Missionary and Author Elisabeth Elliot Dies at 88

Carrie Dedrick | Updated: Jun 15, 2015

Missionary and Author Elisabeth Elliot Dies at 88

Influential Christian writer Elisabeth Elliot has died at the age of 88. 

Elliot, who penned the bestselling books “Through the Gates of Splendor” and “Shadow of the Almighty: The Life and Testimony of Jim Elliot,” was a beloved evangelical author and missionary. 

Christianity Today reports Elliot’s health had been declining for some time as a result of dementia. 

Elliot dedicated much of her life to missions work and was married to Jim Elliot, a missionary who was killed while attempting to minister to the Auca tribe, a violent group in Ecuador’s rainforest. 

Elliot went on to marry Addison Leitch, who passed in 1973, and then Lars Gren, to whom she was married for the remainder of her life. In an interview last year, Gren said that Elliot had accepted her dementia diagnosis in the same way that she had handled the deaths of her husbands. 

“She accepted those things, [knowing] they were no surprise to God. It was something she would rather not have experienced, but she received it,” Gren said. 

Elliot will be remembered as a dedicated servant of the Lord and a gifted writer and speaker. 

Publication date: June 15, 2015



Missionary and Author Elisabeth Elliot Dies at 88