Picture a Mormon Priesthood Healing. What are you imagining? Probably, if you are younger than, say, one hundred years or so, you’ll think of a Priesthood blessing occurring in the following way. The infirm is sat on a chair. A man places his hands on the infirm’s head. Oil, consecrated for use in healing, is applied to the scalp. A blessing is given, by the man whose hands have been laid. When it’s all done, the infirm stands and is healed, and runs and jumps and gives high-fives to the attendees (though this step is not always necessary.)
It may be surprising to learn (though you may expect it if you’ve read this far) that Priesthood Healings have not always looked like this.
Healing by Women
I wish, now, to discuss the particularly tragic removal of a particularly important doctrine of the early Church.
In the early Church, under the direction of Joseph Smith, women were given the power to administer blessings of healing.
According to the early Church, women’s role in healing was vital. The modern Church admits this, though they don’t do it in the open, for all to hear. It’s admitted in a manual, but forgotten at the pulpit.
“Joseph Smith endorsed women’s participation in healing. “Respecting the female laying on hands,” Joseph said, “it is no sin for any body to do it that has faith.” For women, blessing the sick was a natural extension of their work as the primary nurses and caregivers in times of illness. In particular, Latter-day Saint women often anointed and blessed other women in cases of pregnancy and childbirth.” [1]
Joseph found no wrong in a woman giving a blessing of healing.
“Respecting females administering for the healing of the sick… there could be no evil in it, if God gave His sanction by healing; that there could be no more sin in any female laying hands on and praying for the sick, than in wetting the face with water; it is no sin for anybody to administer that has faith, or if the sick have faith to be healed by their administrations.” [2]
The belief was widespread. Joseph wasn’t going rogue. He was following the words of the Lord in an 1832 revelation. The Lord gave the healing power to all that were baptized and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost. The Lord did not make any specific reference to gender.
“Therefore, as I said unto mine apostles I say unto you again, that every soul who believeth on your words, and is baptized by water for the remission of sins, shall receive the Holy Ghost. And these signs shall follow them that believe—In my name they shall do many wonderful works; In my name they shall cast out devils; In my name they shall heal the sick; In my name they shall open the eyes of the blind, and unstop the ears of the deaf;” [3]
According to the Lord, all who believed and were baptized were given the power to heal. Men and women.
Women in the early Church acted accordingly, blessing the sick as often as they could.
Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph’s mother, blessed a woman’s daughter who was near death.
“Here her eldest daughter was taken very ill, and her life despaired of, in fact it seemed impossible for her to get better. The mother of the Prophet, Mrs. Lucy Smith, came and blessed the child, and said she should live. This was something new in that age, for a woman to administer to the sick, but the Lord blessed the administration and manifested his power in behalf of the child, and she speedily recovered.” [4]
Patty Bartlett Sessions, plural wife of Joseph Smith and early pioneer, wrote in her diary of a time when she laid hands on a widow and offered a blessing of healing.
“Mr. Sessions and I went and laid hands to the widow Holmans step daughter. She was healed.” [5]
In 1849, Eliza Jane Merrick, an early English convert to the Church, anointed and blessed her sister, who was sick.
“I anointed her chest with the oil you consecrated, and also gave her some inwardly … . She continued very ill all the evening: her breath very short, and the fever very high. I again anointed her chest in the name of the Lord, and asked his blessing; he was graciously pleased to hear me, and in the course of twenty-four hours, she was as well as if nothing had been the matter.” [6]
The examples are endless. Women were given the gift to heal.
These healings were considered faith based, largely, rather than priesthood based. And that was okay! Women, everywhere, were blessing their families, healing their children, and administering to sick widows in their towns.
It did not seem to be a necessity to specify the source of the women’s power in Joseph’s day. Women could heal, through the power of God. That was all that was needed.
In 1880, John Taylor decided it was time to specify.
“It is the privilege of all faithful women and lay members of the Church, who believe in Christ, to administer to all the sick or afflicted in their respective families, either by the laying on of hands, or by the anointing with oil in the name of the Lord: but they should administer in these sacred ordinances, not by virtue and authority of the priesthood, but by virtue of their faith in Christ, and the promises made to believers: and thus they should do in all their ministrations.” [7]
So it wasn’t the priesthood—but that didn’t matter too much. Women could still heal.
In the 1940s, the practice was becoming a problem for many of the male leaders of the Church. In 1946, Joseph Fielding Smith sent a letter to Relief Societies, claiming the practice was being misused, and from then on, should only be performed by men.
“While the authorities of the Church have ruled that it is permissible, under certain conditions and with the approval of the priesthood, for sisters to wash and anoint other sisters, yet they feel that it is far better to follow the plan the Lord has given us and send for the Elders of the Church to come and minister to the sick and afflicted.”
“The service of washing and anointing is not a Relief Society function, and therefore, is not under the direction of the Relief Society. Women should not be set apart to perform this ordinance, but the presiding priesthood authorities may determine if such an ordinance is to be performed and designate the sisters to perform it. The washing and anointing by our sisters in the past was greatly abused and improperly done, and for this reason, as well as for the reason that the Lord has given by revelation the order for the administration of those who are sick or in need of a blessing, the washing and anointing by the sisters has not been encouraged.” [8]
He gives no examples of the practice’s misuse.
Today, the Church makes no exception. Blessings of healing can only be conducted by men.
“Only men who hold the Melchizedek Priesthood may administer to the sick or afflicted.” [9]
Today, a woman would be in sin—perhaps in serious sin—if she were to give a blessing of healing. Single women in the Church must rely on men from their ward to administer to their sick children. They cannot do it themselves.
Why has God forsaken his women? Why has he stripped them of their power? Christ, who ministered to women, cherished women, protected women, uplifted women—He’s forgotten all that now. He only trusts the men, now. Christ’s changed.
And how strange, for the One and Only Unchangeable to change so drastically.
[1] Church History Topics, “Healing”
[2] Joseph Smith, as recorded by Eliza R. Snow, History of the Church, Vol. 4, p. 604
[3] Doctrine and Covenants 84:64-69
[4] Anonymous, “A Representative Woman: Mary Isabella Horne,” Women’s Exponent, no. 2, 15 June 1882, p. 9
[5] Patty Bartlett Sessions Diary, “Wednesday 17 Mar. 1847,” p. 5
Her diary is an interesting one. It details several years on the “pioneer trail,” and includes many accounts of speaking in tongues, and of women giving blessings. One such blessing was given May 29th, 1847:
“Sister Young and Whitney laid their hands upon my head and predicted many thing that I shall be blessed with; that I should live to stand in a temple yet to be built and Joseph would be there, I should see Him. Should officiate for my labor should then be done then be done in order and should be great and I should be blessed by many and there I should bless many and many should be brought into to me saying your hands were the first that handled me. Blessed me and after I had blessed them their mothers would rise up and bless me for they would be brought to me by Joseph himself for he would bring my little ones to me and my heart was filled with Joy and rejoicing.”
[6] 31 Eliza Jane Merrick, Letter to Brother Booth, Windsor, England, June 6, 1849, Millennial Star, 1 July 1849, p. 205.
[7] Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Circular Letter, 6 Oct. 1880
[8] Joseph Fielding Smith, Letter, July 29, 1946, typescript on Relief Society letterhead, Relief Society Washing and Anointing File, CR 11 304, Box 1, fd. 1
[9] “Priesthood Ordinances and Blessings,” Family Guidebook, 2006, p. 18–25
