Susa Young Gates — Miraculous Recovery from Critical Illness

In 1901, while returning from a conference in Copenhagen, Susa Young Gates became critically ill. Her condition was so severe that those around her, including John A. Widtsoe, believed she was dying. She received a priesthood blessing from Francis M. Lyman, which resulted in a miraculous recovery.

The fuller account is preserved in her BYU Studies biography: taken seriously ill while returning from the Copenhagen conference, she was confined for weeks at the home of a friend in Geneva and was finally able to travel only after receiving a blessing from the missionaries. Her condition remained critical, and as John A. Widtsoe recalled, "she was ready to die, or at least we thought so." Francis M. Lyman, President of the European Mission, was asked to give her a blessing — and "he was so certain she would die that the blessing began to take the form of an admonition not to fear death. Suddenly, however, he stopped, and, as Susa recalled later, waited for nearly two minutes before he continued: 'There has been a council held in heaven, and it has been decided you shall live to perform temple work, and you shall do a greater work than you have ever done before.'" Still gravely ill at home — "horribly emaciated" — she protested when a patriarch came to give her another blessing: "I don't want him to come and dedicate me to the Lord... I don't want to die. I want to live — to live to do temple work!" Replied the patriarch, "Well, Sister, if you want to live to do temple work, you shall live." She recovered, and the promised work followed: Susa Young Gates became the driving force behind Latter-day Saint genealogy and temple work for decades.