Peninniah
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Peninniah, also known as Mother M. J. Divine, was the first wife of Father Divine, a prominent religious leader and the founder of the International Peace Mission movement. An overweight but dignified-looking African-American woman, Peninniah was decades older than her husband.
Both Peninniah and Father Divine claim the marriage was never physically consummated, in accord with Father Divine's doctrines on chastity, and indeed no evidence suggests otherwise. The actual date of the marriage is unknown but probably occurred from 1914 to 1917. Peninniah and the International Peace Mission movement claimed that the wedding occurred June 6, 1882, but given Father Divine's apparent age, he would have been a child at the time. Peninniah described it as a "spiritual" marriage, so the 1882 date is possibly the date of her first religious epiphany.
Like many of Father Divine's followers, Peninniah abandoned her past and adopted an "inspired name" (which "Peninniah" is). Her early life is therefore obscure, and neither her given name, nor her date of birth are known. However, she is believed to have been from Macon, Georgia. Before becoming involved with Father Divine's movement she was apparently a Methodist.
Tradition in the Peace Mission Movement suggests that she encountered Joseph Gabriel, one of Father Divine's disciples and a former laborer. She was an asset to Gabriel's parish although afflicted by terrible attacks of rheumatism. Her disease progressed until she could no longer walk. Father Divine supposedly healed her instantaneously. Enchanted, she followed him, breaking all ties with former family and friends.
Throughout the rest of her life, Peninniah was among Father Divine's most devout followers, even in the face of disease and abandonment.
In March 1937, Peninniah fell ill on a trip to Kingston, New York where the movement owned a colony it called the "Promised Land." Father Divine only visited her once in the Kingston hospital. He continued running the church, so the press widely reported on his apparent heartlessness. However, she told journalists she was not dying nor in pain. On what many thought to be her deathbed, Peninniah remained among Father Divine's most faithful follower even as scandals rocked the movement.
Although her condition was diagnosed as terminal, Peninniah miraculously recovered in early 1938. This recovery helped bolster the movement temporarily.
Peninniah lived until some time in 1943, when she died at an unknown location due to health problems. Father Divine never publicly acknowledged her passing, but evidence suggests he was deeply affected by it. Membership and support for the movement declined after Peninniah's passing.
On April 29, 1946 Father Divine married a white Canadian woman decades his junior, Edna Rose Ritchings, who was also called "Mother Divine".