Mother Divine
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Mother Divine is a name used by followers of the International Peace Mission movement to refer to either of the wives of Father Divine, an African American religious leader prominent in the 1930s.
Father Divine controversially claimed to be God, so this conferred his wife special status in the movement. The theology of the movement held Reverend Major Devine to be "heavenly father", so logically his wife was "Mother". Adherents were by extension called "children" although they're also sometimes referred to as "angels" reflecting their supposedly heavenly parentage.
Father Divine had Platonic relationships with each of his two wives in accord with his "international chastity code". He claimed that his second wife, Edna Rose Ritchings, was the reincarnated spirit of his first wife, Peninniah who died in 1943 about three years before his marriage to Ritchings in 1946. Interestingly, reincarnation was not previously part of Father Divine's doctrine. Indeed, he often taught on the "absurdity" of an afterlife. It's believed that Father Divine's acceptance of another wife after the previously inconceivable death of Peninniah forced him to reckon with his own mortality. After Father Divine's death in 1965, Mother Divine (Ritchings) led the dwindling following which she continues to do as of 2004.
Father Divine's wives
- Father Divine's first wife, Peninniah, was a heavyset black woman several decades older than Father Divine. At the time of their 1910s marriage she helped silence rumors of sexual impropriety between Father Divine and his many young female followers. Although her birth name is not known, she was apparently from Macon, Georgia.
- His second wife, Edna Rose Ritchings, was about forty years younger than Father Divine, only 21 when they were married in 1946. A slender white woman from Ontario, Canada, their marriage started more unflattering rumors about Father Divine than it put to rest. Called "Sweet Angel" in the movement (the movement encouraged followers to take new names), she is sometimes called "Mrs. S. A. Divine" to differentiate her from Peninniah.