A woman possessed of the devil and Wilford Woodruff's attempted healing
Published October 5, 2026 at 5:50 AM
Contributed by
Millennial Star Research
In 1840, in England, Wilford Woodruff encountered a woman who was possessed by an evil spirit. He attempted to cast the devil out of her, but failed. He then turned out the unbelievers who were present and attempted again, at which point he succeeded in casting the evil spirit out of the woman. Following the healing, the evil spirit entered a child, but Woodruff and his associates were successful in healing the child as well.
In Their Own Words
“While I was thus laboring, I was called to visit a woman who was possessed of the devil. I went to the house, and the woman was in a most deplorable condition, being thrown about by the power of the evil one. I attempted to cast the devil out of her, but failed. I then turned the unbelievers out of the house, and then succeeded. The evil spirit then entered her little child, and we administered to it and cast it out of it also. I mention this to show that the power of the devil is manifest in these last days, and that the power of God is also manifest through the priesthood in casting them out.”
— Wilford Woodruff, Autobiography, as published in The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star, Vol. 27, No. 31 (August 5, 1865), p. 487
Sources & References
The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star (Manchester, later Liverpool, England, May 1840–1970), 21 November 1881 (Vol. 43, No. 47). https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_the-latter-day-saints-millennial-star_1881-11-21_43_47 (account extracted verbatim from the issue's Internet Archive OCR text; research confidence: high) Full first-person account: The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star, Vol. 27, No. 31 https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/p/KrYn
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