Irish Christian missionary Amy Carmichael (15 December 1867 – 18 January 1951) established a mission and an orphanage at Dohnavur, India. She spent 55 years working as a missionary in India and authored 35 books about her experiences there.
Biography of Amy Carmichael
Amy Carmichael, the eldest of seven siblings, was born in 1867 in the little Irish town of Millisle in County Down. Her parents were miller David Carmichael and his pious Christian wife Catherine. When Amy was younger, she spent four years at Harrogate Ladies College.
When Amy was sixteen, her father relocated the family to Belfast, but he passed away two years later. The Carmichaels established the Welcome Evangelical Church in Belfast. Carmichael established a Sunday morning session for the ‘Shawlies’ (mill girls who wore shawls rather than hats) in the Rosemary Street Presbyterian church hall in the middle of the 1880s. The number of people attending this mission swiftly increased to several hundred.
Amy Carmichael saw an ad in The Christian at this time for an iron hall that could be built for £500 and accommodate 500 people. In 1887, the first “Welcome Hall” was built on the corner of Cambrai Street and Heather Street thanks to two donations: £500 from Miss Kate Mitchell and a piece of land from a mill owner.
Despite having neuralgia, Amy Carmichael stayed at the Welcome until 1889, when she was called to work with the Manchester mill girls. From there, she went on to serve as a missionary abroad. She immediately came to believe that missionary work was her destiny after hearing Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission (CIM), speak about it at the Keswick Convention in 1887. She lived at the training house for women in London after applying to the CIM. It was there that she met Mary Geraldine Guinness, a missionary to China and author, who inspired her to go into missionary service. Carmichael was prepared to set ship for Asia, but she was informed that she was not fit for the job due to her health. She chose to join the Church Missionary Society after delaying her missionary career with the CIM.
Amy Carmichael’s Life Story
After spending fifteen months in Japan, Amy Carmichael came home due to health concerns. After serving briefly in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), she sought medical attention in Bangalore, India, where she decided to remain and carry on with her missionary work. The Church of England Zenana Mission gave her a commission. Working with girls and young women—some of whom were saved from practices that amounted to forced prostitution—was Carmichael’s most well-known endeavor.
In order to continue her work, she established the Dohnavur Fellowship in 1901, as she subsequently stated in The Gold Cord (1932). Thirty miles from the southern tip of India lies Dohnavur, which is located in Tamil Nadu. Count Dohna, who first provided financial support for German missionaries at the location in the early 1800s, is the source of the name. The Rev. Thomas Walker later founded a school there. Through Carmichael’s fellowship, Dohnavur became a haven for more than a thousand kids. Carmichael frequently claimed that a girl named Preena was the catalyst for her ministry of saving temple youngsters. Preena escaped after being forced to work as a temple servant. She started her new ministry when Amy Carmichael gave her a place to stay.
Members of the Dohnavur group dressed in Indian clothing and gave the rescued youngsters Indian names in an effort to honor Indian culture. Amy Carmichael herself painted her complexion with dark coffee and wore Indian clothing. A young woman who was thinking about becoming a missionary wrote to Carmichael while he was working in India, asking, “What is missionary life like?” The reply from Carmichael read, “Missionary life is simply a chance to die.”
A hospital at Dohnavur was partially financed in 1912 by the availability of funds and labor. The Dohnavur Fellowship was helping 130 girls by 1913. A home for young boys, many of whom were born to the old temple prostitutes, was added by Dohnavur in 1918. In the meanwhile, Carmichael established the Sisters of the Common Life, a Protestant religious order, in 1916.
Legacy
As a prolific author, Amy Carmichael wrote numerous books and articles detailing her experiences serving as a missionary in India.
In 1948, temple prostitution was banned in India.
At the age of 83, Carmichael passed away in India in 1951. She requested that her tomb at Dohnavur not be covered with any stones.
Amy Carmichael has been mentioned as an influence by other Christian missionaries.
Now serving about 500 people on 400 acres with 16 nurseries and a hospital, the Dohnavur Fellowship carries on the work. The C.S.I. Tirunelveli Diocese, which was established in 1896, currently oversees the foundation, which is operated by Indians. All children born in or brought to Dohnavur must attend school in the sixth grade, according to updated laws that take into account Indian legislation.
Amy Carmichael Books
- From Sunrise Land: Letters from Japan, Marshall (1895)
- From fight (1901)
- Raisins (1901)
- Things as they are; mission work in southern India, London: Morgan and Scott (1905)
- Overweights of Joy (1906)
- Beginning of a Story (1908)
- Lotus Buds, London: Morgan and Scott (1912)
- Continuation of a Story (1914)
- Walker of Tinnevelly, London: Morgan & Scott (1916) (biography of Thomas Walker)
- NorScrip (1922)
- Ragland, pioneer, Madras: S.P.C.K. Depository (1922) (biography of Thomas Gajetan Ragland)
- Made in the Pans (1917)
- Ponnammal: Her Story (1918)
- From the Forest (1920)
- Dohnavur Songs (1921)
- Tables in the Wilderness (1923)
- The Valley of Vision (1924)
- Mimosa: A True Story (1924), CLC Publications (September 2005)
- Raj (1926)
- The Widow of the Jewels (1928)
- Meal in a Barrel (1929)
- Gold Cord (1932), Christian Literature Crusade (June 1957)
- Rose from Brier (1933), Christian Literature Crusade (June 1972)
- Ploughed Under: The Story of a Little Lover, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) (1934)
- Gold by Moonlight (1935)
- Towards Jerusalem (1936)
- Windows (1937)
- If (1938), Christian Literature Crusade (June 1999) If…
- Figures of the True (1938)
- Pools and the Valley of Vision (1938)
- Kohila: The Shaping of an Indian Nurse (1939), CLC Publications (July 2003)
- His Thoughts Said…His Father Said (1941)
- Though the Mountains Shake, Madras: Diocesan Press (1943)
- Before the Door Shuts (1948)
- This One Thing (1950)
- Edges of His Ways, Fort Washington: Christian Literature Crusade (1955) Edges of His ways : selections for daily reading
- Wings (with Florence Margaret Spencer Palmer; 1960)
- Thou Givest, They Gather, Thou givest– they gather CLC Publications (June 1970)
- Candles in the Dark, Christian Literature Crusade (June 1982)
- Mountain Breezes: The Collected Poems of Amy Carmichael, Christian Literature Crusade (August 1999)
- Whispers of His Power, CLC Publications (June 1993) Whispers of His power
- That Way and No Other, Plough Publishing (January 2020)
