Resurrected writers: Catherine Booth

The dead still speak
An occasional series by Maxwell Ryan

N

early 118 years ago, in the English coastal town of Clacton-on-Sea, heaven became richer as one of the best minds of the Victorian era - Catherine Booth, mother of The Salvation Army - slipped loose her hold on earthly life.  At 61 years of age the woman who was among the most compelling speakers of her era (one of her many biographers wrote that she was “one of the most remarkable woman who has ever lived”) succumbed to the ravages of cancer, her husband William and her children by her bedside.

Catherine was born in 1829 and from an early age, despite ill health as a child, revealed the qualities that would mark her as an extraordinary person.  She was ardent, yet her passion was joined to a formidable intellect and command of language. By age 12 she had read the Bible through eight times, the knowledge thus gained playing a large part in her later trenchant public sermons and lectures.

› Continue reading

Tags: Catherine Booth, writing