcutta with David Brown. He was then persuaded by Kohlhoff, the head of the S.P.C.K. Mission at Tanjore, to take charge of the Palamcottah Mission in Tinnevelly, where a European missionary was urgently required. This move placed him again on the staff of the S.P.C.K. He tried to fulfil his duties, but his position was difficult if not impossible. He was a Moravian, subject nominally to the L.M.S., at that time an interdenominational society, and actually subject to Kohlhoff of Tanjore, a Lutheran in the service of the S.P.C.K. At the same time Ringeltaube was a man of great independence of mind and character. At Palamcottah he did his work well, and made no attempt to puzzle the native Christians by founding a new society. In 1807 he left Palamcottah and went to Travancore, where he was free of the S.P.C.K. and its limitations. There he laid the foundation of a strong L.M.S. Mission, with the assistance of Maharasan Vedamanickam.
He remained in Travancore, principally at Mayiladi, till 1815, when he returned to Madras with liver complaint in an advanced stage. There he met William Taylor and Marmaduke Thompson the Chaplain, who were impressed with his wild unconventionality and eccentricity as well as by his missionary zeal and Christian conversation. He then sailed to Colombo with a view to embark on a sea voyage to the Cape. As there was no ship going in that direction, he sailed for Malacca and was not again heard of. Probably he died and that the ocean was his grave.
In 1809, Ringel Taube built a church in Miladi, the first protestant church in Travancore. An ascetic at heart, he continued to live in a small hut nearby. His missionary zeal made him build churches in Athikkadu, Thamarakkulam, Puthalam, Kovilvilai, Ethampuli and James town. His work did not get limited to the building of churches alone. Along with the churches he built some schools too to educate the natives. It was in 1811 that Ringel Taube established near Valiyathura in Trivandrum the church that is now known after him as the Ringel Taube memorial CSI church.
Excellent material. Do you have any idea about the Bible verses that were dear to him and were his core principles?
பதிலளிநீக்கு