Character Traits of Women Within the Salvation Army

Although William Booth founded the Salvation Army, his wife Catherine became known as the “Mother” of the Salvation Army, Catherine nurtured this Army through almost 3 decades and now holds an honored place among the great women of the Christian faith. Here is a brief overview of Catherine’s strengths that nurtured the growth of the Salvation Army:

Catherine was afflicted from childhood with curvature of the spine and later with symptoms of tuberculosis and angina pectoris. Physically, she was never strong and could scarcely remember a day without pain but she persevered against these and other immense odds to become one of the most famous women preachers of her country.

Catherine had read the Bible through several times before she reached her teens, and learned to pray unceasingly. She passed though a religious experience at the age of sixteen. This youthful foundation of her faith assisted her with her career.

Catherine was critical and analytical. Her husband William was creative and organized. This combination largely constituted their effectiveness as a couple.

Catherine felt that woman’s active participation was essential in the triumphant march of Christianity. The Booth creed held that in Jesus Christ there was neither male nor female. They said that the Gospel, like nature, placed both sexes on a footing of complete mental and spiritual equality.

Catherine worked to deepen the dedication and extend the usefulness of women. The response to her witness to people in trouble encouraged her belief in the importance of personal contact. She devoted two evenings a week to systematic house-to-house visitation.

Catherine taught her family to prize the contribution women could make to Christian progress. She tried to impress her sons with the fact that their sisters were as intelligent and capable as they were in serving others. She often reminded them that “Jesus Christ’s principle was to put woman on the same platform as man, although I am sorry to say His apostles did not always act up to it.” Her eight children went on to serve the afflicted, downtrodden and the forgotten.

Catherine recognized the destruction of England’s womanhood in the prostitution of young girls under the age of sixteen. Catherine helped to establish London’s first Rescue Home for young girls.

In 1888, Catherine received the news that she had cancer with the calmness of a true Christian. She addressed 50,000 followers on the Salvation Army’s 25th anniversary. Her words pointed toward the future: “Love one another. Help your comrades in dark hours. I am dying under the Army flag; it is yours to live and fight under. God is my salvation and refuge in storm.”

At the funeral service, her husband summed up her traits. William spoke of her as the “flower in his garden for years, his shadow from the burning sun.” He described her as a “servant who had served him without fee or reward, who had administered, for love, to his health and comfort,” as a friend “who had understood the rise and fall of his feelings, the bent of his thoughts, and the purpose of his existence.” He praised her also as the mother of his children, “who had cradled and nursed and trained them for the service of the living God,” as a wife “who for years had never given him real cause for grief, who had stood by his side, ever willing to interpose herself between him and the enemy, and ever strongest when the battle was fiercest.”

Catherine Booth is still an inspiration through her books: including Female Ministry, Aggressive Christianity, Life and Death, Popular Christianity, Papers on Godliness and Practical Religion.

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