MARIA BEULAH WOODWORTH-ETTER

Faith healer evangelist MARIA BEULAH WOODWORTH-ETTER (1844-1924) had a vast influence in the early Pentecostal movement. The Dictionary of the Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements says that "she was a monumental figure in terms of spreading the pentecostal message" and notes that "most early Pentecostals looked at Woodworth-Etter as a godsend to the movement and accepted her uncritically." When she conducted a five-month healing crusade in Texas for F.F. Bosworth, "the list of influential Pentecostals who flocked to Dallas was like a 'Who's Who' of early Pentecostalism" (Ibid., p. 365).

Her meetings were characterized by spirit slaying, prophesying, trances, and general pandemonium. "She often went into trances during a service, standing like a statue for an hour or more with her hands raised while the service continued" (Dictionary of Pentecostal, p. 901). She was thus dubbed the "trance evangelist" and the "voodoo priestess." She falsely prophesied that the San Francisco Bay area would be destroyed by an earthquake and tidal wave in 1890.

She accepted an invitation from Mormons to preach in Nebraska in 1920.