Marie Monsen (

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

: 孟慕貞 or 孟瑪麗; born 1878 in

Sandviken, Norway Sandviken is a traditional neighbourhood of the city of Bergen in Vestland county, Norway. Location Geographically, it is located northeast of the city center, in a small bay off the Byfjorden. The neighbourhood begins north of Bergenhus Fortres ...

– 1962) 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 active in North and Central

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 ...

between 1901 and 1932.

Career

Marie Monsen was born in 1878 in

. Monsen started her working life as a graduate teacher and arrived in China on 1 September 1901. She began a three-term, 30-year mission, becoming an important figure in the history of the

charismatic renewal The Catholic Charismatic Renewal is a movement within the Catholic Church that is part of the wider charismatic movement across historic Christian churches. The Renewal has been described as a "current of grace". It began in 1967 when Cath ...

in China. While popular with the Chinese, she was nonetheless marginalized by some traditionalists in Norway due to her

heterodox In religion, heterodoxy (from Ancient Greek: , "other, another, different" + , "popular belief") means "any opinions or doctrines at variance with an official or orthodox position". Under this definition, heterodoxy is similar to unorthodoxy, w ...

Christian beliefs. Between 1901 and 1932 she worked almost exclusively for the China Mission Association, and became widely acknowledged as one of the matriarchs of the

Chinese house church In China, house churches or family churches (), are Protestant assemblies in the People's Republic of China that operate independently from the state-sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) and China Christian Council (CCC). They represen ...

movement, working closely with Asbjørn Aavik, another prominent missionary. In 1935 Monsen joined the free evangelical congregation in

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

, Norway, having returned home in 1932 to care for her sick parents. She remained active in the intercession ministry, retiring in 1962. She wrote a short book detailing many of the events that took place during her missionary work in China, entitled ''A Present Help.'' Her remains are held at Solheim cemetery in Bergen, Norway.

Monument in Bergen, Norway

Monsen figures prominently in the introduction of ''The Heavenly Man,'' a true account of the life of Liu Zhenying, a contemporary Chinese Christian better known as

Brother Yun Liu Zhenying (), known as Brother Yun (, literally "Brother Cloud"), born 1958, is an exiled Chinese Christian house church leader, evangelist, and proponent of the Back To Jerusalem movement. Brother Yun was involved in the Christian house chur ...

. In 1999 Yun asked the congregation of a church in Bergen to prepare a monument representing Monsen's missionary work in

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

, his home province. The monument was completed in 2001.''The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yu'' by Brother Yun, Paul Hattaway (2002), p. 17

References

External links

* Olav Golf: ''Marie Monsen : kinamisjonær – bønnekjempe – kvinneaktivist,'' 2000 * Valerie Griffiths: Not less than everything – ''norsk utgave: Guds kvinner i Kina : Marie Monsen og kvinnene som ofret alt for evangeliet,'' 2006 * Jakob Straume: Marie Monsen : ''en vekkerrøst,'' 1969 * Asbjørn Aavik: ''Aks i modning'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Monsen, Marie Clergy from Bergen Norwegian expatriates in China 1962 deaths 1878 births Norwegian Protestant missionaries Protestant missionaries in China Charismatics