The hunger for God can only be satisfied by a love that is face to face, person to person. It is only in the eyes of another that we can find the Icon of Christ. We must make the other person aware we love him. If we do, he will know that God loves him. He will never hunger again.

Above:  Combermere, Ontario, Canada

Image Source = Google Earth

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EKATERINA FYODOROVNA KOLYSCHKINE DE HUECK DOHERTY (AUGUST 15, 1896-DECEMBER 14, 1985)

Foundress of the Madonna House Apostolate

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–Venerable Catherine de Hueck Doherty, quoted in Robert Ellsberg, All Saints:  Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time (1997), 352

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Venerable Catherine de Hueck Doherty comes to this, A Great Cloud of Witnesses:  An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via Robert Ellsberg, All Saints (1997).  In that volume, her feast day is August 15.  On this Ecumenical Calendar, however, I reserve August 15 for St. Mary of Nazareth, Mother of God.  Furthermore, I do not wait until I add “new” saints with December feast days to add Doherty to this calendar.  I have, therefore, moved her feast.

Social justice is a spiritual and divine mandate.  This message runs through the Law of Moses, the teachings of the Hebrew prophets, and the ethics of Jesus in Nazareth.  This message continues to animate many professing, practicing Jews and Christians, frequently to the frustration and consternation of merely professing Jews and Christians.

Ekaterina Fyodorovna Kolyschkine was originally a subject of the Russian Empire.  She, born on a train in Nizhny, Novgorod, on August 15, came from minor nobility.  Her father was Fyodor Kolyschkine, a Polish-Russian industrialist and diplomat.  Our saint’s mother was Emma Thomson Kolyschkine.  The family religion was Russian Orthodoxy.  Ekaterina spent much of her childhood abroad because of her father’s diplomatic assignments.  The family returned to Russia in 1910; our saint matriculated at the Princess Obolensky Academy, Saint Petersburg.  At the tender age of 15 years, she married a cousin, Baron Boris de Hueck (1889-1947), in 1912.

The revolutionary age of Russia had begun.  The First Russian Revolution (1905) ended Czarist autocracy, to an extent.  That revolution led to the creation of something of a constitutional system.  World War I (1914-1918) hastened the Second Russian Revolution (1917), which ended the monarchy and left power in the hands of the ineffectual Provisional Government.  The Third Russian Revolution (1917) brought the Bolsheviks to power.

The de Huecks spent much of World War I apart.  The Baron, in military service, was on the Eastern Front.  The Baroness worked as a nurse.  The two of them, eventually reunited, fled Russia after the rise of the Bolsheviks to power.  The couple joined the Roman Catholic Church en route to the New World.  They arrived in Canada in 1920.

The de Huecks were nobility, but they were poor in the New World.  Venerable Catherine worked a series of low-paying jobs in Canada and the United States.  The de Hueck family had grown to three people.  The newest member was a son, George.  Eventually, our saint earned real money on the lecture circuit; she described her experiences in Russia and escaping from that country.  As time passed, she regained her economic good fortune yet lost her marriage.  Venerable Catherine began to question her life, with its materialistic plenty.

Our saint, obeying what she perceived as the call of God on her life, radically simplified her life in 1930.  She gave up most of her worldly goods and moved into a slum in Toronto.  She, with the support of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Toronto, founded the first Friendship House.  This institution offered Roman Catholic education, fellowship, and a soup kitchen.  Ironically, some conservatives mistook our saint for a communist sympathizer.  Friendship House, Toronto, lost support and had to close in 1936.

Yet Dorothy Day (1897-1980) understood our saint and what she was doing.  Day’s Catholic Worker Movement operated on similar principles as did Friendship House, Toronto.  Father John LaFarge, Jr. (1880-1963) also understood what Venerable Catherine was doing.  In 1937, he invited her to establish a new Friendship House in Harlem.  Friendship House, Harlem, opened the following year.  In Harlem, our saint learned about racial prejudice and injustice.  She continued to travel and lecture.  In Savannah, Georgia, a group of white Roman Catholic women nearly beet Venerable Catherine to death after a lecture.  In 1941, Thomas Merton (1915-1968) heard our saint speak.  He summarized Venerable Catherine’s message:

Catholics are worried about Communism:  and they have a right to be….But few Catholics stop to think that Communism would make very little progress in then world, or none at all, if Catholics really lived up to their obligations, and really did the things Christ came on Earth to teach them to do:  that is, if they really loved one another, and saw Christ in one another, and lived as saints, and did something to win justice for the poor.

–Quoted in Ellsberg, All Saints (1997), 353

The Baroness, of “the B.,” as her friends referred to her, carried the air of authority naturally and did not suffer fools easily and gladly.  Once, a high-society, racist woman told our saint,

You smell of the Negro.

Venerable Catherine replied,

And you stink of hell!

The marriage to Baron de Hueck formally ended via annulment in 1943.  That year, Venerable Catherine married journalist Edward J. “Eddie” Doherty (1890-1975).  They had met when he was on an assignment to write a story about her.

Leadership-related tensions at Friendship House, Harlem, led our saint to resign from that organization in 1947.  The Dohertys moved to Combermere, in rural Ontario, Canada.  There they helped the local poor and sick.  And there they founded the Madonna House Apostolate in 1947.  The Madonna House was a place of prayer and spiritual retreat.  Our saint emphasized withdrawing from worldly compulsions and listening to God.  The place of retreat, she wrote, could be anywhere, really, and varied according to circumstances.  Yet retreating and listening remained crucial.

Eddie, ordained a priest in the Melkite Rite in 1969, died in 1975.

Venerable Catherine, aged 89 years, died in Combermere on December 14, 1985.

Our saint’s Madonna House Apostolate has continued.  So has the message, apart from the Apostolate.  For example, Venerable Catherine wrote and spoke of the “duty of the moment.”  She emphasized the moral imperative of doing at any given moment what God would have one to do at that moment.

What, O reader, is God telling you is imperative for you to do at this moment?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 2, 2021 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SHABBAZ BHATTI AND OTHER CHRISTIAN MARTYRS OF THE ISLAMIC WORLD

THE FEAST OF SAINT AIDAN OF LINDISFARNE, CELTIC MISSIONARY BISHOP; SAINT CAELIN, CELTIC PRIEST; SAINT CEDD OF LASTINGHAM, CELTIC AND ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST, BISHOP OF ESSEX, AND ABBOT OF LASTINGHAM; SAINT CYNIBIL OF LASTINGHAM, CELTIC AND ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MONK; SAINT CHAD OF MERCIA, CELTIC AND ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST, ABBOT OF LASTINGHAM, BISHOP OF YORK/THE NORTHUMBRIANS AND OF LICHFIELD/THE MERCIANS AND THE LINDSEY PEOPLE; SAINT VITALIAN, BISHOP OF ROME; SAINT ADRIAN OF CANTERBURY, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT OF SAINTS PETER AND PAUL, CANTERBURY; SAINT THEODORE OF TARSUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK AND ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY; AND SAINT CUTHBERT OF LINDISFARNE, CELTIC AND ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK, HERMIT, PRIEST, AND BISHOP OF LINDISFARNE

THE FEAST OF DANIEL MARCH, SR., U.S. CONGREGATIONALIST AND PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER, POET, HYMN WRITER, AND LITURGIST

THE FEAST OF JOHN STUART BLACKIE, SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIAN SCHOLAR, LINGUIST, POET, THEOLOGIAN, AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF SAINT LUDMILLA OF BOHEMIA, DUCHESS OF BOHEMIA AND MARTYR, 921; HER GRANDSON, SAINT WENCESLAUS I, DUKE OF BOHEMIA, AND MARTYR, 929; SAINT AGNES OF PRAGUE, BOHEMIAN PRINCESS AND NUN; HER PEN PAL, SAINT CLARE OF ASSISI, FOUNDRESS OF THE POOR CLARES; HER SISTER, SAINT AGNES OF ASSISI, ABBESS OF ASSISI; AND HER MOTHER, SAINT HORTULANA OF ASSISI, POOR CLARE NUN

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Lord God, your Son came among us to serve and not to be served,

and to give his life for the life of the world.

Lead us by his love to serve all those to whom

the world offers no comfort and little help.

Through us give hope to the hopeless,

love to the unloved,

peace to the troubled,

and rest to the weary;

through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Hosea 2:18-23

Psalm 94:1-14

Romans 12:9-21

Luke 6:20-36

—Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), 37

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These are the treasures of the Church.

Above:  Martyrdom of Sixtus II

Image in the Public Domain

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SAINT CYRIACA (DIED 249)

Roman Widow and Martyr

Her feast transferred from August 21

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SAINT SIXTUS II (DIED AUGUST 6, 258)

Bishop of Rome, and Martyr

His feast transferred from August 7

His former feast day = August 6

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SAINTS JANUARIUS, VINCENTIUS, MAGNUS, STEPHANUS, FELICISSIMUS, AND AGAPITIUS (DIED AUGUST 6, 258)

Deacons at Rome, and Martyrs

Their feast transferred from August 7

Their former feast day = August 6

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SAINT LAURENCE OF ROME (DIED AUGUST 10, 258)

Archdeacon of Rome, and Martyr

Also known as Saint Lawrence of Rome

His feast = August 10

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Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire was off-and-on, usually local, and occasionally empire-wide.  Being a Christian could be risky.  And, to jump the chronology, after Emperor Constantine I “the Great” (reigned 306-337) made Christianity legal (alongside the other legal religions), being a type of Christian other than the type the Emperor was could be perilous.  But for now, back to the time prior to Constantine the Great…..

St. Cyriaca (d. 249) was a wealthy widow.  She gave shelter to persecuted Christians.  St. Laurence, Archdeacon of Rome, responsible for dispensing alms, distributed from her home until she became a martyr (via scourging).  St. Laurence was quite aware of the perils of being a Christian.

Emperor Valerian (reigned 253-260) presided over a troubled empire.  Plagues afflicted various provinces, civil strive existed, the Persian army invaded the empire on one part of the frontier, and Germanic tribes were invading elsewhere along the long border.  In 258-260 Valerian did what many potentates have done when woes have piled high; he distracted people.  He invited people to look over there, not over here.  Valerian persecuted Christians.  He seized church property (including cemeteries), forbade Christians to gather in cemeteries, and required Christians to participate in state pagan rituals.  One rationale for requiring people to participate in such rites was patriotic.  The idea was that the empire would thrive as long as the gods blessed it.  Therefore, the reasoning went, if more and more people ceased to bless the gods, the empire was doomed.  Thus Christians were allegedly threats to imperial security.  (How many violations of human rights have governments ordered in the name of national security since the beginning of the keeping of historical records?)

If such violations of human rights are indeed necessary for a state or empire to continue to exist, that state or empire should fall, for the good of the people.  The existence of such states and empires is morally repugnant.  States and/or empires that respect human rights should replace them.

The Bishop of Rome for slightly less than a year (August 30, 257-August 6, 258) was St. Sixtus II, properly Xystus.  He spent part of his pontificate dealing with the thorny issue of how to relate to holier-than-thou northern African Christians who were rebaptizing those originally baptized by heretics.  This matter predated his pontificate and continued afterward.  St. Sixtus II upheld the Roman Catholic orthodoxy that the validity of a baptism depended on the intentions of the baptized, not of the baptizer, so no rebaptism was necessary.  One Lord, one faith, one baptism, with the emphasis on “one.”

The hammer fell on August 6, 258.  (August 6 was not the Feast of the Transfiguration until 1457, by the way.)  St. Sixtus II, the seven deacons in Rome, and a congregation had gathered illegally in the cemetery of Praetextatus.  Imperial forces beheaded the Pope and four deacons.  By the end of the day two more deacons had become martyrs.  St. Laurence escaped–for a few days.

St. Laurence spent his final days giving all the Church’s money to poor people in Rome.  When he stood before a prefect on August 10, the prefect demanded that St. Laurence hand over the treasures of the Church.  According to St. Ambrose of Milan (337-397), St. Laurence presented the poor people to whom he had given money.  He said,

The prefect disapproved of that reply.  St. Laurence cooked to death on a gridiron.

Valerian’s persecution disrupted the Church for a few years.  However, his son, Gallienus (reigned 253-268), ceased the persecution of Christians and returned seized property.  The next Pope was St. Dionysius (in office July 22, 260-December 26, 268; feast day = December 26), who had to rebuild the Church and to contend with rebaptizers.

With this post I merge three feasts into one.  This makes sense, for each feast relates to the other in a narrative sense.  One of my goals in renovating my Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, after all, is to emphasize relationships and influences.

I have written enough hagiographies to recognize religious persecution when I see it.  Sometimes it comes from within a tradition; one branch targets another.  On other occasions such persecution comes from adherents of another tradition.  Another option is atheists persecuting the devout.  Persecution takes various forms, including incarcerations and martyrdoms.  I think of the Gestapo hunting down Roman Catholic priests in Poland during World War II, for example.  Priests dying in German concentration camps was another example of persecution.  I am aware of examples of religious persecution in the United States, for I recall, for example, reading about the incarceration of Amish and Mennonite conscientious objectors during World War I.  “Persecution” is a strong word, which one should use cautiously.  I am not aware of any government-sponsored religious persecution in the United States in 2018, yet I hear of persecution fantasies among certain members of the so-called Religious Right in the U.S.A.  Nobody is forcing me to participate in pagan ceremonies.  No government agents are arresting priests for simply being priests.  Governments are not seizing control of churches.  None of this is happening in the U.S.A. in 2018.  I thank God for my religious freedom, which I use.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JUNE 14, 2018 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF CHARLES AUGUSTUS BRIGGS, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER, EPISCOPAL PRIEST, AND ALLEGED HERETIC; AND HIS DAUGHTER, EMILIE GRACE BRIGGS, BIBLICAL SCHOLAR AND “HERETIC’S DAUGHTER”

THE FEAST OF SAINT METHODIUS I OF CONSTANTINOPLE, DEFENDER OF ICONS AND ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE; AND SAINT JOSEPH THE HYMNOGRAPHER, DEFENDER OF ICONS AND THE “SWEET-VOICED NIGHTINGALE OF THE CHURCH”

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM HIRAM FOULKES, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER

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Gracious God, in every age you have sent men and women

who have given their lives in witness to your love and truth.

Inspire us with the memory of

Saints Cyriaca, Sixtus II, Januarius, Vincentius, Magnus, Stephanus, Felicissimus, Agapitus, and Laurence of Rome,

whose faithfulness led to the way of the cross,

and give us courage to bear full witness with our lives to your Son’s victory over sin and death,

for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

Ezekiel 20:40-42

Psalm 5

Revelation 6:9-11

Mark 8:34-38

–Adapted from Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), 59

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Above:  Dachau

Image in the Public Domain

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BLESSED EDWARD GRYZMALA (SEPTEMBER 19, 1906-AUGUST 10, 1942)

BLESSED FRANCISZEK DRZEWIECKI (FEBRUARY 26, 1908-AUGUST 10, 1942)

Polish Roman Catholic Priests and Martyrs, 1942

Alternative feast day (as some of the 108 Martyrs of World War II) = June 12

Between 1795 and 1918 Poland did not exist as an independent country.  Austria, Prussia, and Russia partitioned it in three states, the final one in 1795.  Between 1871 and 1918 Poland existed as parts of the Russian, German, and Austro-Hungarian Empires.

Blessed Edward Grzymala, born at Kelodziaz, Podlascie, on September 19, 1906, found priesthood to be the route to martyrdom.  He studied at the theological seminary at Wloclalek (1926-1931) then worked on his doctorate at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome (1931-1935).  He, a parish priest in the Diocese of Wloclawek, served as the Vicar General of the northern portion of the diocese in 1939-1940.  After the invasion and partition of Poland (1939), the Gestapo targeted Roman Catholic priests, leaving many parishes without pastoral care.  Grzymala, as Vicar General, visited some of these parishes.  Agents of the Gestapo arrested Grzymala on August 26, 1940.

Blessed Franciszek Drzewiecki, born at Zduny, Lódzkie, on February 26, 1908, was one of twelve children of Jan and Rozalia Drzewiecki.  He joined the Orionist Order and studied at the motherhouse at Tortona, Italy.  Our saint, ordained a priest on June 6, 1936, taught at the college of Zdunska Wola in Poland.  He was a parish priest in the Diocese of Wloclawek in 1939, and became a prisoner on November 7, 1939.

Both priests were prisoners at Dachau in December 1940.  Drzewiecki wore a box of consecrated hosts around his neck and adored the Eucharist in fields.  Both priests died by gassing on August 10, 1942.  Grzymala was 36 years old; Drzewiecki was 34.

Pope John Paul II declared these priests Venerables then Blesseds in 1999.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JUNE 14, 2018 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF CHARLES AUGUSTUS BRIGGS, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER, EPISCOPAL PRIEST, AND ALLEGED HERETIC; AND HIS DAUGHTER, EMILIE GRACE BRIGGS, BIBLICAL SCHOLAR AND “HERETIC’S DAUGHTER”

THE FEAST OF SAINT METHODIUS I OF CONSTANTINOPLE, DEFENDER OF ICONS AND ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE; AND SAINT JOSEPH THE HYMNOGRAPHER, DEFENDER OF ICONS AND THE “SWEET-VOICED NIGHTINGALE OF THE CHURCH”

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM HIRAM FOULKES, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER

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Gracious God, in every age you have sent men and women

who have given their lives in witness to your love and truth.

Inspire us with the memory of

Blessed Edward Grzymala and Blessed Franciszek Drzewiecki,

whose faithfulness led to the way of the cross,

and give us courage to bear full witness with our lives to your Son’s victory over sin and death,

for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

Ezekiel 20:40-42

Psalm 5

Revelation 6:9-11

Mark 8:34-38

–Adapted from Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), 59

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Above:  St. Paul’s Cathedral and Blackfriars Bridge, London, England, United Kingdom, 1880s

Image Creator = G. W. Wilson and Company

Image Source = Library of Congress

Reproduction Number = LC-DIG-ppmsca-06814

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JOHN ATHELSTAN LAURIE RILEY (AUGUST 10, 1858-NOVEMBER 17, 1945)

Anglican Ecumenist, Hymn Writer, and Hymn Translator

Many of those of us who read the names of hymn writers in hymnals wonder who some of those who wrote the words were.  What were their backgrounds?  What else did they write?  Among my favorite hymns is “Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones” (1906).  The author of that text was John Athelstan Laurie Riley (1858-1945), an accomplished man and a staunch High Church Anglican.

Scanned from The Lutheran Hymnal (1941)

Riley, an independently wealthy man and an advocate for public education, entered the world at London, England, on August 10, 1858.  He studied at Eton then at Pembroke College, Oxford, earning his M.A. degree in 1883.  He traveled extensively in preparation for a book, Athos; or, the Monastery of the Monks (1887).  That year he married Andalusia Louisa Charlotte Georgina, the eldest daughter of Viscount Molesworth.  Four sons and a daughter resulted from that union.  Riley wrote much about the Eastern Orthodox and the Oriental Orthodox Churches.  He also chaired the Anglican and Eastern Churches Association.  Due to these efforts he received the Order of St. Sava and became a Commander of the Order of King George I.  Our saint edited Birkbeck and the Russian Church:  Containing Essays and Articles by the Late W. J. Birkbeck, M.A, F.S.A., Written in the Years 1888-1915 (Being a Continuation of Russia and the English Church, Volume I) (1917).  Closer to home, Riley sat on the London School Board from 1891 to 1897.  Our saint also edited (with Michael E. Sadler and Cyril Jackson) The Religious Question in Public Education:  A Critical Examination of Schemes Representing Various Points of View (1911).

Riley also devoted time to liturgical matters.  He served as the Vice President of the Alcuin Club (named after St. Alcuin, an eighth century Frankish abbot who preserved knowledge and revived schools), which, according to its website, promotes the study of liturgy.  He also wrote hymns, translated other hymns, and served on the committee for the The English Hymnal (1906).  That volume contained three of his original hymns, seven of his translations from Latin (including “O Food of Men Wayfaring“), and one of his translations from Greek.  Riley also wrote Prayer Book Revision:  The Irreducible Minimum of the Hickleton Conference, Showing the Proposed Rearrangements of the Order for Holy Communion; Together with Further Suggestions (1911) and Concerning Hymn Tunes and Sequences (1915).

Riley retired to Jersey, one of the Channel Islands, in 1932.  He died there on November 17, 1945.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

FEBRUARY 11, 2015 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT ONESIMUS, BISHOP OF BYZANTIUM

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Holy God, whose majesty surpasses all human definitions and capacity to grasp,

thank you for those (especially John Athelstan Laurie Riley)

who have nurtured and encouraged the reverent worship of you.

May their work inspire us to worship you in knowledge, truth, and beauty.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

1 Chronicles 25:1-8

Psalm 145

Revelation 15:1-4

John 4:19-26

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

NOVEMBER 27, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT JAMES INTERCISUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR

THE FEAST OF HENRY SLOANE COFFIN, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN THEOLOGIAN

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Above:  The Union Jack

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WILLIAM WALSHAM HOW (DECEMBER 13, 1823-AUGUST 10, 1897)

Anglican Bishop of Wakefield and Hymn Writer

sister of

FRANCES JANE DOUGLAS (1829-DECEMBER 11, 1899)

Hymn Writer

I like to write about families of holy people.  Today I have the joy, therefore, to add a brother-and-sister team to the Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days.

William Wybergh How was a solicitor.  His famous son, William Walsham How (1823-1897), educated at Wadham College, Oxford, took Holy Orders in The Church of England in 1846.  He became the Bishop Suffragan of Bedford in 1879, having already declined opportunities to become the Bishop of  Manchester then of Durham.  How was among the greatest poets in The Church of England.  He had coedited Church Hymns (1871) and published his Poems and Hymns (1886) before becoming the Bishop of Wakefield in 1888, so his reputation was not in question.  How was sufficiently secure in his ego structure that his ambitions did not run amok.  Frances Pigou, Dean of Bristol, wrote of How:

William Walsham…was a man of great personal piety, which shone transparently in him…His well-known hymns are fragrant with it.  All brought into contact with him were conscious of it.  He was not a man of great intellectual power, but he was, like St. Barnabas, “a good man, full of faith and of the Holy Ghost”; and his ministry was singularly owned and blessed of God.  It is true that more men are won to God by holiness than by cleverness.

–quoted in Robert Guy McCutchan, Our Hymnody:  A Manual of The Methodist Hymnal, 2d. ed. (Nashville, TN:  Abingdon Press, 1937, page 244)

How served as the Bishop of Wakefield from 1888 to 1897.  He was

the poor man’s bishop

and

the people’s bishop,

a man who did not stand on ceremony.  Inscribed on his bishop’s staff was the Latin for

Feed with the word, feed with the life.

I have added the texts of some of his numerous hymns to my GATHERED PRAYERS blog.  Here is a link to my guide post for them:  http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/09/05/william-walsham-how/.

Of Bishop How’s sister, Frances Jane (How) Douglas (spelled “Douglass in some sources) I can find little information, not even her date of birth.  I do know that she wrote hymns, including “For All Thy Love and Goodness” (1848) (http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/03/31/for-all-thy-love-and-goodness/), which her brother revised for inclusion in Church Hymns (1871).  God knows the rest; that must suffice.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MAY 23, 2013 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT DEDIDERIUS/DIDIER OF VIENNE, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP

THE FEAST OF SAINT GUIBERT OF GORZE, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK

THE FEAST SAINT JOHN BAPTIST ROSSI, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST

THE FEAST OF NICOLAUS COPERNICUS, SCIENTIST

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For Further Reading:

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=How%2c%20William%20Walsham%2c%201823-1897

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Dear God of beauty,

you have granted literary ability and spiritual sensitivity to

William Walsham How and Frances Jane Douglas and others, who have composed hymn texts.

May we, as you guide us,

find worthy hymn texts to be icons,

through which we see you.

In the Name of God:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 44:1-3a, 5-15

Psalm 147

Revelation 5:11-14

Luke 2:8-20

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

APRIL 20, 2013 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINTS AMATOR OF AUXERRE AND GERMANUS OF AUXERRE, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS; SAINT MAMERTINUS OF AUXERRE, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT; AND SAINT MARCIAN OF AUXERRE, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK

THE FEAST OF JOHANNES BUGENHAGEN, GERMAN LUTHERAN PASTOR

THE FEAST OF SAINT MARCELLINUS OF EMBRUN, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP

THE FEAST OF OLAVUS AND LAURENTIUS PETRI, RENEWERS OF THE CHURCH

Poppies

Image Source = Santosh Namby Chandran

1 (JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA, DISCIPLE OF JESUS)

2 (Georg Weissel, German Lutheran Pastor and Hymn Writer)

• Anna Bernadine Dorothy Hoppe, U.S. Lutheran Hymn Writer and Translator
• Carroll O’Connor, U.S. Roman Catholic Actor and Screen Writer
• Christian Gottfried Gebhard, German Moravian Composer and Music Educator
• Frederick William Foster, English Moravian Bishop, Liturgist, Hymn Writer, and Hymn Translator
• Peter Julian Eymard, Founder of the Priests of the Blessed Sacrament, the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament, and the Priests’ Eucharistic League; and Organizer of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament

3 (JOANNA, MARY, AND SALOME, WITNESSES TO THE RESURRECTION)

4 (John Brownlie, Scottish Presbyterian Minister, Hymn Writer, and Translator of Hymns)

• Frédéric Janssoone, French Roman Catholic Priest and Friar
• Lambert Beauduin, Belgian Roman Catholic Priest and Pioneer of Liturgical Renewal
• Sarah Platt Doremus, Founder of the Women’s Union Missionary Society

5 (Alfred Tennyson, English Poet)

• Adam of Saint Victor, Roman Catholic Monk and Hymn Writer
• Albrecht Dürer, Matthias Grünewald, and Lucas Cranach the Elder, Renaissance Artists
• Francisco Zanfredini and Michelina of Pesaro, Co-Founders of the Confraternity of the Annunciation
• George Frederick Root, Poet and Composer

6 (TRANSFIGURATION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST)

7 (Colbert S. Cartwright, U.S. Disciples of Christ Minister, Liturgist, and Witness for Civil Rights)

• Guglielmo Massaia, Italian Cardinal, Missionary, and Capuchin Friar
• John Scrimger, Canadian Presbyterian Minister, Ecumenist, and Liturgist
• Maxim Sandovich, Russian Orthodox Priest and Martyr, 1914
• Victricius of Rouen, Roman Conscientious Objector and Roman Catholic Bishop

8 (Mary MacKillop, Founder of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart)

• Altman, Roman Catholic Bishop of Passau
• Bonifacia Rodriguez Castro, Co-Founder of the Congregation of the Servants of Saint Joseph
• Dominic, Founder of the Order of Preachers
• Raymond E. Brown, U.S. Roman Catholic Priest and Biblical Scholar

9 (Edith Stein, Roman Catholic Nun and Philosopher)

• Florence Spearing Randolph, First Female Ordained Minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
• Herman of Alaska, Russian Orthodox Monk and Missionary to the Aleut
• John Dryden, English Puritan then Anglican then Roman Catholic Poet, Playwright, and Translator
• Mary Sumner, Founder of the Mothers’ Union

10 (William Walsham How, Anglican Bishop of Wakefield and Hymn Writer; and his sister, Frances Jane Douglas(s), Hymn Writer)

• Catherine de Hueck Doherty, Founder of the Madonna House Apostolate
• Cyriaca, Roman Catholic Martyr at Rome, 249; and Sixtus II, His Companions, and Laurence of Rome, Roman Catholic Martyrs at Rome, 258
• Edward Grzymala and Franciszek Drzewiecki, Polish Roman Catholic Priests and Martyrs, 1942
• John Athelstan Laurie Riley, Anglican Ecumenist, Hymn Writer, and Hymn Translator

11 (Gregory Thaumaturgus, Roman Catholic Bishop of Neocaesarea; and Alexander of Comana “the Charcoal Burner,” Roman Catholic Martyr, 252, and Bishop of Comana, Pontus)

• Equitius of Valeria, Benedictine Abbot and Founder of Monasteries
• Matthias Loy, U.S. Lutheran Minister, Educator, Hymn Writer, and Hymn Translator; and Conrad Hermann Louis Schuette, German-American Lutheran Minister, Educator, Hymn Writer, and Hymn Translator
• Maurice Tornay, Swiss Roman Catholic Priest, Missionary to Tibet, and Martyr, 1949
• Stephen Rowsham, English Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr, 1587

12 (Thaddeus Stevens, U.S. Abolitionist, Congressman, and Witness for Civil Rights)

• Charles Inglis, Anglican Bishop of Nova Scotia
• Jane Frances de Chantal, Co-Founder of the Congregation of the Visitation
• Józef Stepniak and Józef Straszewski, Polish Roman Catholic Priests and Martyrs, 1942
• Karl Leisner, German Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr, 1945

13 (Jeremy Taylor, Anglican Bishop of Down, Connor, and Dromore)

• Elizabeth Payson Prentiss, U.S. Presbyterian Hymn Writer
• Irene of Hungary, Hungarian Princess and Byzantine Empress
• Octavia Hill, English Social Reformer

14 (William Croft, Anglican Organist and Composer)

• G. Bromley Oxnam, U.S. Methodist Bishop
• John Bajus, U.S. Lutheran Minister and Hymn Translator
• John Henry Hopkins, Jr., Episcopal Priest and Hymnodist; and his nephew, John Henry Hopkins, III, Episcopal Priest and Musician

• Maximilian Kolbe, Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr, 1941; and Jonathan Myrick Daniels, Episcopal Seminarian and Martyr, 1965
• Sarah Flower Adams, English Unitarian Hymn Writer; and her sister, Eliza Flower, English Unitarian Composer

15 (MARY OF NAZARETH, MOTHER OF GOD)

16 (John Diefenbaker and Lester Pearson, Prime Ministers of Canada; and Tommy Douglas, Federal Leader of the New Democratic Party)

• Alipius, Roman Catholic Bishop of Tagaste, and Friend of Saint Augustine of Hippo
• John Courtney Murray, U.S. Roman Catholic Priest and Theologian
• John Jones of Talysarn, Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Minister and Hymn Tune Composer
• Matthias Claudius, German Lutheran Writer

17 (Samuel Johnson, Congregationalist Minister, Anglican Priest, President of King’s College, “Father of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut,” and “Father of American Library Classification;” Timothy Cutler, Congregationalist Minister, Anglican Priest, and Rector of Yale College; Daniel Browne, Educator, Congregationalist Minister, and Anglican Priest; and James Wetmore, Congregationalist Minister and Anglican Priest)

• Baptisms of Manteo and Virginia Dare, 1587
• Eusebius of Rome, Bishop of Rome, and Martyr, 310
• George Croly, Anglican Priest, Poet, Historian, Novelist, Dramatist, Theologian, and Hymn Writer
• William James Early Bennett, Anglican Priest

18 (Artemisia Bowden, African-American Educator and Civil Rights Activist)

• Erdmann Neumeister, German Lutheran Minister and Hymn Writer
• Francis John McConnell, U.S. Methodist Bishop and Social Reformer
• Jonathan Friedrich Bahnmaier, German Lutheran Minister and Hymn Writer
• Petter Dass, Norwegian Lutheran Minister, Poet, and Hymn Writer

19 (Sixtus III, Bishop of Rome)

• Blaise Pascal, French Roman Catholic Scientist, Mathematician, and Theologian
• Geert Groote, Founder of the Brethren of the Common Life
• Ignaz Franz, German Roman Catholic Priest, Hymn Writer, and Hymnal Editor
• Magnus and Agricola of Avignon, Roman Catholic Bishops of Avignon
• William Hammond, English Moravian Hymn Writer

20 (ZACCHAEUS, PENITENT TAX COLLECTOR AND ROMAN COLLABORATOR)

21 (Bruno Zembol, Polish Roman Catholic Friar and Martyr, 1942)

• Camerius, Cisellus, and Luxorius of Sardinia, Martyrs, 303
• Martyrs of Edessa, Circa 304
• Maximilian of Antioch, Martyr, Circa 353; and Bonosus and Maximianus the Soldier, Martyrs, 362
• Victoire Rasoamanarivo, Malagasy Roman Catholic Laywoman

22 (Jack Layton, Canadian Activist and Federal Leader of the New Democratic Party)

• John David Chambers, Anglican Hymn Writer and Translator
• Hryhorii Khomyshyn, Symeon Lukach, and Ivan Slezyuk, Ukrainian Greek Catholic Bishops and Martyrs, 1947, 1964, and 1973
• John Kemble and John Wall, English Roman Catholic Priests and Martyrs, 1679
• Thomas Percy, Richard Kirkman, and William Lacey, English Roman Catholic Martyrs, 1572 and 1582

23 (Martin de Porres and Juan Macias, Humanitarians and Dominican Lay Brothers; Rose of Lima, Humanitarian and Dominican Sister; and Turibius of Mogrovejo, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Lima)

• Franciszek Dachtera, Polish Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr, 1944
• Theodore O. Wedel, Episcopal Priest and Biblical Scholar; and his wife, Cynthia Clark Wedel, U.S. Psychologist and Episcopal Ecumenist
• Thomas Augustine Judge, U.S. Roman Catholic Priest; Founder of the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity, the Missionary Servants of the Most Blessed Trinity, and the Missionary Cenacle Apostolate

24 (BARTHOLOMEW THE APOSTLE, MARTYR)

25 (Michael Faraday, English Scientist)

• Andrea Bordino, Italian Roman Catholic Lay Brother
• María del Tránsito de Jesús Sacramentado, Founder of the Congregation of the Franciscan Tertiary Missionaries of Argentina
• Maria Troncatti, Italian Roman Catholic Nun
• William John Copeland, Anglican Priest and Hymn Translator

26 (John Paul I, Bishop of Rome)

• Frederick William Herzberger, U.S. Lutheran Minister, Humanitarian, and Hymn Translator
• Levkadia Harasymiv, Ukrainian Greek Catholic Nun, and Martyr, 1952
• Luigi Beltrame Quattrocchi and Maria Corsini Beltrame Quattrocchi, Italian Roman Catholic Humanitarians
• Teresa of Jesus, Jornet y Ibars, Catalan Roman Catholic Nun and Co-Founder of the Little Sisters of the Abandoned Elderly

27 (Thomas Gallaudet and Henry Winter Syle, Episcopal Priests and Educators of the Deaf)

• Amadeus of Clermont, French Roman Catholic Monk; and his son, Amadeus of Lausanne, French-Swiss Roman Catholic Abbot and Bishop
• Dominic Barberi, Roman Catholic Apostle to England
• Henriette Luise von Hayn, German Moravian Hymn Writer

28 (Ambrose of Milan, Roman Catholic Bishop; Monica of Hippo, Mother of Saint Augustine of Hippo; and Augustine of Hippo, Roman Catholic Bishop of Hippo Regius)

• Denis Wortman, U.S. Dutch Reformed Minister and Hymn Writer
• George Thomas Coster, English Congregationalist Minister, Hymn Writer, and Humanitarian
• Laura S. Coperhaver, U.S. Lutheran Hymn Writer and Missionary Leader
• Moses the Black, Roman Catholic Monk, Abbot, and Martyr

29 (BEHEADING OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST)

30 (Jeanne Jugan, Founder of the Little Sisters of the Poor)

• Carlton C. Buck, U.S. Disciples of Christ Minister, Musician, and Hymn Writer
• Edmond L. Budry, Swiss Reformed Minister, Hymn Writer, and Hymn Translator
• Gerald Kennedy, U.S. Methodist Bishop and Hymn Writer
• John Leary, U.S. Roman Catholic Social Activist and Advocate for the Poor and Marginalized
• Karl Otto Eberhardt, German Moravian Organist, Music Educator, and Composer

31 (NICODEMUS, DISCIPLE OF JESUS)

 

Lowercase boldface on a date with two or more commemorations indicates a primary feast.