Ann, Holy

Holy Ann understood no theories about prayer; she cared for none. She only knew to ask God and that He would hear and answer her. The answers she received were so direct and altogether so marvelous as to be almost unbelievable. But the reader may be assured that every instance of answered prayer recorded in this biography, as well as many others written elsewhere, can be vouched for by many friends of “Holy Ann” both in the United States and Canada.
So victorious and triumphant was her faith that to all appearances it seemed no effort, but almost voluntary or spontaneous. A favorite refrain she was constantly repeating, especially when spoken to by those who sought her help in prayer, was from one of Charles Wesley’s immortal hymns, and its theology seemed a part of her very “religion.” Her face would light up with a beautiful radiance as she repeated confidently:

“Faith, mighty faith the promise sees
And looks to that alone;
Laughs at impossibilities,
And cries, ‘It shall be done!’”

One morning, as Ann was climbing over a fence to go across lots to a neighbor’s, she twisted her ankle in jumping to the ground. The pain was severe but she managed to get back to the house. For a day or two she tried to do the housework as usual, finally, however, having to give up and go to bed. Another housekeeper was secured and Ann was ministered to faithfully by the family, but the ankle grew so bad that Dr. Reid said the bone must be scraped. As can be imagined, the operation was a most excruciatingly painful one, anaesthetics being more rarely used in those days than the present; but Ann submitted to it with scarcely a moan. She said that the presence of her Father by the couch was so real during the ordeal that she was enabled to take delight in repeating over and over as the operation proceeded,

“Flesh shrinks and trembles at this cross,
But Thou dost give the victory.”

The weeks went by and she did not improve a great deal. She had become very weak through the strain upon her system, and one day the doctor said she must commence a diet of fresh eggs with milk. Preoccupied as was the doctor, it did not occur to him that he was prescribing an impossibility; for it was in the dead of winter, and not an egg could be obtained in the little village. But Ann betook herself to her never-failing source of supply. The day wore on and she was almost dozing in her rolling chair, when she was aroused by a slight noise and looking toward the door which was ajar, she was surprised to see a hen come tripping in. Ann’s first impulse was to frighten it out; then a gentle check which she understood prevented her. With little hesitation, the hen found its way to a box by the bedside and in it laid an egg. In her simple way, Ann asked her Father that it might not be permitted to cackle, lest it should be discovered by the family and driven away. Quietly the hen left the box and sedately went down the stairs and out into the yard. With the aid of the chair, Ann reached the box getting the egg, and was no sooner back in her place when the servant came in. Ann prayed, “Father, don’t let him ask where the egg came from.” And he did not, but taking it from her he went back to the kitchen and prepared it for her. At about the same time the next day the hen came in again, and again the egg was laid, the hen slipping out quietly as before; and so it went on for almost a month each day, no one except Ann being (incomplete) —Convention Herald, May 1970.

*** *** ***

Holy Ann . . . She was Irish and she was a Saint

Ireland has had its saints, and Ann Preston was one of them. Her childhood was spent in a typical Irish home in Ballymacally about a mile from the town of Markethill, Co. Armagh. She was born in the year 1810, and lived to the great age of 96. Holy Ann was known to thousands, and her influence was felt far beyond the limits of common life. Here was a humble Irish woman who could neither read nor write, but who received constant answers to her prayers. And what amazing answers they were! Ann did not pray in a vague and uncertain way, but for definite things. It was possible therefore to tell beyond a shadow of doubt whether the prayers were answered or not.
One of the most remarkable answers to prayer in Ann’s experience happened in the following way. It was a long dry summer, and the well was usually dry for two or three months. This meant that the boys in the home where she worked were compelled to bring water in barrels from a well about half a mile away. This was very hard work. One evening at the close of the day Ann was sitting in the kitchen telling the boys of some of the miraculous ways in which God had answered her prayers. All at once Henry spoke up and said: “Ann, why don’t you ask our Heavenly Father to send rain in that well, and not have us boys work so hard? I was down in the well looking at it today, and it is just as dry as the floor.” He little dreamt of the serious way in which Ann took his challenge.
When she got up into her little room that night she knelt in prayer and said: “Now, Father, you heard what Henry said tonight.” Then she went on to quote the promise, “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” She pleaded with God that the water might be sent, and finally rising from her knees she declared her faith that there would be water in the well in the morning. Henry prepared as usual the next morning to go for the water, but to his surprise and great amusement he saw Ann take up the two pails and start for the well. He watched her from the kitchen window as she hooked the pail to the windlass and began to lower it. If she had done it the night before it would have hit the bottom with a bang, but there was a splash and the pail filled with water. She pulled it up and did the same again, and with both pails full of clear water she walked up to the house. She set down the pails of water challenging Henry for his answer. Years after a friend visited the well and was told that the well had never been known to be dry again in summer or winter from the time of that memorable prayer and its miraculous answer.
This unique life of glorious spiritual experience and peace all began with a very sudden conversion. Ann had no inclination whatever to religious things, until one day the truth dawned on her that she was a sinner. All her sins from her childhood days seemed to appear before her. She fell on her knees voluntarily for the first time in her life, and began to cry using the words of Scripture: “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Someone tried to hush her into quietness, but she said she didn’t care if all the world heard her, she must cry for mercy. At midnight she got the assurance that her sins were forgiven. She said that as she looked up she saw the Savior as He was on Calvary, and she knew right then that His Blood atoned for her sins. Her heart and life were changed and she had become a child of God. The awful and unbearable burden of sin had gone. This is indeed what the Gospel is all about, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, that whosoever believes on Him shall not perish but shall receive Eternal Life. Not by works nor by effort, but by coming to the Savior of the world.—W. Weir.

Read a sketch of her life in “They Knew Their God vol. 1.

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR LINK TO LAYMEN’S EVANGELICAL FELLOWSHIP INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY