A sampling of our most powerful and moving archival images from around the world.
(1968) Archbishop Benedict Mar Gregorios of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Rite celebrates the winning of top honors in a food production contest sponsored by the Communist-rule state of Kerala. The prelate produced a rice variety in his own experimental rice paddies which had a yield of 8,000 pounds per acre - nearly seven times the average in this densely populated area of India. The 52-year-old archbishop, with the aid of American Catholics and the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, establishes parishes and social action centers which he insists are agriculturally self-supporting. Religion News Service
Religion News Service was founded in 1934, and in the old days, had staff photographers who roamed the world in search of images that conveyed how faith was lived out. Today, those images form a rich historical archive.
Please click on any image below to view a photo slideshow of RNS archival images from around the world.
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(1972) Afghan school children sit against a wall. The children are serving as a pipeline in UNICEF’s efforts to get food to the starving people of Ghor. Religion News Service file photo
(1968) Archbishop Benedict Mar Gregorios of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Rite celebrates the winning of top honors in a food production contest sponsored by the Communist-rule state of Kerala. The prelate produced a rice variety in his own experimental rice paddies which had a yield of 8,000 pounds per acre – nearly seven times the average in this densely populated area of India. The 52-year-old archbishop, with the aid of American Catholics and the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, establishes parishes and social action centers which he insists are agriculturally self-supporting. Religion News Service
(1991) A peasant child in Puno, one of Peru’s poorest areas. A recent United Nations report estimates that in the past year, a half million children have died from poverty-related illnesses. Religion News Service photo by Alejandro Balaguer
(Date unknown) A portrait of a citizen of Basutoland – in 1936 there were 254,511 Christian Basutos out of a total population of 559,273. Religion News Service file photo
(1970) Buddhist monks lead prayers over the bodies of eight Cambodia soldiers buried in a mass grave in Siem Reap, the day after they were killed in a firefight in Cambodia. Religion News Service file photo
(1989) As onlookers stand atop the Berlin Wall, an East German shouts, “The wall must come down!” while holding up a banner proclaiming “Deutschland” – just Germany, no east or west. An estimated 1 million Germans poured through the wall to West Berlin during the historic Nov. 11-12 weekend, which heralded the beginning of the end of nearly three decades of a divided Berlin. Religion News Service file photo
(Dallas, Texas) A teacher at the Gurukula talks to a young devotee about the days lessons, which are mostly recitations from the Bhagavadgita. (Date unknown) Religion News Service file photo
Campa Indian children in the Amazon basin of eastern Peru learn hunting and fishing skills with bows and arrows at an early age through games as well as live practice. The children dressed in panchos, a form of clothing which missionaries feel should be preserved. Religion News Service file photo
(1981) Thousands of members of the Jain sect gather in Karnataka, India to annoint the head of what is said to be “the tallest monolithic statue in the world.” A committee spokesman said, “This is the Maha Mastakabhisheka ceremony or the sacred head annointing of this colossus, Lord Bahubali or Gommateshwara, a patron saint of the Jain sect.” The event marked the 1,000 anniversary of the statue. Religion News Service file photo
(1971) Northern Ireland’s younger generation plays ball against a wall in Londonderry. The writing on the wall is a recruiting slogan for the Irish Republican Army, an illegal terrorist organization. Londonderry, a predominantly Roman Catholic city, had been the scene of numerous outbreaks of violence between militant Catholics and Protestants and British troops. Religion News Service file photo
(Date unknown) Yeranouhie Akgul, an Armenian nurse comforts a village girl of 18, in her native dress, who after marriage since she was 11 has come to see whether she is going to have her first baby (Turkey). Religion News Service file photo
(Date unknown) The Rev. Pedro Subercaseaux, noted Chilean Benedictine artist, is shown on a scaffold painting a mural in the newly constructed Church of the Sacred Heart, El Bosque, Santiago. The Benedictine friar is executing a series of wall murals, measuring 5 by 61 feet, which will depict the 14 different stations of the cross in a continuous panorama. Religion News Service
(Date unknown) Jews pray at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Religion News Service file photo
LEXINGTON, Mass. — Three members of the Sisters of Charity of Montreal (Grey Nuns) enjoy a toboggan ride near their American Provincial House here. Vatican authorities recently announced that Mother Marie Marguerite d’Youville, foundress of the Grey Nuns, will be beatified in St. Peter’s Basilica on May 3, 1959. It will be the first beatification in the reign of Pope John XXIII.
(1984) The deeply religious villagers of Yalalag, in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, are shown during a traditional funeral march, a custom that has perservered throughout the centruies in the remote Mexican villages, as elsewhere. Religion News Service file photo by Chriss Mackey
(1961) A teenager prepared for a native dance poses with Father Paul Farkas in Papua, New Guinea. His headdress is made of human hair, moss and colored clay. Father Farkas was part of a group from St. Augustine’s Monastary in Pittsburg that completed six years of missionary work in New Guinea. Religion News Service file photo
A Nigerian youngster waits outside a Baptist Sunday school near Lagos for another session to begin. The mission church which he attends, and others throughout Africa, are supported by a $125.9 million program of the Southern Baptist Convention. (Date unknown.)
PUSAN, Korea — Medicine, food, and care are improving the lives of starving and TB-ridden Korean youth at the Maryknoll Sisters’ clinic in Pusan. A handful of American-born and trained women doctors and nurses here care for as many as 1,000 patients every day, who are admitted according to their need, rather than their financial status or creed. (Date unknown.)
Children in Tibet studying for Buddhist priesthood. (Date unknown.) Religion News Service file photo
On Nov. 9,1979, five days after the Iranian militants took over the U.S. Embassy and captured 62 Americans, emotional mobs burn an American flag atop the compound wall. Religion News Service file photo
(1971) A nun at New Delhi’s Home for Dying Destitutes places her hand over a woman who is both physically and mentally ill. Such cases are daily routine for Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity. Religion News Service file photo
(1978) Mrs. Beaulah Commack stands with her Eskimo family in front of their Shungnak, Alaska home. Their lonely life in the Alaskan wilderness is broken only by an occasional visit from the father, who must live hundreds of miles away in order to find work as a laborer. Religion News Service file photo
(1987) Children of this southern Ethiopian village show off containers of clean well water that promises to sustain them through the country’s second major drought of the decade. Religion News Service file photo
(1965) Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip walk past memorial to Sir Winston Churchill as they leave Westminster Abby after attending a special inaugural service opening a year-long observance of the famed church’s 900th anniversary. Behind the couple are their children, Prince Charles and Princess Anne. Catholic prelates were among church leaders marching in a glittering procession into the Abbey as the anniversary service, which had strong ecumenical overtones, got underway. Religion News Service file photo
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