Patricia St. John – Storyteller and Missionary

Patricia St. John (1919-1993) was a much loved and gifted storyteller and missionary nurse. Many thousands of children have enjoyed her stories over the past six or more decades.

Her own adventurous spirit led to a life that is as exciting as her stories. Patricia lived through many circumstances that would be the source of ideas for her stories. Based on real people and situations her stories are believable and children easily identify with the characters in the adventures.

It all started when Patricia was born during a storm. Her parents were returning to England from South America where they were missionaries. Patricia’s father taught in a Bible school there. After the ship docked at Southampton, Mrs. St. John had a fright when Mr. St. John lost control of the pram with their baby boy in it and they went for a wild ride down a hill. Mrs. St. John was expecting to have another baby in four weeks but due to the excitement went into labor early. The result was that Patricia was born four weeks early but healthy. This was a fitting beginning for the girl who would grow up to face danger and hardship to serve others.

Patricia and her brothers and sister grew up in Malvern, England. This was a beautiful countryside setting for the children. Their father was often away working at the Bible school and she missed him very much, but she loved God and understood the importance of telling others about Jesus and understood why her father needed to be away.

It was in this wonderful country setting that the ideas would come for Patricia’s first book, The Tanglewood’s Secret. When Patricia was seven years old, her father moved the family to Switzerland for a year. Here would be the inspiration for Patricia’s book, Treasures of the Snow.

Patricia was a young woman when WWII started. During the bombing of London she worked as a nurse. Her brother, Farnham, was a doctor. After the war Farnham went to Morocco to work as a surgeon in a missionary hospital.

When her nurses’ training was completed Patricia worked for a local doctor for a time. Soon though Patricia decided to help her Aunt Clarendon run a boarding school. She was in charge of thirty girls. While there she told her charges bedtime stories that were very popular. While the children slept Patricia put her stories in writing. In 1947, the stories were published in a book called The Tanglewood’s Secret.

Farnham asked her to come to Tangiers, Morocco where he was the director of the Mission hospital. She decided to join him there. Morocco was a difficult place to live but Patricia was able to help many poor people there. The Muslims were suspicious of her and she had to be careful to whom she talked and what she said.

In the Muslim religion, women and children are not allowed to go to a male doctor that is not a relative. For this reason many women were without a doctor most of the time. Patricia used her own home as a medical dispensary and visiting room. The women trusted her and Patricia had many patients. She also traveled to nearby villages. Over the years many women and children came to the Lord.

The Muslim officials were against Patricia’s witnessing about Jesus Christ and asked her to leave after she had worked in Morocco for four years. It was very hard for Patricia to say “Good-bye” to so many new friends.

After traveling about for a while visiting other places, including Rwanda, Patricia returned to Tangier and set up a nurses’ training school that was attached to Farnham’s hospital. In 1974 the government took over the hospital. Patricia stayed on to nurse her ailing mother who had moved there to spend her remaining years on earth with her children. Patricia’s mother was too frail to move and Patricia loved and comforted her mother until Mrs. St. John went to be with the Lord.

In 1975 the Moroccan government ordered Patricia and Farnham out of the country. Patricia returned to England.

Over the next few years Patricia visited Beirut to care for her sister. She also went to the Horn of Africa when was a terrible famine there, the hardest hit country being Ethiopia. In 1985, Patricia worked among the poor starving people feeding and caring for babies. As usual after this experience Patricia wrote a book. This book, based on Ethiopia is called, I Needed a Neighbor.

For the remaining years of her life, Patricia kept busy. She died in her sleep on November 6,1993 after a short illness. She was missed sorely by all of the children who lived nearby. Her sister, Hazel, was able to soothe the children with the knowledge that Patricia was with the Lord Jesus, whom she had known since she was a child like them.

Besides children’s stories, Patricia wrote several serious works:

 – Life Everlasting (also published as A Missionary Muses on the Creed)

 – Missing the Way

 – Nothing Else Matters (based on events in the Lebanese civil war)

 – Patricia St. John Tells Her Own Story (formerly published in the U.S. as An Ordinary Woman’s Extraordinary Faith)

Children’s Serious Books:

The Safe Place

Prayer is an Adventure

A Young Person’s Guide to Knowing God

A Home for Virginia

Twice Freed

I Needed a Neighbor

An of course, the wonderful fiction stories based on real life events:

Rainbow Garden

Star of Light

The Secret at Pheasant Cottage

The Tanglewood’s Secret (Also available on DVD)

The Victor

Treasures of the Snow

Where the River Begins

We thank God for Patricia St. John. Her stories have not only provided uplifting and wholesome reading for children, but scores of children have come to understand more about their Savior and how to love Jesus through the ministry of this wonderful woman.