Alice Belle Garrigus (August 2, 1858 in Rockville,

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– August 30, 1949 in

Clarke's Beach Clarke's Beach is a town on Conception Bay in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. In the 2021 census the town had a population of 1,400. It is the home of a number of well-known Newfoundland artists, and is a favourite place f ...

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) was a

Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement

evangelist Evangelist may refer to: Religion * Four Evangelists, the authors of the canonical Christian Gospels * Evangelism, publicly preaching the Gospel with the intention of spreading the teachings of Jesus Christ * Evangelist (Anglican Church), a c ...

and a founder of the Pentecostal church in

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. She spent the first half of her life in various locations in

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; she studied at

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(later Mount Holyoke College) and worked as a school teacher. She was raised an

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, later joined the

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Church, which she served for a time as an itinerant preacher, and in 1907 converted to Pentecostalism. She resumed preaching, and over the next couple of years received, she claimed, messages from "mysterious strangers" and directly from God that she should found a mission in St. John's. Together with a missionary couple, she travelled to Newfoundland, arriving in St. John's in December 1910. The three established the "Bethesda Mission" and began their work in 1911. In 1912, her co-preachers left Newfoundland for health reasons, leaving Garrigus in charge. The Pentecostal movement grew quite slowly during its first decade. Garrigus, not known for her organizational strengths, did not expand the movement outside the St. John's area. The main thrusts of her preaching were personal salvation through Christ, and his imminent, apocalyptic return to Earth. After a crusade in 1919 by the evangelist Victoria Booth-Clibborn Demarest, interest in Pentecostalism increased. New converts started their own personal missions, and one of these, Robert C. English, eventually became co-pastor with Garrigus of the Bethesda Mission. The Pentecostal Assemblies of Newfoundland was incorporated in 1925. Garrigus subsequently joined forces with

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, a Pentecostal pastor who had once studied for the

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ministry. This led to Vaters replacing English as the head of the movement. Alice Garrigus remained in Newfoundland for the rest of her life and continued to be a principal figure in the Pentecostal church.

References

* Garrigus, Alice Belle,
Walking in the King's Highway
' * Janes, Burton K. ''History of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Newfoundland'' * Janes, Burton K. ''The Lady Who Came: The biography of Alice Belle Garrigus, Newfoundland's first Pentecostal Pioneer, Volume One (1858-1908)'' * Janes, Burton K. ''The Lady Who Stayed: The biography of Alice Belle Garrigus, Newfoundland's first Pentecostal Pioneer, Volume Two (1908-49)'' * Milley, David P.,
A Study of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Newfoundland's Message of Separation
', Doctor of Ministry thesis, Providence Theological Seminary, 1999. * Piper, Liza,

' * Rollmann, Hans,

' {{DEFAULTSORT:Garrigus, Alice Belle 1858 births 1949 deaths Newfoundland and Labrador religious figures Canadian Pentecostal pastors Converts to Pentecostal denominations Former Anglicans Former Congregationalists American emigrants to Canada People from Rockville, Connecticut Mount Holyoke College alumni