8 notable women in Christian history
Susanna Wesley
Susanna Wesley was the wife of an Anglican minister and mother to the two brothers who founded the influential eighteenth-century Methodist movement, John and Charles Wesley.
She is noted as the “Mother of Methodism” because, while she was never officially part of a ministry, Susanna had a strong influence on the spiritual habits of the Wesley brothers.
The Rev. Alfred T. Day III, General Commission on Archives and History for the United Methodist Church, noted in a 2016 video that Susanna was “a major difference maker.”
“John and Charles are their mother’s sons. She is the person who is responsible for their education and spiritual formation,” explained Day.
“… the differences that she made have lived on from the history of 17th and 18th century well into the present moment because of the sons that she raised.”
