Charles Cullis

Charles Cullis (7 March 1833 - 18 June 1892) was an Episcopalian physician based in Boston, Massachusetts. He became known for his involvement in the Holiness movement.

Charles Cullis

Biography

Cullis was born in Boston, Massachusetts on March 7, 1833. He suffered from ill health, and although this meant that he was sometimes not able to attend school, he studied medicine at home and graduated from the University of Vermont at age 24.^[1]

It was common practice at the time to turn away incurable cases such as tuberculosis from hospitals,^[2] so Cullis opened four homes between 1864 and 1869 to house tuberculosis patients, he also started homes for orphans, caregivers, and cancer patients.^[3] In addition, Cullis started a training school for deaconesses, a faith cure school, various missions, and a publishing house.^[4]

He was involved with the Holiness movement and influenced the movement to have a greater emphases on healing.^[2] He was a leading figure in the faith cure movement along with other preachers such as William E. Boardman and Albert B. Simpson.^[4] He held revival meetings in New Hampshire and Maine every year.^[5]

He helped encourage rest homes for the sick and homeless, and about twenty-five such homes connected with the Holiness Movement had been started by 1887.^[2] At the height of his ministry he authored a number of books on healing.^[6]

References

1. Hardesty, Nancy (2003). Faith cure: divine healing in the holiness and Pentecostal movements. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers. ISBN 9781565637146. p. 12.
2. Riss, Richard M. (1988). A survey of 20th-century revival movements in North America. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers. p. 19. ISBN 9780913573723.
3. Hardesty 2003, p. 12-13.
4. Taves, Ann (1999). Fits, trances, & visions : experiencing religion and explaining experience from Wesley to James. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 227.
5. Melton, J. Gordon (1999). Religious leaders of America : a biographical guide to founders and leaders of religious bodies, churches, and spiritual groups in North America. Detroit, MI: Gale Research. ISBN 9780810388789. p. 147.
6. Melton 1999, p. 148.

Further reading

• Boardman, William E. (1874). Faith work: Under Dr. Cullis in Boston. Boston: Willard Tract Repository.
• Daniels, W. H.; Cullis, Charles (1885). Dr. Cullis and his work. Boston: Willard Tract Repository. ISBN 9780824064105.
• Curtis, Heather D. (2007). Faith in the Great Physician: Suffering and Divine Healing in American Culture, 1860–1900. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-1-4214-0201-7.
• Williams, Roy (2016). Kurian, George Thomas; Lamport, Mark A. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 670. ISBN 9781442244313.