Gladys Aylward

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Gladys Aylward

Gladys May Aylward (born February 24, 1902 in London , Great Britain , † January 3, 1970 in Taiwan , name in Chinese  艾偉德  /  艾伟德 , Pinyin Ài Wěi Dé ) was a British missionary .

Life

Born the daughter of a postman, Gladys Aylward worked as a housemaid from the age of 14 until she was persuaded by a sermon in 1920 to devote her life to proselytizing and spreading Christian teaching. Aylward applied to be a missionary for the China Inland Mission , but was rejected there for the time being. After two years, she had saved enough money to self-finance the trip and set out on her trip to Yangcheng , China. The war in Manchuria at the time made the trip difficult.

She was accepted by one of the very few missionaries in northern China, Ms. Jeannie Lawson, who was 74 years old. Both ran the hostel to the eight bliss for travelers, whom they shared the message of the Bible with in the evenings . After Ms. Lawson's death, Aylward was offered the position of "foot inspector" by the Yangcheng Mandarin . Their job was to control the ban on traditional foot lacing . This position enabled her to travel around the country and spread the Christian doctrine in the villages of China. During the Sino-Japanese War , Aylward took in many orphans in 1937 . In 1940 she fled with over a hundred children on foot over the mountains to Xi'an and placed the children in a camp made by Madame Chiang Kai-shek .

Then she moved to the Tibetan border and worked in a settlement for lepers . As a result of the journey and the associated hardships, she fell ill with typhus . Her health deteriorated over the years and in 1947 she was forced to return to England. There and in the USA she gave many lectures about her experiences in the following years. In 1957 she traveled again to China (Taiwan), founded an orphanage and stayed there as a missionary for the rest of her life. She died in Taiwan on January 3, 1970.

Her life was the basis for the film Die Herberge zur 6. Glückseligkeit ( The Inn of the Sixth Happiness ) (1958) with Ingrid Bergman and Curd Jürgens in the leading roles, as well as the musical Jinai (2008) by Marco Chimienti.

Fonts

  • One of the unconquered. Weg und Kampf der Gladys Aylward , Brockhaus 1951 ( Gladys Aylward, one of the undefeated. The story of Gladys Aylward as told by her to RO Latham )

Literature and Sources

  • Alan Burgess: An untalented woman . 2nd edition. Siebenstern Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich u. Hamburg 1969, ( The Small Women )
  • Vera Cowie: Until the end - one of the undefeated . Hännsler Verlag, Neuhausen-Stuttgart, ISBN 3-7751-0307-4 ( Girl Friday to Gladys Aylward )
  • Christine Hunter: Gladys Aylward. , ISBN 3-7751-2700-3
  • Dave Jackson, Jackson Neta: Homeless. Gladys Aylward . CLV, 2001, ISBN 3-89397-445-8
  • Hildegard Horie, stronger than a thousand water buffalo. The secret of the Gladys Aylward . Esras.net, Niederbüren 2017 (8th edition), ISBN 978-3-03890-003-0
  • Sam Wellmann: Gladys Aylward: For the Children of China (Heroes of the Faith) . Barbour Publishing, 2005, 1981, ISBN 1-59310-628-9
  • MA Mijnders-van Woerden: Gladys Aylward. The woman with the book . CLV, 2008, ISBN 978-3-89397-689-8 (Dutch De vrouw met het boek ) ( PDF )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Antonius Lux (ed.): Great women of world history , Sebastian Lux Verlag , Munich 1963, p. 36

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Aylward, Gladys
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Aylward, Gladys May (full name); 艾偉德 (Chinese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British missionary in China
DATE OF BIRTH February 24, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH 3rd January 1970
Place of death Taiwan