Teresa Helena Higginson

Teresa Helena Higginson (27 May 1844 – 15 February 1905) was a British Roman Catholic mystic.

Biography Higginson was born on 27 May 1844 in Holywell, Flintshire, the third of eight children. Her father, Robert Francis Higginson and her mother Mary Bowness had travelled there from Gainsborough, Lincolnshire to visit the shrine at St Winefride's Well. There, she was baptised and named after Teresa of Ávila and Helena, mother of Constantine I. The family were staunchly catholic and built a chapel for the community in their home. between the years 1854 and 1865, then moved with her family to St Helens, where her family struggled to make ends meet. In 1871, she began her journey into teaching, training in Orrell, Greater Manchester before taking a teaching role in Wigan for three years. from 1879 to 1887. and a petition in favour was signed by "nearly 200,000 people in every country of the world except Russia" but she was finally declared a Servant of God in 1937. Pope Piux X remarked that "she was a special child of God" Many letters written by Higginson are in the archives at St Augustine's Abbey, Ramsgate, with duplicates at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King Liverpool.

Life as a mystic From the age of 3, Higginson was said to imitate Mary, mother of Jesus. At convent school, she spent much of her time in prayer.

Higginson's exploits, which included periods where "the devil impersonated [her] to deceive people" On 24 October 1887, she experience the "mystical marriage" in Clitheroe, and then travelled to St Catharine's Convent, Edinburgh.