Annie Skau Berntsen (Chinese: 司務道), also known as Sister Annie (29 May 1911 – 26 November 1992) was a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

who served in China and Hong Kong.

Biography

After training as a nurse, she worked at both the

Ullevål Hospital Ullevaal Stadion () is an all-seater football stadium located in Oslo, Norway. It is the home ground of the Norway national football team, and the site of the Norwegian Cup Final. From its opening in 1926 to 2009 it was the home ground of FK ...

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

and at the

Dikemark Dikemark Hospital is a psychiatric hospital with 170 patients in Asker, Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost port ...

, a psychiatric hospital in

Asker Asker ( no, Asker), properly called Askerbygda in Norwegian, is a district and former Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Akershus, Norway. From 2020 it is part of the larger administrative municipality Asker, Viken (also known as Greate ...

. By the age of 27, she had joined the Norwegian Missionary Association (''Det Norske Misjonsforbund''). On 23 December 1938 Annie arrived in

Shaanxi Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see #Name, § Name) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichu ...

, a province in northern

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. She remained in the country until the conclusion of the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...

in 1950. At 190 cm, she was often the tallest woman the Chinese locals had ever seen before. However the defeat of the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

made it impossible for foreign missionaries to remain in China, so she was forced to leave in 1951. From 1952 she coordinated

relief work Humanitarian aid is material and logistic assistance to people who need help. It is usually short-term help until the long-term help by the government and other institutions replaces it. Among the people in need are the homeless, refugees, and ...

among Chinese

refugee A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

s in Hong Kong. In 1953 she helped co-found a

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

sanatorium A sanatorium (from Latin '' sānāre'' 'to heal, make healthy'), also sanitarium or sanitorium, are antiquated names for specialised hospitals, for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments and convalescence. Sanatoriums are often ...

with Helen Wilson, a missionary from Scotland. In 2013 th
Haven of Hope Hospital
celebrated its 60th anniversary providing services specially designed for elderly people with chronic illness living in the community. Sister Annie became a national hero in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

when her life as a missionary was told on the Norwegian progra
"''This is Your Life''" ("Dette er ditt liv")
In 1963 she was appointed as a First Class Knight of St. Olav. She married Reidar Berntsen in Norway on 25 June 1966, and continued her missionary work in Hong Kong on Haven on Hope Hospital and Mission Covenant Church, until her retirement in 1978. A 29 December 1975 ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' magazine cover story named her as one of the world's "living saints" in a list that included

Mother Teresa Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu, MC (; 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), better known as Mother Teresa ( sq, Nënë Tereza), was an Indian-Albanian Catholic nun who, in 1950, founded the Missionaries of Charity. Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu () was bo ...

, Schwester Selma, Dom

Hélder Câmara Hélder Pessoa Câmara (7 February 1909 – 27 August 1999) was a Brazilian Catholic archbishop. A self-identified socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characteriz ...

, and Father

Matta El Meskeen Father Matta El Meskeen (English: Matthew the Poor; 20 September 1919 – 8 June 2006), born Youssef Iskandar, was a Coptic Orthodox monk. He was the key figure in the revival of Coptic monasticism which began in 1969 when he was appointed to ...

Family

Her brother

Bjørn Skau Bjørn Skau (26 February 1929 – 2 March 2013) was a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party. Skau was born in Borre. In 1959, during the third cabinet Gerhardsen, he was appointed personal secretary (today known as political advisor) in th ...

, was a former Norwegian attorney general.

Books by Annie Skau Berntsen

* ''My Chinese Diary – My Yes to Life'' (''Min kinesiske dagbok – mitt ja til livet''), Oslo, 1986. * ''My Father's Daughter. from the Desert Light to the Source Bed. Journal Leaves from a Life Among the Chinese'' (''Min fars datter. Fra ørkenslette til kildevang. Dagboksblader fra et liv blant kinesere''), Oslo, 1988. * ''Lovely on the Mountains'', Hong Kong.

Literature

* Arvid Møller and Lasse Thorseth: ''Annie Skau'', Oslo, 1977 * Sverre S. Salvesen: Sister Annie in China and Hong Kong (''Søster Annies stordåd i Kina og Hong Kong''), 1967. * Sverre S. Amundsen and Svenn Otto Brechan: ''Sister Annie - Child Protection: A Biography of Youth'' (''Søster Annie – barnas beskytter: en biografi for ungdom''),

Ansgar Ansgar (8 September 801 – 3 February 865), also known as Anskar, Saint Ansgar, Saint Anschar or Oscar, was Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen in the northern part of the Kingdom of the East Franks. Ansgar became known as the "Apostle of the North" b ...

, 1989 – * Arvid Møller: ''Sister Annie: At Home in the Sky'' (''Søster Annie: Hjemme i himlen''), Lunde Forlag, Oslo, 1993 – * Haven of Hope Christian Service og Haven of Hope Evangelistic Fellowship (utg.): ''A Grain Of Wheat ─ A Memorial Album of Sister Annie Skau Berntsen'', Hong Kong, 1994 * Haven of Hope Christian Service og Haven of Hope Evangelistic Fellowship (utg.): Trails of Glad Tidings in Shaanxi (In Chinese, with English translation), Hong Kong * Haven of Hope Christian Service and Haven of Hope Evangelistic Fellowship (utg.): 荒原上 (written in Chinese), Hong Kong.

References

External links

The Mission Covenant Church of Norway: Brief Overview of Annie Skau Berntsen
* http://www.hohcs.org.hk/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Berntsen, Annie 1911 births 1992 deaths Christian medical missionaries Female Christian missionaries Florence Nightingale Medal recipients Lutheran missionaries in China Norwegian expatriates in China Norwegian Lutheran missionaries