Lamoni’s Queen
A Lamanite queen whose faith, love, and refusal to abandon her husband became the catalyst for one of the most dramatic outpourings of the Spirit in the Book of Mormon.
The King Who Would Not Wake
After Ammon had defended King Lamoni’s flocks and preached the gospel to him, Lamoni fell to the ground as if dead, overcome by the Spirit. For two days he lay motionless. His servants thought he had died and were preparing to bury him. His wife, the queen, was told by her servants that Lamoni was surely dead and that he had been lying there for two days.
She did not accept this conclusion. She sent for Ammon. When Ammon came, she said: “The servants of my husband have made it known unto me that thou art a prophet of a holy God, and that thou hast power to do many mighty works in his name; therefore, if this is the case, I would that ye should go in and see my husband, for he has been laid upon his bed for the space of two days and two nights; and some say that he is not dead, but others say that he is dead and that he stinketh” (Alma 19:4–5).
Ammon looked at Lamoni and told her what he saw: “He is not dead, but he sleepeth in God, and on the morrow he shall rise again.” And then the text records something remarkable: “And Ammon said unto her: Believest thou this? And she said unto him: I have had no witness save thy word, and the word of our servants; nevertheless I believe that it shall be according as thou hast said” (Alma 19:9). She believed on no evidence but the word of a man she had just met.
Her Faith Exceeds All
Ammon’s response to her statement was one of the strongest declarations of faith in the Book of Mormon: “There has not been such great faith among all the people of the Nephites” (Alma 19:10). He praised her faith before Lamoni even woke. Her trust, offered with no supernatural confirmation, no vision, no miracle of her own — simply the word of a servant and a stranger — was enough for Ammon to call it the greatest faith he had yet encountered.
Lamoni rose the next morning and declared the light of everlasting life. He and his queen were both overcome by the Spirit and fell to the earth again. Ammon knelt in gratitude. Then Abish, a Lamanite servant woman who had been converted years before, took the queen by the hand. The queen arose and began to speak, and took the king by the hand, and he rose, and together they taught the multitude that had gathered.
Alma 19:10
“Blessed art thou because of thy exceeding faith; I say unto thee, woman, there has not been such great faith among all the people of the Nephites.”
What Lamoni’s Queen Teaches
Lamoni’s queen is never named in the text, but her faith is named as the greatest in the account. Her willingness to believe on minimal evidence — the word of a servant and a stranger — without demanding miraculous confirmation first, is held up as the model. Moroni had said that faith and miracles run in the same direction: signs follow those who believe, not those who demand signs first.
She also shows that love and faith are not competitors. Her refusal to give up on her husband — refusing to accept the verdict that he was dead — was the act of both love and faith that made space for everything that followed. The queen who believed became the woman who helped raise her husband and testified to a multitude.
Key Scriptures
- Alma 19:1–6 — The queen sends for Ammon; her declaration of faith
- Alma 19:9–10 — “I believe that it shall be according as thou hast said” — Ammon’s praise
- Alma 19:11–13 — Lamoni rises; both overcome by the Spirit
- Alma 19:29–30 — The queen arises first; takes the king by the hand