Rachel Saint with Dayuma and Waorani Indians in Tewæno community. Caption written on back, likely by Rachel Saint: “Oucaye, sent to us in a miraculous way from the down-river group, read her own copy—being able to half-read and half-memorize her Easter verse. Many times she has expressed her joy at having 'God’s carving' for herself, a wonderful preparation for the trip home to tell the others as God works it out." 

Rachel Saint, 1914-1994

Rachel Saint was born in Wycote, Pennsylvania in 1914, into a family of seven brothers. When she was twenty, she left home to attend the Philadelphia School of the Bible. After graduating, she joined the staff of the Keswick Colony of Mercy, helping people struggling with addiction. In her mid-thirties, she attended the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) in Oklahoma and was sent by Wycliffe Bible Translators to work among the Shapras people of Peru. Transferring to Ecuador in 1955, she joined five American missionaries, including her brother Nate Saint, in their ongoing interest to evangelize the Waorani. Contact with a Waorani woman named Dayuma, who had left her tribal group offered an enormous boon to the project. With Dayuma’s help, Saint began to study the Waorani language and culture. Nate and his four colleagues kept their plans to contact the Waorani secret from Rachel, fearing both her personal interference and administrative oversight from SIL.

After the men’s death in January 1956, Rachel continued her translation work with Dayuma. Seeking to capitalize on the ongoing media attention of the Waorani mission, Cameron Townsend, the director of Wycliffe Bible Translators, arranged for Rachel and Dayuma to travel to the United States for several speaking engagements in June 1957, including an appearance on the television program This Is Your Life with Ralph Edwards. The feature was widely popular, making Rachel Saint the missionary face of Wycliffe Bible Translators. While at Wycliffe’s property in Sulphur Springs, Arkansas, Dayuma and Rachel heard the reports about two Waorani women coming out of the Amazon in November 1957. Further conversations with Elisabeth Elliot revealed the women as two aunts of Dayuma, Mankumu and Mintaka. Returning to Ecuador, Rachel and Dayuma met with Dayuma’s aunts at the SIL base in Limoncocha in June 1958. Dayuma and her aunts returned to the Waorani in September 1958. Two months later, they issued an invitation to Elisabeth Elliot and Rachel Saint to join them at the Waorani settlement Tewæno.

After several years of linguistic and evangelistic work, Elisabeth left the Waorani settlement in 1961 and eventually returned to the United States, but Rachel remained. Through the 1960s, Rachel, along with Dayuma, and the Waorani, oversaw the creation of the Waorani protectorate, the evangelism of the “downriver group,” the translation of the Gospel of Mark into Wao, and the growth of the Tewæno settlement. At the urging of Townsend and SIL, Rachel also continued speaking and other public engagements, including a visit to the 1966 World Congress on Evangelism in Berlin, accompanied by two Waorani men Quemo (Kimo) and Come (Komi). Over the 1970s, complaints from other SIL missionaries and anthropologists about Rachel’s difficulty collaborating, evangelism methods, and possessiveness over the Waorani, eventually resulted in Wycliffe asking her to return to the United States. Rather than leave Ecuador, Rachel officially retired from SIL in 1981, moving to the new Waorani village at Toñampade established by Dayuma and her son Sam Padilla in 1977. Rachel Saint spent the rest of her life among the Waorani and was buried at her request in Toñampade after her death in 1994.

Two pages of notes on the structure of clauses in Wao tededo, c. 1955-1958. No author is identified, but much of the earliest language work on Wao tededo was completed by Rachel Saint, Mary Sargent, and Elisabeth Elliot through work with Dayuma and her two aunts, Mintaka (Mintaca) or Mankamo (Maengamo).
Wao tededo language notes (PDF)
Typed newsletter from Rachel Saint, February 1955, with handwritten note to Dr. V. Raymond Edman. Letter traces the history of missionary outreach to the Waorani and the current efforts of Saint and the Summer Institute of Linguistics to study the Waorani language in hopes of future contact.
Unreached...and Unreachable?
Photo of Dayuma with son, Ignacio (center), flanked (left) by Dr. V. Raymond Edman, Lois McCully (Ed McCully's mother), and Rachel Saint, and (right) Clara and Fred Elliot (parents of Jim Elliot). During Rachel’s speaking tour around the U.S. with Dayuma, they visited with Dr. V. Raymond Edman and the parents of Jim Elliot and Ed McCully at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois.
Photo of Rachel Saint and Dayuma with President Edman
Clipping from unidentified newspaper titled "Fullerton Evangelical Free Church to Host Auca Jungle Missionary," c. 1961. Article describes upcoming talk from Rachel Saint and Dayuma as part of speaking tour sponsored in part by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Fullerton Evangelical Free Church to Host Auca Jungle Missionary
Rachel Saint with Dayuma and Waorani Indians in Tewæno community. Caption written on back, likely by Rachel Saint: “Oucaye, sent to us in a miraculous way from the down-river group, read her own copy—being able to half-read and half-memorize her Easter verse. Many times she has expressed her joy at having 'God’s carving' for herself, a wonderful preparation for the trip home to tell the others as God works it out." 
Dayuma and Rachel Saint with Waorani group
Prayer letter from Rachel Saint to friends and supporters, August 1967. Letter includes description of traveling to the World Congress on Evangelism with Quemo (Kimo) and Come (Komi) (Dayuma's husband), Come and Mincaye's continued outreach to the "downriver" Waorani group, and intrusion by an oil company into traditional Waorani territory. A postscript also gives updates for Ethel Wallis, Catherine Peeke, and Dayuma, among others.
Prayer letter from Rachel Saint, August 1967 (PDF)
Prayer letter from Rachel Saint to friends and supporters, February 1984. Letter describes recent visit from Barbara Youderian to the new Waorani settlement at Toñampade and "Palm Beach," along with updates on Quemo (Kimo), Dawa, and the ongoing translation work with Dayuma.
Prayer letter from Rachel Saint, February 1984