Florence Nightingale

The photo that accompanied Florence Nightingale's prayer request

Followers of William Branham will often tell the story of the miraculous healing of Florence Nightingale.

Testimony by Rev. Gwilam Francis

Brother Branham and myself visited Miss Florence Nightingale Shirlaw at her mother’s home at 11, Clarendon Road, London W II…We were only four persons in the room that Sunday afternoon, Miss Shirlaw, her mother, Brother Branham and myself, and you [Gordon Lindsay] will probably recall that we were probably there for over an hour. When the atmosphere seemed to be charged with the presence and power of God, Brother Branham took Miss Shirlaw’s hand, and offered a very short prayer, after which he requested her to eat. That is all that happened in that room…Miss Shirlaw’s recovery took a few weeks, I was in constant touch with her during this period.” (Originally published The Voice of Healing, Magazine, 1954)

This photo accompanied her testimony of healing.

Reverend Francis had his testimony of the events in England published in the Voice of Healing Magazine because many of the facts published in Julius Stadsklev's book, "A Prophet Visits South Africa" about the event were wrong. Reverend Francis also concluded that Miss Shirlaw's healing was real.

Some of the facts that changed include:

• No THUS SAITH THE LORD
• No dove in the window (this directly contradicts William Branham)
• There were four people in the room: William Branham, Gordon Lindsay, Rev. Francis, and Miss Shirlaw (no nurses).
• Miss Shirlaw was at her home, and not on the airplane.
• Reverend Francis arranged the meeting, not the Crown.

Other corrections to statements made by William Branham:

• Florence Nightingale (the famous nurse) never married and never had children.
• The Red Cross was founded by Henry Dunant.
• Florence's last name was "Shirlaw", not "Nightingale".
• William Branham took credit for the healing, yet there were other people and ministers present that prayed for her, as well as the medical attention she continued receiving.

It has also been noted that the Picadilly Hotel, where William Branham was staying, is a very expensive and prestigious hotel.

Testimony by William Branham

October 27, 1952, Sermon: Jesus Christ the Same Yesterday, Today and Forever

How many seen the picture of Florence Nightingale? It was yonder in London, England, when she only weighed about thirty-seven pounds. She couldn't even move her hand or nothing: cancer on the duodenum of the stomach. And while standing there praying for her, a little dove flew in, set down on the window, and begin to go back and forth, cooing. When I raised up, the--the ministers begin to say, "Did you see the dove?" I said... I started to say, "I see the dove," and the Spirit of the Lord spoke and said, "THUS SAITH THE LORD, she'll live and not die." And she weighs a hundred and fifty-five pounds, in perfect health. See. See. Now, the God that saved Florence Nightingale, the great-granddaughter of the late Florence Nightingale, the founder of the Red Cross, can save your life tonight; can save your life tonight.

September 2, 1953, Sermon: Testimony

Now, look friends, think of King George of England, when he was healed with multiple sclerosis, when we had prayer for him. Think of Florence Nightingale, her grandmother, the founder of the Red Cross, was about sixty pounds of weight, laid dying yonder with a cancer on the duodenal of the stomach, laying there dying. A little dove flew into the bush there and the Spirit of God come and said, "THUS SAITH THE LORD, she shall live." And she weighs a hundred and fifty-five pounds in perfect health.

November 6, 1953, Sermon: Do you Now Believe?

When I went in to London, the day that we arrived on the International Airport in London, on our road to the Scandinavian country and to pray for the king... I heard them page me. And Mr. Baxter, Mr. Lindsay, many of these men that you people know, was with me. And they went in, and it was the Anglican minister. They brought Miss Florence Nightingale from South Africa, how she knowed, less it was through the crown, I couldn't know yet. But she knew we was going to land there that day. And she come in about fifteen minutes before we did, and I couldn't even get the woman... They couldn't get the woman out of the plane, they thought she was dead then. And I said, "Well, there's thousands of people between here and the plane. I couldn't get to it. I'm going down to Buckingham Palace, then to Westminster Abbey, and then I'll--I'll be at the Piccadilly Hotel, you come get me, we'll go have prayer for her."

August 5, 1960, Sermon: Lamb and Dove

Oh yes, the dove is a sweet bird. I've had a lot of dealing with them. One time, when I went to pray for Florence Nightingale, her great grandmother founded the Red Cross, and you got her picture here in the book, called "Prophet Visits Africa," by Julius Stadsklev.

And when I went into London, the plane stopped and I heard them paging me in the... They had all the escort out there, and someone said, "There's a lady dying over here." And a plane's just been brought in from South Africa. Well, I--I couldn't go over there, I couldn't get through the crowd. And I had someone to go over, and say we would take her to some other place as soon as I'd went and done my duties for being there, pray--to pray for the king and so forth. I'd come back to the Piccadilly Hotel, and then they could meet me there. And when I went to the room, to this woman, she had wrote me a letter, Mrs. Florence Nightingale, and wanted me to come pray for her. I couldn't do it. She only weighed about sixty pounds

And if you'll notice the picture, we had to put something across it this way to get the picture. Brother Lindsay did that, because it was a small string of a clout over her. Her limbs were just about that big around, up around the hip. The veins had collapsed. How the woman was living, I do not know. I went into the room, and she was in a parish just behind the church. And she'd had two nurses, and I said, "Are you Mrs. Nightingale?" And I looked and her jaws had sunk in, her cheek bones out, and that kind of like the square part of the skull, where it laces together was showing. No flesh at all.

And she started to cry, and I wondered where there could even be enough moisture that she could cry. She took glucose and all of her bowels was wound up with cancer in her stomach. How the woman was living, I don't know. I couldn't understand a thing; she was moving her lips, and the nurse got down to see what she said. And she said, "Have Brother Branham to pray to God to let me die."

Oh, I tried to get a hold of her hand, and the nurse picked up her arm, and laid that dead form of bones and sinew in my hands, cold as it could be, and the knuckles and joints just holding together. What a feeling of a human being laying like that.

I could not pray for her to die, when I was there praying for sick to get well. So I asked the minister, there was seven or eight in the room, and I said, "Let us kneel down."

And in England, if anyone's ever been there, when the fog comes in, you just can't see nothing. That was a very foggy day. The cab had to go just right along as easy as he could to get through the fog. And there had been a great wave of it come in; we were near the coast, and it was so foggy I could just see there was a tree standing by the window. When I knelt down by the side the window, the sill was about that far up, even with my face, and I started to pray. And as I started to pray, "Almighty God, the Author of Everlasting Life, the Giver of all good gifts. Send upon this poor, dying creature, here, Thy blessing." Just as I started to pray, a little dove flew in from somewhere, set down on this sill, begin walking back and forth, cooing, just about one foot from where my face was, praying. And I thought it was a pet there at the house, I'd just been in England about four or five hours, and I thought, maybe, it's just a pet at the house. It walked to and fro, up-and-down this little sill. And then when I finally prayed and said, "Amen," raised up, the little dove flew away. And I was going to say, "Was that a pet dove?" And the ministers was talking about what was that dove doing there. Well, I said, "Is it a pet dove?"

They said, "No. They'd never seen it before."

And I turned around to look at the woman, there standing before me, stood a strong and healthy woman. I said, "THUS SAITH THE LORD, you'll live and not die." Turn the next page in the book, and look at her a year later. She's nursing now in England, strong, healthy. God in the form of a dove setting at the window, sent His messenger.

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