Readings:
[Common of a Saint]
[For All Baptized Christians]
PRAYER (traditional language)
O God, thou hast created every human being in thine own image and each one is precious in thy sight: Grant that in remembering the baptisms of Manteo and Virginia Dare, we may grow in honoring thy gift of diversity in human life; become stronger in living out our baptismal vow to respect the dignity of every human being; and bring into the fellowship of the risen Christ those who come to him in faith, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
PRAYER (contemporary language)
O God, you have created every human being in your image and each one is precious in your sight: Grant that in remembering the baptisms of Manteo and Virginia Dare, we may grow in honoring your gift of diversity in human life; become stronger in living out our baptismal vow to respect the dignity of every human being; and bring into the fellowship of the risen Christ those who come to him in faith, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
This commemoration appears in A Great Cloud of Witnesses.
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Last updated: 20 June 2020
BAPTISMS OF MANTEO AND VIRGINIA DARE
August 1587
On this day the baptisms of Manteo, a Croatan Indian chief, and of Virginia Dare, infant daughter of Roanoke Island colonists, are commemorated. Manteo was baptized on 13 August 1587, and Virginia Dare on 24 August, six days after her birth. They are thus the first people baptized into the Anglican Church in North America. Shortly after their baptism the colony's governor, John White, left for England. When he was finally able to return, three years later, he found the colony abandoned and the fate of the colonists unknown.
More information may be found from the North Carolina History Project.
Imagined baptism of Virginia Dare, from an 1880 lithograph