Johann Martin Flad

1838-1915. German missionary to Ethiopia. A saddler by trade, as a boy he enrolled in the St. Chrischona school. Bishop Gobat asked the school for four lay craftsmen to staff a new work in Ethiopia, and Flad was among those selected. In 1855 he went to Ethiopia and initially was cordially received. He became a victim of persecution by Emperor Theodorus II in 1864, and two years later, with his family held hostage, the emperor compelled him to undertake a diplomatic mission to England. After the British had forced the downfall of Theodorus in 1868, Flad was able to pursue an undisturbed ministry of literature distribution and evangelism among the Falascha (Ethiopian Jews) until his death.