Florence Nightingale: a 19th-century mystic

Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) received a clear and profoundly moving Call to serve God at the age of 16. Through a lifetime of hard work and discipline, she became a practicing mystic in the Western tradition, thereby becoming an instrument of God's love, which was the primarily source of her great energy and the fabled "Nightingale power." To understand the life and work of this legendary healer, who forever changed human consciousness, the role of women, and nursing and public health systems in the middle of the 19th century, it is necessary to understand her motivation and inspiration. This article will discuss her life and work in the context of her mystical practice and to show the parallels between her life and the lives of three recognized women mystics. In her epic Crimean war mission (1854-1856) of leading and directing women nurses in the army hospital at Scutari, Turkey, Florence Nightingale burst into world consciousness as a spiritual beacon of hope and compassion for all who suffered. Her historic breakthrough achievement--pioneering the modern administrative role of nurse superintendent with measurable outcomes supported by irrefutable data--in the face of incredible adversity was merely the cornerstone of her life work.