Medical Missionary to Scotland

As legend has it, sometime in the eighth century, a monk on a mission brought the bones of St. Andrew to Scotland. The Apostle then lent his name to a prominent city—St. Andrews. From then on, the city was the center of the Scottish church. In 1413, the nation’s first university was founded there—the University of St. Andrews.

Not long after the university came into existence, a medical missionary from Prague came to Scotland. It was in the late 1420s, and his name was Paul Crawar. In Prague, the English professor and preacher John Wycliffe had tremendous influence through his followers, the Lollards. And also in Prague there was the Bohemian Reformer himself, Jan Hus.

Paul Crawar was trained as a doctor at the University of Montpellier, France, and taught at the University of Prague. He was part of a small Lollard congregation in Prague, which decided to send him as a missionary to Scotland. The Bohemians had heard of some Lollards there who had suffered persecution. A few decades before, a Lollard was martyred, which served to suppress them for a certain time. In fact, in 1425, the Scottish Parliament passed a law outlawing Lollardism. Anyone associated with it or anyone having anything to do with it would be guilty of heresy, a crime punishable by death.

Crawar decided he would go and take the gospel with him. So he boarded a ship and made his way to Scotland. When he arrived at St. Andrews, he began his work, very quietly at first. He would minister to those who were on their deathbeds. Some he would comfort and be able to bring back to good health, but others he was just able to comfort in their final days. He would point them beyond the things to which they were looking—saints, icons, or the crucifix by their bed—and point them instead to the One who was on the cross. He would point them to Christ.

He also started a Bible study at his home. At first, he appealed to the students at the university. Slowly, some of the key people from the town began to come, and they studied the Scriptures together.

Eventually, word of Crawar’s ministry got out, and it came to the attention of the bishop of St. Andrews. Soon, Crawar was arrested and interned in the dungeon prison. He was unable to receive any visitors except one, the laird of Drunmore Castle. His son had befriended Crawar when his son was weak and young and sick. And Crawar not only helped him find some health at that moment in his life but also pointed him to Christ.

When the day came in July 1433 that Crawar was to be burned at the stake, he walked the long path from his prison cell to the public stake, quoting Scripture as he went. He was quoting Scriptures like, “There is only one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ.” He was saying, “There is salvation in no other name than in the name of Jesus Christ.” And eventually this so frustrated the bishop that he ordered that a large brass ball be stuck in his mouth so that the crowd would not be able to hear his words. And so, silenced but unbowed, he was led to the stake, and there Paul Crawar, medical missionary from Prague, was martyred in 1433 in St. Andrews, Scotland.