Arthur Owen Blessitt (October 27, 1940 – January 14, 2025) was an American traveling Christian preacher who was known for carrying a cross through every nation of the world.

[1] Blessitt was born in Greenville, Mississippi, on October 27, 1940, and grew up in Louisiana, where his father managed a large cotton farm.

[5] In March 1968, he opened a coffee house called His Place in a rented building next door to a topless go-go club.

On Christmas Day 1969, he began his first long journey with the cross, walking from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C.

In 1992, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he visited the other post-Soviet republics, including the Baltic States and Ukraine.

[11] He carried the cross through such places as Iraq, North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, China, South Africa, Lebanon, India, Antarctica, Palestine, Israel, Cuba, Libya, Northern and Southern Yemen, Vietnam and Mongolia.

[9] While traveling, Blessitt met numerous world and religious leaders, including George W. Bush, Billy Graham, Pope John Paul II, Yasser Arafat and Muammar al-Gaddafi.

[7] On part of a cross walk through Beirut, Blessitt chose to bring his son Arthur Joshua.