Priscilla Studd

Who was Priscilla Studd?

Priscilla "Scilla" Studd was a Protestant Christian missionary and wife of Charles Studd.

Born in Lisburn, near Belfast, Ireland, Priscilla Stewart arrived in Shanghai in 1887 as part of The Hundred missionaries of the China Inland Mission and was one of a large party to arrive together. She was reported as being both Irish in her looks and in her spirit with blue eyes and golden hair. After a while in Shanghai she moved with three other women to work inland at the city of Ta-Ku-Tang.

Of her new-found calling she said,

I am a missionary now, but I was not made that way. Had you asked me to come to a meeting when I was a girl, I would have said, 'No, thank you, none of your religion for me.'; for my idea of a person loving God was to have a face as long as a coffee pot.

In China, after praying whilst kneeling in the snow, she became seriously ill with a serious bout of pneumonia - so much so that she sent for her then fiancé Charles - who was himself recovering from an attack of pleurisy. After a while she started to recover but the local Chinese said that having sent for Charles from so far - that they must marry and Charles agreed! They went through a wedding ceremony with Pastor Xi Shengmo - who was unlicensed - but it pleased the locals. After their wedding the Studds moved to another inland city - Lungang-Fu.