After converting to Methodism in 1749, Elizabeth Bennis went on to become one of the most influential advocates of that religion in Ireland. Immediately following her conversion, Elizabeth began a journal that she would keep for the next thirty years. Intended primarily as a record of the author's spiritual condition and progress towards 'perfect holiness', the journal also details her role as wife and mother, her relationships with her husband, children, mother-in-law and friends, her involvement in the family business and her contribution to the emerging Methodist movement in Ireland. It is a window onto the daily life and inner consciousness of a middle-class woman in eighteenth-century Ireland. "Today's Catholics can benefit from The Journal of Elizabeth Bennis, 1749-1779... Wife and mother, she was practical and earnest and strove for 'perfect holiness'; her journal is a spiritual one." Review for Religious
