Fanny Crosby
1820-1915 19th century Feast day: February 11
Gratitude that turns deprivation into song: what is missing becomes the very space of praise.
Who was Fanny Crosby?
Blinded at six weeks by a botched medical treatment, raised in New York State by her mother and a grandmother who taught her the Bible by heart, a pupil and then a teacher at the New York Institution for the Blind. She wrote more than eight thousand hymns (Blessed Assurance and To God Be the Glory among them), often under pseudonyms, and gave her last years to the rescue missions of Manhattan's poorest streets. The Episcopal Church keeps her memory on February 11.
In their own words
It seemed intended by the blessed Providence of God, that I should be blind all my life; and I thank Him for the dispensation.
Oh, what a happy soul I am, although I cannot see, I am resolved that in this world contented I will be.
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. O what a foretaste of glory divine. Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.