Amy Carmichael
Amma of Dohnavur
Amy Carmichael settled in the Tamil south and never went home again. When a small girl named Preena escaped a temple house and ran to her, she discovered a hidden traffic in children dedicated as temple servants, and she gave the rest of her life to rescuing them — gathering them into a family-style community at Dohnavur that she led as 'Amma' until her death.
- Rescued young girls dedicated as temple servants — 'married' to a deity and reared into a life that had degenerated into prostitution — beginning with seven-year-old Preena. carmichael-chance-to-die p.174
- Gathered the rescued children into the Dohnavur Fellowship, a family-style community of refuge in the Tamil south. carmichael-chance-to-die p.171
- Exposed the temple traffic in children so that others would see it and act, setting her against powerful local interests. carmichael-chance-to-die p.173
- 1867Born on 16 December in Ireland. carmichael-chance-to-die p.26
- 1901Preena, a seven-year-old temple child, escaped and came to her — the start of the rescue work. carmichael-chance-to-die p.171
- 1931A fall left her largely confined for her remaining years, which she gave to writing and guiding Dohnavur. carmichael-chance-to-die p.321
The Dohnavur Fellowship she founded carried on caring for children long after her death, and her many devotional books gave her a readership far beyond India.
- Dohnavur Fellowship — Dohnavur, Tamil Nadu still active
Carmichael's rescues set her against powerful temple interests, who called her 'the child-stealing ammal'; taking children out of the temple system was contested and legally fraught in its day.
carmichael-chance-to-die— pp. 26, 171, 173, 174, 321
Page numbers refer to the source PDF held in the project. Facts are retold in our own words; nothing is reproduced from the books.