The Apostle of the Incas (1874-1950)
Ferdinand Anthony Stahl and his wife Ana served for three decades as tireless missionaries among the indigenous peoples of Bolivia and Peru. Known as “the apostle of the Incas” and “the apostle of the campas,” Stahl combined medical, educational, and evangelistic work across seven distinct mission fields in South America, from the highlands of Lake Titicaca to the jungles of the Amazon basin. If there is one missionary couple for which Peru is known in world Adventism, it is Ferdinand and Ana Stahl.
A Childhood Without Love
Ferdinand Anthony Stahl was born on January 3, 1874, in Pentwater, Michigan. His father died when he was eight months old and his stepfather mistreated him, forcing him to flee home at age ten. For years he harbored the prayer: “Lord, make me strong so I can hit my stepfather.” When he finally returned as a young man and rolled up his sleeves, his stepfather shrank back — and Ferdinand abandoned the plan for revenge.
Marriage and Conversion
Ana Christina Carlson was born November 27, 1870, in Sweden. She and Ferdinand met in a Milwaukee restaurant where she was a waitress and he a regular customer. They married when he was nineteen and she twenty-one. After nine years of marriage, they met Nelson Hubbert, an Adventist colporteur, and were baptized in March 1901. They trained as nurses at the Battle Creek Sanitarium.
“The Hardest Place in the World”
Ferdinand wrote to Ellen G. White asking to go to the hardest mission field. She directed them to the 1909 General Conference session in Washington, D.C. There they met Joseph W. Westphal, president of Adventist work in South America. The Stahls offered to pay their own travel. On June 26, 1909, they departed for South America.
Bolivia
They worked in Bolivia for almost two years, traveling on horseback through mining zones, tropical and highland areas, combining Bible sales with medical work.
Lake Titicaca
In September 1910, Ferdinand visited Manuel Z. Camacho, who had gathered many neighbors. Fifteen were baptized, including Camacho. When Stahl left, more than a hundred people accompanied him, carrying flags, many in tears. On May 27, 1911, the Stahl family arrived in Plateria by Lake Titicaca. That Sabbath, twenty-nine were baptized and the second Adventist church in Peru was organized with forty-six members.
The Stahls focused on health education — teaching hygiene, extracting teeth, performing minor surgeries, and establishing schools. By 1918, Ferdinand reported the baptism of 500 believers in one year, a membership of 2,075, and forty-six missionary schools, of which forty-five were led by teachers trained in Plateria.
Cloud Forest and Amazon
The Stahls established the Metraro missionary station among the Ashaninka people. In 1927, Ana opened a maternity home in Iquitos that became the Clinica Adventista Ana Stahl, operating for almost thirty years.
Later Years and Death
In 1939, the Stahls retired to the US but could not stay idle. Ferdinand declared that “in the Christian life, there is no retirement from preaching the gospel.” They worked among Klamath Indians in California before health forced their return. Ferdinand died on November 30, 1950, at age seventy-six. Ana died on October 5, 1968.
Legacy
Ferdinand shared his experiences in In the Land of the Incas (1919). The Stahls are credited by sociologists with helping empower Peru’s indigenous people. The Fernando Stahl Museum in Plateria preserves their memory. Their lives embodied the principle that true missionary work addresses the physical, educational, and spiritual needs of the whole person.
