Nancie Monelle biography, was an American medical missionary known for her ministry in India and her fight against child marriages. Nancie graduated in medicine from Vassar college in 1872 and was specialized as a surgeon. Her association with the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Church provided her an opportunity to work in India as a medical missionary.

Biography:

Birth: 1841
Home Calling: 1903
Native Place: New York City
Country: United States of America
Place of Vision: India

She arrived in India in 1873 and began medical missionary work in Lucknow. For being a woman, she found an opening to provide medical care to the women who were not allowed to be seen in public in those times.

Along with medical services, Gospel too entered those households. But then she received an earnest request from the Hyderabad Prince to provide medical care in his state. She became the first single lady doctor to have served in Hyderabad.

Nancie Monelle ministry in India:

Initially, the patients were only nawabs and nobles. But Nancie knew clearly in her heart that, it’s not for the rich she came to India. Hence in the next three years, she established a dispensary and hospital and treated over 40,000 patients. In 1877, she married Dr. Henry Mansell who was serving in North India. Together they moved to Moradabad in 1890 at the time when India was reeling under the Cholera epidemic. The missionary couple worked round the clock treating the patients and didn’t know what sleep or rest during those testing times. Nancie’s Christian words of encouragement helped many to survive that epidemic.

Nancie was particularly horrified by the Indian custom of child marriages. The young girls were abused and were blamed for the deaths of their old husbands. The young widows were ostracized, ill-treated, and sometimes mercilessly killed. Nancie was instrumental in developing a petition to abolish child marriages and increase the marriageable age. In 1890, her efforts led to Government raising the marriageable age and providing fundamental rights to young widows.

After having served for almost thirty years in India, Nancie went to be with the Lord in 1903.