Florence Nightingale

1820-1910 19th century Feast day: August 13

Prayer that becomes work: to serve the sick as one would serve God, without display.

Who was Florence Nightingale?

The founder of modern nursing, from her youth she heard an inner call to God's service and broke with the expectations of her milieu to tend the wounded of the Crimean War. Behind the tireless reformer watched a soul of prayer, convinced that to serve the sick was to serve God himself.

In their own words

God spoke to me and called me to his service.

Private note (7 February 1837)

I would have given the Church my heart, my head, my hands. She would not have them.

Suggestions for Thought (Cassandra)

Live your life while you have it. Life is a splendid gift.

Reported in Edward Cook, The Life of Florence Nightingale (1913), II, p. 434