Back when I was doing studies at Xavier, I would often talk to one of my friends, Eric, and discuss with him the people I have studied about and found to be quite important in the shaping of world history. I would constantly bring up a name he had not heard of, and I would explain why I found the person behind that name to be important. He said one day I should write a book along the lines of The Ten Most Influential People You Never Knew About. It’s something I am very tempted to do.
Clearly these people were, in their day and time, important. People knew about them and listened to them, otherwise they would not have played a key part in history. Yet, it is quite surprising how much of their influence is ignored, even by people who study the eras they come from. This leads me to believe that one’s importance and influence does not necessitate long-lasting fame, nor does fame necessitate one’s importance in history. Indeed, if one truly believes that monks and nuns, cut off from the world, still play an important and influential role in the world, this must be the case.
Yet, I am interested in the opinions of others. Which of the following people do you think has left the greatest mark upon the world? You might not know all of the names; you might not know any of them. I have tried to make it a list of ten people; each one I can explain why I chose them, though there are a couple on the list that I admit barely made the list and were put on in part to make sure the poll had ten people on it. I thought about including non-Christians, but decided that my interest is in the study of the influence of Christians in world history.
You might want to do some simple online research to know about them if you are interested in answering this poll. In any case, I want to see who among them is chosen, and, if anyone is willing to explain their decision, I would be more than interested in reading what they have to say in the comments section.
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