Smith Wigglesworth was a revivalist healer and preacher who shaped much of early Pentecostalism.
Beside his remarkable surname, here are six things you should know about Smith Wigglesworth.
1. Humble origins
Born to a poor family in Yorkshire, England in 1859, Smith had an impoverished upbringing. He grew up working in factories and picking turnips in fields, and was illiterate. He later became a plumber.
2. Diverse spirituality
He was converted at age eight, and with his parents attended Anglican and Methodist churches. He was confirmed by an Anglican bishop, and baptised in a Baptist church. He also learned from the conservative Plymouth Brethren movement. His wife was a Salvation Army preacher, and he later became a significant figure in the Pentecostal church. As the writer J Stephen Lang notes, it was a rich, sprawling heritage.
3. Powerful preacher
Despite a disadvantaged upbringing, fame was not withheld from Wigglesworth. Despite his illiteracy, he said his wife taught him to read the Bible and that it was the only book he ever read. He became a preaching celebrity in his day, sought by many and travelling far to share the word of God.
4. Committed to conversion
Wigglesworth was full of evangelical fervour, and was committed to the power of Christian conversion. He said he could never let a day pass without bringing someone to an experience of God.
5. He became a healer, after being healed himself
Recovering from a ruptured appendix, Wigglesworth was inspired to bring God's healing power to others in need. Whenever Wigglesworth became ill himself, he rejected the help of medical doctors.
His legacy as a healer may be his most enduring. He was known for his dramatic flair, and 'hands-on' approach to the miraculous: he would often hit, slap or punch the afflicted part of the body to expel its illness.
He was compelled by the idea of spiritual warfare, believing that forces like cancer were often inherently satanic.
Although punching the sick to heal them is unorthodox, he explained his approach thus: 'You might think by the way I went about praying for the sick that I was sometimes unloving and rough, but oh, friends, you have no idea what I see behind the sickness and the one who is afflicted. I am not dealing with the person; I am dealing with the satanic forces that are binding the afflicted.'
6. He became a world traveller
The Yorkshire plumber travelled further than he probably ever imagined in his lifetime. His ministry drew crowds of thousands, taking him to the US, India, Ceylon, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and across Europe. His charismatic legacy has endured as an inspiration to many today.
7. One of his chapels has been restored
The Bowland Street Mission in Manningham, Yorkshire where many of his healing meetings took place has been restored as a place of pilgrimage and praise continuing ministry.
Perhaps a man with his kind of faith wouldn't have been surprised about how his life turned out. He once said: 'There is nothing impossible with God. All the impossibility is with us when we measure God by the limitations of our unbelief.'
