Mary Dempster was the wife of Amasa Dempster, the Baptist priest of Deptford, Ontario, Canada. She was a kind lady and very introverted. While her husband was very religious and constantly felt as if God was testing him, Mary was not so involved in religion. However, she did not let her husband’s strong belief in God influence her life. She was calm, even-tempered, and believed that things would all eventually be resolved.
Mary’s life changed when an incident occurred on December 27, 1908, which involved her being struck in the head with a snowball. The blow from the snowball was the cause of her premature birth to her son, Paul Dempster. Mary became extremely ill after this incident, and the townspeople began to look down at her with feelings …show more content…
Willie Ramsay was a citizen of Deptford, who “began to have spells of illness marked by severe internal pain” (Davies 52) after an accident at a newspaper plant. Suddenly, “he became restless and hot, … he began to twist and moan, … and his twisting became jerking and convulsion” (Davies 53-54). Mary was called to help by Willie’s younger sibling Dunstan, who claimed that Willie was no longer breathing and no longer had a pulse. Upon arrival, she “knelt by the bed and took [Willie’s] hands in hers and prayed” (Davies 54-55). After a short period of time, Mary spoke to Willie and he responded, clearly alive. Mary’s ability to bring the boy back to life proved to be her second miracle.
Moreover, Mary’s third and final miracle was to make herself appear in an abandoned church on a battlefield to a wounded soldier. While Dunstan was in Passchendaele, Belgium fighting in the Third Battle at Ypres, he became severely injured due to shrapnel. He had to crawl through the mud into the ruins of an old church. Suddenly a flare dropped in front of him and illuminated a statue of the Virgin and Child, where Dunstan saw the face of Mary Dempster appear on the face of the statue. Mary’s apparition on the statue was considered to be her third miracle, thus resulting in her becoming a saint.
Mary Dempster died of a heart attack in 1959 while in a private hospital located outside of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Her body was cremated and her ashes remain in the possession of Dunstan
Mary’s life changed when an incident occurred on December 27, 1908, which involved her being struck in the head with a snowball. The blow from the snowball was the cause of her premature birth to her son, Paul Dempster. Mary became extremely ill after this incident, and the townspeople began to look down at her with feelings …show more content…
Willie Ramsay was a citizen of Deptford, who “began to have spells of illness marked by severe internal pain” (Davies 52) after an accident at a newspaper plant. Suddenly, “he became restless and hot, … he began to twist and moan, … and his twisting became jerking and convulsion” (Davies 53-54). Mary was called to help by Willie’s younger sibling Dunstan, who claimed that Willie was no longer breathing and no longer had a pulse. Upon arrival, she “knelt by the bed and took [Willie’s] hands in hers and prayed” (Davies 54-55). After a short period of time, Mary spoke to Willie and he responded, clearly alive. Mary’s ability to bring the boy back to life proved to be her second miracle.
Moreover, Mary’s third and final miracle was to make herself appear in an abandoned church on a battlefield to a wounded soldier. While Dunstan was in Passchendaele, Belgium fighting in the Third Battle at Ypres, he became severely injured due to shrapnel. He had to crawl through the mud into the ruins of an old church. Suddenly a flare dropped in front of him and illuminated a statue of the Virgin and Child, where Dunstan saw the face of Mary Dempster appear on the face of the statue. Mary’s apparition on the statue was considered to be her third miracle, thus resulting in her becoming a saint.
Mary Dempster died of a heart attack in 1959 while in a private hospital located outside of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Her body was cremated and her ashes remain in the possession of Dunstan