A revered modern saint

Elizabeth Paul was an Anglican preacher and healer whose ministry in the Eastern Cape drew large numbers of people. Today, 56 years after her death and seven years after she was canonised, pilgrims still visit her prayer room in Tsolo in the hope of blessing and healing, writes Mike Burgess.

- Mike Burgess

Every year on 13 and 14 May, the interdenominational prayer movement Indaba Zosindiso (‘Stories of Salvation’) hosts a festival in the small Eastern Cape town of Tsolo, 42km from Mthatha. The occasion is to commemorate the life of Anglican Saint Elizabeth Paul, and pilgrims from across the country can be seen jostling to enter a tiny rondavel where Paul diligently prayed while evangelising in the region during the 1950s and early 1960s. Pilgrims are attracted to the site not only to honour Paul’s life, but also in the hope of having their lives blessed and their physical ailments healed.

Little is known about Elizabeth Paul’s (née Spalding) early life apart from the fact that she was born on 19 December 1906 in Zandukwana, Tsolo, to a Xhosa mother and white father. She was raised in a Christian home and schooled locally before marrying James Paul. The marriage was childless.