Amy Carmichael

Amy Beatrice Carmichael (1867–1951) was an Irish Christian missionary and the founder of the Dohnavur Fellowship in southern India, where she served for more than fifty years. Born on December 16, 1867, in Millisle, County Down, Ireland, she was the oldest of seven children in a devout Presbyterian family. From a young age she showed great compassion and a strong Christian faith. While still a teenager she organized Bible teaching and outreach to young girls working in the mills around Belfast, which grew rapidly and demonstrated her early commitment to ministry.

Amy felt a call to foreign missions after hearing Hudson Taylor speak, and despite lifelong health struggles with neuralgia, she pursued that calling. After brief periods of service in Japan and Ceylon, she was commissioned by the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society and went to India in the mid‑1890s. It was there that she devoted her life to serving women and children who were trapped in oppressive social customs.

The most significant work of her life began when she encountered young girls caught up in the devadasi tradition, a practice that often led to exploitation and forced prostitution. In response she opened a refuge and, in 1901, established the Dohnavur Fellowship in Tamil Nadu to provide a safe home, education, and spiritual care for rescued children. Members of the community often wore Indian dress and adopted local customs as a sign of respect for the people they served. 

Carmichael was also a prolific writer, publishing more than thirty books that chronicled missionary life, spiritual devotion, and lessons from her ministry. She continued her work even after a serious fall left her largely bedridden in later years. Amy Carmichael died in India on January 18, 1951, at the age of 83. Her legacy lives on through the continuing work of the fellowship she founded and through the impact she had on generations of Christians committed to service and evangelism.