Fanny Jane Butler, was a pioneer medical missionary to India from England. She gave her heart to Christ when she was 13 and became a Sunday school teacher at 14. Even from a very young age, she developed a deep missionary spirit. Her meetings with several missionaries who had been to China further fanned her missionary enthusiasm.
Biography:
Birth: 05-10-1850
Home Calling: 26-10-1889
Native Place: London
Country: England
Place of Vision: India
Finally, realizing the great need for women in foreign countries, especially in the medical field, she decided to become a medical missionary.
Fanny joined the London School of Medicine for her medical training. Following her graduation in 1880, she was sent to India as a missionary on behalf of the Indian Female Normal Society.
Fanny Jane Butler ministry in India
Her first stop was at Jabalpur, and then she moved to Bhagalpur. She opened several medical dispensaries and treated thousands of people each year. While treating, she used to engage them in religious conversations and shared the gospel with thousands of people, especially women.
Since the society then, did not allow Christians to live inside the city, she rented a small house for a hospital and usually traveled by pony or boat four miles every day to the city to see her patients. After a short visit to England in 1887, Fanny moved to Kashmir and continued the medical missionary work there.
In her first seven months of work, she treated over 8,000 outpatients and performed 500 operations. Seeing the immense need, Isabella Bird Bishop approached her to build a hospital. Together they raise funds and built the ‘John Bishop Memorial Hospital’, the first fully equipped hospital in Srinagar.
Her pioneering work led to many Indian women receive medical care that was previously unavailable to them. Moreover, her belief in ‘double cure,’ that is the cure of both body and soul, helped many get rid of their diseases and also their sin. Despite severe illness in 1889, she continued to treat many women and children until her last breath.