Deaconess Ruth Byllesby
“You can go to our church and see people who are well off now, whom the Deaconess fed, helped clothe, and arranged for operations. She was a saint.”
Collect: Almighty God, who chose your servant Ruth Ellis Byllesby to serve the poor, feed the hungry, and clothe your children: give us the grace to pattern our lives after the shining example of Blessed Ruth, that we may spread the Gospel by helping those in need, with humility and the heart of a servant, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Epistle: Phillippians 2:1-7 (8-10)
Psalm: 112
Gospel: Matthew 25:31-46
Deaconess Ruth Byllesby (icon written by Sr. Ellen Francis, OSH)
Ruth Ellis Byllesby was born 9 March 1865 in Meadville, PA where her father, Marison Byllesby, was the rector of Christ Episcopal Church. She graduated from Meadville high school and then studied at Brooke Hall in Media, PA. From 1894-96 she studied at the Philadelphia Deaconess Training School She was set apart November 17, 1896 at Trinity Church in Pittsburgh by Bishop Whitehead, and began a ministry serving working class women and children in Pittsburgh. In 1904 she moved to Morristown, New Jersey, where she served as a parish deaconess for several years. From 1913-1922 she served as a parish deaconess in Detroit.
Deaconess Byllesby served as a parish deaconess for Christ Church, Augusta from 1927 to 1943 when she retired. Two members of her family had provided an endowment for settlement House work, and that is what she created in Georgia, turning the Christ Church rectory into Neighborhood House to serve the mill families of the Harrisburg area. She provided basic needs for families and children throughout the depression, ran a Sunday School serving more than 200 children, started a young mother’s club and advocated for education for girls. For this work, the Diocese of Georgia has declared her a diocesan saint.
But the Deaconess service continue in retirement as in 1944 she spent the winter at St. Clare’s House in New York, then served at Ascension Parish in Pittsburgh from 1948-50. In 1950 Byllesby moved to Connecticut where her sister lived, but the next year she moved to Jacksonville, Florida. She died April 25, 1959 in St. John’s Florida.
The Reverend Harry Maloney, Rector of Christ Church in 1978, wrote the following:
“I am amazed how she changed people and became a lasting influence in their lives. I am told she shared all she had of material wealth whatever that amounted to, with the people she ministered to but also she gave of herself so willingly and with so much love. It was this great love and compassion for people that caused her to be remembered.”
Her legacy of helping the poor, hungry and the lost is a shining example to all who came after her, bringing the consolation of the Gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit to Harrisburg and Augusta.
