Paulina Bates
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Paulina Bates (1806–1884), also known as Mother Paulina Bates, was a Shaker eldress and theological writer associated with the Watervliet, New York community during the mid-nineteenth century. She is best known as the author of The Divine Book of Holy and Eternal Wisdom (1849), a major visionary text of the Shaker Era of Manifestations. Modern scholarship identifies Bates as a significant female theological authority within nineteenth-century Shakerism.[1]
Paulina Bates was born in 1806 and joined the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing (Shakers) in the 1820s. By the 1840s she had risen to leadership within the Watervliet community, serving as South Family eldress.[2]
Shaker communities were organized under a dual-gender system of governance in which male and female leaders held parallel offices. Half of all positions were reserved for women, reflecting Shaker belief that God embodied both male and female principles.[3]
Role in the Era of Manifestations
Bates was active during the Shaker Era of Manifestations (c. 1837–1850), a period marked by visionary activity, spirit communications, and renewed theological development. She was described as a prominent spirit-medium during the 1840s and later served as editor or author of a substantial theological compilation of spirit messages.[2]
In 1849 she published The Divine Book of Holy and Eternal Wisdom: Revealing the Word of God, Out of Whose Mouth Goeth a Sharp Sword.[4] The work systematized visionary revelations and elaborated Shaker teachings concerning the dual male–female nature of God and the millennial role of Mother Ann Lee.[1]
Possible hymn authorship
Paulina Bates has been identified as a likely author of the Shaker hymn “Come to Zion” (Later Song No. 35). According to Daniel W. Patterson in The Shaker Spiritual, a manuscript note indicates that the song was written in March 1861 by a member of the North Family at New Lebanon. Patterson notes that the only individual with matching initials residing in that family at the time was Paulina Bates.[5]
The hymn reflects themes characteristic of Shaker devotional literature, including spiritual healing, repentance, and appeal to divine mercy.