Mother of Pentecost

David Littlewood looks at the life of Maria Woodworth-Etter

She goes at it like a footpad [highwayman] tackles his prey. By some supernatural power she just knocks ’em silly when they are not looking for it, and while they are down she applies the hydraulic pressure and pumps the grace of God into them by the bucketful.”

This was part of an 1885 newspaper report of meetings held by a remarkable woman evangelist in which hundreds found Christ. So many, in fact, that the police said they had never seen such a change in their city, which had been so cleaned up they had nothing to do!

The evangelist was Maria Woodworth-Etter, a woman who Pentecostal historian Carl Brumback described as ‘looking just like your grandmother, but who exercised tremendous spiritual authority over sin, disease, and demons’.

Like many of the Pentecostal pioneers of her generation, Maria (pronounced Mar-eye-ah) was brought up with little education, having been born on a farm in Lisbon, Ohio, in 1844. The tragic death of her father when she was just twelve years of age meant she had to drop out of school and led to the lack of education that later disqualified her from any formal theological training.

Maria was born again at the beginning of the Third Great Awakening at the age of 13 and immediately heard the call of God: “I heard the voice of Jesus calling me to go out into the highways and hedges and gather in the lost sheep.”

Even though her church – The Disciples of Christ – did not recognise women ministers, she felt the call to preach.