Peace Pilgrim
Peace Activist (?-1981)
by Robert Ellsberg

In midlife Mildred Lisette Norman Ryder had an epiphany:  She went from a life of a struggle between ego and conscience to one of complete inner peace and the desire to serve. Her total dedication to being a “penniless pilgrim for peace” – walking a distance greater than the earth's circumference – might seem too difficult an example for most of us to emulate. But as she said, “All of us can work for peace. We can work right where we are, right within ourselves, because the more peace we have within our own lives, the more we can reflect into the outer situation... So, just take whatever steps seem easiest for you, and as you take a few steps, it will become easier for you to take a few more.”
- Margaret Wakeley

She called herself Peace Pilgrim.  Otherwise she had no interest in describing the particulars of her early life, her age, or even her given name.  She walked back and forth across the United States for almost three decades, owning nothing but the clothes she wore:  a pair of navy blue slacks and a blue shirt, blue sneakers, and a tunic bearing her chosen name and, on the back in white letters, the simple words, “25,000 Miles on Foot for Peace.”

As far as she would reveal, Pilgrim’s early years were conventional and uneventful.  Like other people, she had pursued money and possessions.  But at a certain point she realized that this “self-centered” existence did not bring fulfillment.  After spending one night wandering in the woods she came to “a complete willingness, without any reservations, to give my life to God and to service.”  “Please use me!’ she prayed to God.  “And a great peace came over me.”

So began a long, fifteen-year period of preparation for an as-yet undefined mission.  Embracing a life of simplicity, she worked as a volunteer with various social service and peace organizations.  Apart from weaning herself from material possessions, she also pursued an arduous course of spiritual discipline to adjust to the demands of a “God-centered existence.”  She was determined to live by what she called “the laws that govern the universe.”  These included the fact that evil can be overcome only by good; that only good means can attain a good end; that those who do unloving things hurt themselves spiritually.

Among the disciplines she practiced were purification of the body, purification of thought (“I don’t eat junk foods and I don’t think junk thoughts”), and purification of desire and motive (doing nothing for self-glory or other impure ends).  She also practiced various “relinquishments,” letting go of the feeling of “separateness,” of attachments, and of all negative feelings. 

There came a point one morning when she suddenly felt uplifted in a dimension of “timelessness, spacelessness, and lightness.” She seemed not to be walking on the earth.  “Every flower, every bush, every tree seemed to wear a halo.  There was a light emanation around everything, and flecks of gold fell like slanted rain through the air.”  During this time of illumination she conceived her life mission:  She would go on pilgrimage for peace, praying constantly, rousing people from their apathy, and awakening the hearts of all whom she encountered.

Pilgrim set off from Los Angeles on January 1, 1953.  The war in Korea was raging.  Nuclear arsenals were proliferating around the globe.  The McCarthy-era investigations were smelling treason in every corner, raising suspicions that even the word “Peace” was simply a shrewd disguise for subversion.

Peace Pilgrim set off with no publicity and no organizational backing.  Carrying nothing but what she could hold in the pockets of her tunic – a toothbrush, a pen, and leaflets to distribute to anyone who asked – she simply walked from town to town, and eventually state to state. She accepted food and hospitality when it was offered.  Otherwise she fasted or slept outdoors – under a tree or a bridge, or simply in the nearest field.  The bold words on her tunic proclaimed her message and invited conversation with curious passersby.  To whomever she met she described her purpose:  “My pilgrimage covers the entire peace picture:  peace among nations, peace among groups, peace within our environment, peace among individuals, and the very, very important inner peace."

Newspapers and eventually television journalists publicized her travels.  She was invited to speak in countless schools, churches, and universities.  Sometimes she was arrested as a vagrant.  She considered such adventures no distraction from her essential mission.  Wherever she went she engaged her listeners as human beings, bearers of the image of God, with whom she eagerly shared her teachings:  how to overcome evil with good, falsehood with truth, hatred with love.

By 1964 her pilgrimage had surpassed her original goal of twenty-five thousand miles.  After that she ceased counting.  But she did not cease walking.  Long after her hair had turned silver with age, she maintained her constant pilgrimage, showing no loss of energy or enthusiasm with the passing years.  It was not the walking that killed her.  She made what she liked to call “the glorious transition to a freer life” on July 7, 1981, when a car in which she was being driven to a speaking engagement was hit in a head-on collision.

“Who am I?” she had written.  “It matters not that you know who I am; it is of little importance.  This clay garment is one of a penniless pilgrim journeying in the name of peace.  It is what you cannot see that is so very important.  I am one who is propelled by the power of faith; I bathe in the light of eternal wisdom; I am sustained by the unending energy of the universe; this is who I really am.”

Sincere thanks to Robert Ellsberg
for permission to use this chapter from his book Blessed Among All Women:  Women Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time.

Additional Resources
See: Peace Pilgrim:  Her Life and Work in Her Own Words, compiled by some of her friends (Santa Fe, NM:  An Ocean Tree Book, 1982).

See also: The Peace Pilgrim Website, for articles, photos, audio clips, and more.