Jemima Wilkinson

Jemima Wilkinson (November 29 1752 - July 1 1819) was a charismatic evangelist who preached total abstinence to her congregation of "Universal Friends."

Related Topics:
November 29 - 1752 - July 1 - 1819 - Abstinence

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As a young woman, she was beset by a debilitating illness which culminated in a fevered ecstatic trance during which she sermonized, and subsequent to which she collapsed and was declared dead. After having been already placed in a coffin she revived and knocked on the inside. This propelled her to claim that she was an incarnation of Jesus Christ, and preach a regimen of strict abstinence, which she may have, according to some stories, only imperfectly observed herself.

Related Topics:
Jesus - Christ

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She preached to residents of Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, finally settling with her congregation in the state of New York in the Finger Lake area.

Related Topics:
Rhode Island - Pennsylvania - Massachusetts - New York

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After her death, her body was left unburied, to await her raising from the dead, and the faithful retained this expectation for decades, despite visible decay of the body.

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