Biography

Ruth Ellis Messenger was an accomplished scholar. Her college and university studies earned her a B.A., M.A., and Ph. D. Her passion for learning was shared with others as she became a High School teacher and then a college professor. Upon retiring from her position as professor at Columbia University, Messenger led classes at Union Theological Seminary in the area of hymnology. She edited The Hymn (a news publication of the Hymn Society of America) for the last ten years of her life. In 1953, she published a book titled The Medieval Latin Hymn. She also published Christian Hymns of the First Three Centuries. Messenger was born in 1884 and died in 1964.

Wailand Groenendyk
CCEL Staff Writer