Archive for the ‘August 12’ Category
Above: St. Jane Frances de Chantal
Image in the Public Domain
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SAINT JANE FRANCES DE CHANTAL (JANUARY 28, 1572-DECEMBER 13, 1641)
Cofoundress of the Congregation of the Visitation
Also known as Saint Jeanne de Chantal and Saint Jane Frances Fremiot de Chantal
Alternative feast days = August 18 and December 13
Former feast days = August 21 and December 12
St. Jane Frances de Chantal comes to this, A Great Cloud of Witnesses: An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via the Roman Catholic Church, as well as Robert Ellsberg, All Saints: Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time (1997).
Our saint came from a prominent and wealthy family. She, born in Dijon, France, on January 28, 1572, was a daughter of Margaret de Berbisey and Bénigne Frémyot, president of the Burgundian parliament. St. Jane’s brother André grew up to become the Archbishop of Bourges, serving from 1602 to 1621. Margaret died when our saint was 18 months old. Bénigne, as a widower and a single father, raised his daughter to become a refined young woman.
At the age of twenty years, St. Jane married Baron Christophe de Rabutin. The happy marriage produced seven children, three of whom died in infancy. It was a brief marriage, though; the Baron died in a hunting accident in 1601, after eight years of marriage. St. Jane, widowed at twenty-eight years of age and raising four children, struggled. She depended on her family, made a personal vow of chastity, and spent much time in prayer. Life in her father-in-law’s household was miserable for our saint.
In Lent 1604, St. Jane’s father invited her to visit Dijon and hear St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622), the Bishop of Geneva, and the “Apostle of Charity,” speak. Our saint accepted that invitation. That address changed the course of St. Jane’s life. She recognized him as the man in the vision she had received at her father-in-law’s house in Monthelon. St. Francis advised St. Jane to spend less time with her father-in-law in Monthelon and more time with her father in Dijon. Our saint obeyed that counsel and attended to both men.
The two saints and their families became close. St. Jane considered joining a Carmelite convent in Dijon in 1605; St. Francis dissuaded her. The two saints became part of the same extended family in 1610. St. Jane’s daughter, Marie Aymée, married Bernard, the youngest brother of St. Francis. After St. Jane’s youngest daughter, Charlotte, died, our saint, her son Celse-Bénigne, and her daughter Françoise relocated to Annecy, where Marie Aymée and Bernard lived. Then St. Francis bought a house in the area.
Above: Annecy, France
Image Source = Google Earth
Sts. Jane and Francis founded the Congregation of the Visitation on Trinity Sunday, June 6, 1610, in Annecy. St. Jane’s 15-year-old son, Celse-Bénigne, opposed his mother’s plan to enter religious life. He asked her not to leave, and he laid down in front of the door. Our saint literally stepped over her son, out of the house, and into religious life. The Congregation of the Visitation was controversial from the beginning. The rule of the Congregation was relatively lenient. The Congregation also accepted women whom other orders had rejected for being too ill or too old. St. Jane, the Congregation’s first Superior, presided over its expansion to 86 convents.
St. Jane died, aged 69 years, in Moulins, France, on December 13, 1641.
Holy Mother Church has formally recognized St. Jane. Pope Benedict XIV beatified her in 1751. Pope Clement XIII canonized our saint in 1767.
St. Jane’s patronage is for widows, for parents separated from children, against problems with in-laws, against the death of parents, against abandonment, and for abandoned or forgotten people.
Members of the Congregation of the Visitation continue to lead contemplative lives, run schools, and work with widows and ill women.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MARCH 4, 2021 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF CHARLES SIMEON, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND PROMOTER OF MISSIONS; HENRY MARTYN, ANGLICAN PRIEST, LINGUIST, TRANSLATOR, AND MISSIONARY; AND ABDUL MASIH, INDIAN CONVERT AND MISSIONARY
THE FEAST OF HENRY SUSO, GERMAN ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR, PREACHER, AND SPIRITUAL WRITER
THE FEAST OF JOHN EDGAR PARK, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN THEN CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF PAUL CUFFEE, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MISSIONARY TO THE SHINNECOCK NATION
THE FEAST OF THOMAS HORNBLOWER GILL, ENGLISH UNITARIAN THEN ANGLICAN HYMN WRITER
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
O God, whose blessed Son became poor that we through his poverty might be rich:
Deliver us from an inordinate love of this world, that we,
inspired by the devotion of your servant Saint Jane Frances de Chantal,
may serve you with singleness of heart,
and attain to the riches of the age to come;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with
you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Song of Songs 8:6-7
Psalm 34
Philippians 3:7-15
Luke 12:33-37 or Luke 9:57-62
–Adapted from Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints (2010), 722
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Above: Stamp of Blessed Karl Leisner
Image in the Public Domain
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
BLESSED KARL LEISNER (FEBRUARY 28, 1915-AUGUST 12, 1945)
German Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr, 1945
Blessed Karl Leisner, born in Rees, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, on February 15, 1915, followed Jesus Christ, not Adolf Hitler. Our saint, a student of theology at Munster, first ran afoul of Nazi authorities by trying to establish Roman Catholic youth groups. The Third Reich sought to dominate all work with youth, however, so Leisner conducted his youth camps in Belgium and The Netherlands instead. During six months of mandatory agricultural work our saint ran afoul of Nazi authorities again by organizing Sunday Masses for workers. Leisner, ordained to the diaconate in 1939, became a prisoner for criticizing Hitler. Eventually, on December 14, 1941, he arrived at Dachau. There Bishop Gabriel Piquet ordained him to the priesthood on December 17, 1944. When Allied forces liberated the concentration camp on May 4, 1945, Leisner was near death, suffering from tuberculosis. He spent the last few months of his life at a sanitarium near Munich. Leisner, aged 30 years, died at Planegg on August 12, 1945.
Pope John Paul II declared Leisner a Venerable then a Blessed, as a martyr, in 1996.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 16, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF GEORGE BERKELEY, IRISH ANGLICAN BISHOP AND PHILOSOPHER; AND JOSEPH BUTLER, ANGLICAN BISHOP AND THEOLOGIAN
THE FEAST OF JOHN FRANCIS REGIS, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST
THE FEAST OF NORMAN MACLEOD, SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER; AND HIS COUSIN, JOHN MACLEOD, SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER, LITURGIST, AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF RUFUS JONES, U.S. QUAKER THEOLOGIAN AND COFOUNDER OF THE AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Almighty and everlasting God, who kindled the flame of love
in the heart of your holy martyr Blessed Karl Leisner:
Grant to us, your humble servants, a like faith and power of love,
that we who rejoice in his triumph may profit by his example;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with
you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Jeremiah 15:15-21
Psalm 124 or 31:1-5
Jeremiah 15:15-21
1 Peter 4:12-19
–Adapted from Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints (2010), 715
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Above: Dachau
Image in the Public Domain
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
BLESSED JÓZEF STEPNIAK (JANUARY 3, 1912-AUGUST 12, 1942)
BLESSED JÓZEF STRASZEWSKI (JANUARY 18, 1885-AUGUST 12, 1942)
Polish Roman Catholic Priest and Martyrs, 1942
Alternative feast day (as some of the 108 Martyrs of World War II) = June 12
The twentieth century, I have heard, was the century of martyrs. Certainly World War II was a time of the martyrdom of only God knows how many people. The Roman Catholic Church has recognized hundreds of martyrs of that time as being Venerable, Blessed, or canonized. Many of those were Polish priests.
Blessed Józef Straszewski was a faithful priest. He, born in Wloclawek, Russia (now Poland), on January 18, 1885, studied in his hometown from primary school to seminary. His priestly ordination occurred there on June 18, 1911. He served a series of parishes faithfully, and was, for a time, prefect of a State School of Commerce, prior to becoming the pastor of the new St. Stanislaw parish, Wloclawek. Our saint supervised the construction of the buildings, organized retreats, and led a movie series. Straszewski was a well-read-man, especially in theology.
Blessed Józef Stepniak, born in Zdzary on January 3, 1912, began life as a citizen of one country and died as a Polish citizen. (Poland was not a country between 1795 and 1918.) He, son of Paul Stepniak and Anna Misztal, grew up in a pious farm family. He studied at St. Fidelis College, Lomza, Poland, working hard and earning mediocre grades. He became a Capuchin novice (as Florian) at Nowe Miasto, Poland, on August 14, 1931. Stepniak, who made his profession on August 15, 1935, became a priest on June 24, 1938. Next our saint began studies at the Catholic University of Lublin.
The invasion and partition of Poland in 1939 disrupted the Roman Catholic Church there. The Gestapo targeted priests, arresting many of them and simply martyring others. Stepniak chose ministry to his fellow Christians above his safety. Agents of the Gestapo arrested him on January 25, 1940. Straszewski and other priests in the Diocese of Wloclawek became prisoners of the Third Reich on November 7, 1939.
Both saints became prisoners at Dachau. They were faithful to the end. Straszewski, for example, found in the Passion of Jesus the source of strength he needed. Stepniak and Straszewski, gassed on August 12, 1942, became martyrs. Pope John Paul II declared them Venerables then Blesseds in 1999.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 16, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF GEORGE BERKELEY, IRISH ANGLICAN BISHOP AND PHILOSOPHER; AND JOSEPH BUTLER, ANGLICAN BISHOP AND THEOLOGIAN
THE FEAST OF JOHN FRANCIS REGIS, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST
THE FEAST OF NORMAN MACLEOD, SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER; AND HIS COUSIN, JOHN MACLEOD, SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER, LITURGIST, AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF RUFUS JONES, U.S. QUAKER THEOLOGIAN AND COFOUNDER OF THE AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Almighty God, by whose grace and power your holy martyrs
Blessed Józef Stepniak and Blessed Józef Straszewski
triumphed over suffering and were faithful even to death:
Grant us, who now remember them in thanksgiving,
to be so faithful in our witness to you in this world,
that we may receive with them the crow of life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with
you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 51:1-12
Psalm 116 or 116:1-8
Revelation 7:13-17
Luke 12:2-12
–Adapted from Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints (2010), 714
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Above: St. Paul’s Church, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1910
Image Source = Halifax Public Libraries
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
CHARLES INGLIS (1734-FEBRUARY 24, 1816)
Anglican Bishop of Nova Scotia
The feast day of Charles Inglis, the first bishop of The Church of England in the colonies and the first bishop in what became the Anglican Church of Canada, in The Church of Ireland is August 16. In the Anglican Church of Canada his commemoration falls on August 12, the anniversary of his consecration as a bishop in 1787. (That is his Canadian feast day in The Book of Common Prayer of 1962, yet his feast is absent from The Book of Alternative Services of 1985. Both books have official status in Canada.)
The Church of England, for various reasons, never stationed a bishop in North America until 1787, when Inglis became the first Bishop of Nova Scotia, with jurisdiction over churches in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, Ontario, and Bermuda. Four years earlier, Samuel Seabury (1729-1796), a priest in Connecticut, had sailed to England to seek ordination to the episcopacy. He, being an American, could not swear loyalty to the British crown, so The Church of England refused to consecrate him. In 1784 bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church consecrated Seabury. He became the first bishop in The Episcopal Church (organized in 1789) and the first Bishop of Connecticut (in 1785). Seabury wore a mitre Charles Inglis had designed.
The Reverend Archibald Inglis (died in 1745) was the Rector of Glen and Kilcarr, in Ireland. He had three sons, the eldest of which was Richard Inglis (born circa 1720), who succeeded him immediately. The youngest son was Charles Inglis, born in 1734. The death of Archibald when Charles was 11 years old prevented our saint from attending a university. Nevertheless, Charles did read deeply in the Greek and Latin classics and learn some Hebrew. From 1754 to 1758 our saint taught in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Then he returned to England to become a priest.
Inglis was a priest in North American colonies from 1759 to 1783. For six years he served in Delaware. His parish was 33 miles long and 10-13 miles wide, containing four congregations, with the main one at Dover, when he started. By the time Inglis left he had added a fifth congregation. 1764 was an eventful year for our saint. Early in the year he married Mary Vining (born in 1733). By the end of the year he had buried her and their twin daughters, all of whom died at childbirth.
Next Inglis served at Trinity Church, New York, New York, from 1765 to 1783, first as an assistant priest (1765-1776), then as the senior assistant priest (1776-1777), then as the rector (1777-1783). During his time at Trinity Church our saint and his friend, Thomas Bradbury Chandler (1726-1790), worked together to advocate for the establishment of the episcopate in British North America. Inglis was a staunch Loyalist and Royalist in revolutionary New York. In 1776 he received a written request from George Washington, who was planning to attend church on a forthcoming Sunday, to omit the prayers for King George III and the royal family from the Litany in The Book of Common Prayer (1662). Inglis ignored the note and read the Litany in full, with Washington in attendance. Later that year our saint wrote and published a rebuttal to Thomas Paine’s Common Sense (1776). New York Sons of Liberty burned copies of our saint’s text. The following year, upon the death of Samuel Auchmuty, Rector of Trinity Church, Inglis became the rector of the parish. Our saint had been de facto rector for a time in 1776-1777, when the ailing Auchmuty had taken time off.
Inglis married his second wife, Mary Crooke, in 1773. The couple had four children:
- Charles Inglis (Jr.) (1774-1782), buried at Trinity Church, New York;
- Margaret Inglis (1775-1841), who, in 1799, married Sir Brenton Halliburton (1775-1860), who became the Chief Justice of Nova Scotia;
- Anne Inglis (1776-1827), who, in 1793, married George Pidgeon (1760-1818), a missionary priest in the Diocese of Nova Scotia; and
- John Inglis (1777-1850), who became a priest, his father’s assistant, and the third Bishop of Nova Scotia.
Inglis, who received two degrees from Oxford University (honorary Master of Arts, 1770; Doctor of Divinity, 1778), lost his wife, property, and parish in 1783. Mary died; our saint buried her at Trinity Church. Then, with the British Empire recognizing the fact that the United States (plural in those days) were not British via the Treaty of Paris of 1783, politics changed greatly in the former colonies. American revolutionary governments seized the property of many Loyalists, including Inglis. Furthermore, many Loyalists emigrated from former American colonies for various destinations in the British Empire. Among those destinations were the maritime colonies of British North America. Late in 1783 Inglis resigned from Trinity Church. Then he and his children departed New York City for mother England.
Inglis lived in England for just a few years. During that time he renewed his friendships with Samuel Seabury and Thomas Bradbury Chandler, for all three men were in London at the same time. Seabury and Chandler, also Loyalists, eventually returned to the United States, for they made their peace with the revolution and found communities in which their politics were not insurmountable obstacles. And, as I wrote at the beginning of this post, Inglis designed Seabury’s mitre. Our saint also encouraged the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge (SPCK) to translate The Book of Common Prayer (1662) into the Mohawk language. In 1786, after Chandler, citing health problems, declined the offer to become the first Bishop of Nova Scotia, Inglis accepted the position. The consecration occurred at Lambeth Palace on August 12, 1787.
Bishop Inglis presided over the Diocese of Nova Scotia, a vast territory spanning Ontario in west to the maritime colonies and Newfoundland and Labrador in the west to Bermuda even more to the west. At the beginning of his episcopate the work was indeed daunting, for there was just one proper church building, that of St. Paul’s, Halifax. Many colonists had little or no interest in organized religion. Others, however, were Roman Catholics, Calvinists, and revivalists. Inglis was critical of all of them. Of dissenting Protestants he wrote:
Their wild notions are imbibed, which militate against both Church and State. The minds of the people are hereby perverted against our excellent Church….For my part I shudder at the probable consequences of such a state of things, if continued. I see in their embryo the same state which produced the subversion of Church and State in the time of Charles I.
Of revivalists he wrote:
Instantaneous conversion accompanied by strong bodily agitation, divine and immediate inspiration and even prophecy, with the impeccability of those who are once converted are among their favorite doctrines and pretensions.
Our saint, a man of the Anglican establishment, was equally critical of pre-Vatican II Roman Catholicism, labeling it an “intolerant sect.” (To be fair, pre-Vatican II Roman Catholicism was also quite critical of Protestantism and Anglicanism.)
Inglis built up his see. Although he expanded the Litany slightly to include civil officials in colonies, he insisted that priests otherwise follow The Book of Common Prayer (1662) to the letter. He also oversaw the construction of more than 23 church buildings and visited congregations faithfully, confirming many people yet not converting the majority of the population to Anglicanism. In 1789 our saint founded King’s College, Windsor, as a seminary. Despite all his hard work, Inglis proved unable to fill all vacancies in missions. That fact disturbed him. In 1796 the bishop moved from Halifax, citing issues of climate and weather, and relocated to Clermont, a farm and orchard near Windsor. And, in 1809, our saint joined His Majesty’s Council, ranking immediately after the Chief Justice.
Inglis worked closely with his youngest child, John Inglis (1777-1850). The father ordained the son deacon in 1801 and priest the following year. For 14 years John served at Aylesford, near Windsor. During many of those years he served as his father’s assistant. In 1807, at John’s urging, King’s College, Windsor, remaining a seminary, began to admit non-Anglicans, although subscription to the 39 Articles of Religion remained a requirement for earning a degree.
Inglis suffered a stroke in the summer of 1811. He asked the Archbishop of Canterbury and other church leaders to appoint and consecrate John as the Bishop Coadjutor. Our saint assumed that he would die soon; he survived until February 24, 1816, aged about 82 years, instead. In 1812, however, eccelesiastical officialdom decided not to make John a bishop yet. The stated reasons were the son’s inexperience and allegations of nepotism. Neither did the church send another bishop until 1816. The tenure of Robert Stanser, the second Bishop of Nova Scotia, was not a glorious age of church growth, for he spent 1817-1824 in England for health reasons before vacating the post. Finally, in 1825, John Inglis, the Rector of St. Paul’s, Halifax, from 1816, became the third Bishop of Nova Scotia. He served in that capacity for a quarter of a century.
Our saint’s published works (mostly sermons) included the following, apart from those to which I have provided links in this post already:
- An Essay on Infant Baptism: In Which the Right of Infants to the Sacrament of Baptism, is Proved from Scripture, Vindicated from the Usual Objections, and Confirmed by the Practice of the First Four Centuries (1768);
- A Sermon on II Corinth. v. 6: Occasioned by the Death of John Ogilvie, D.D., Assistant Minister of Trinity Church, New-York (1774);
- A Sermon Preached Before His Excellency of the Lieutenant Governor, His Majesty’s Council, and the House of Assembly, of the Province of Nova-Scotia: in St. Paul’s Church at Halifax, on Sunday, November 25, 1787 (1787);
- A Charge Delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Nova Scotia, at the Primary Visitation Holden in the Town of Halifax, in the Month of June 1788 (1788);
- A Charge Delivered to the Clergy of the Province of Quebec, at the Primary Visitation: Holden in the City of Quebec, in the Month of August 1789 (1789);
- A Charge Delivered to the Clergy of Nova-Scotia, at the Triennial Visitation Holden in the Town of Halifax, in the Month of June 1791 (1791);
- Steadfastness in Religion and Loyalty Recommended, in a Sermon Preached Before the Legislature of His Majesty’s Province of Nova-Scotia; in the Parish Church of St. Paul at Halifax, on Sunday, April 7, 1793 (1793);
- A Sermon Preached in the Parish Church of St. Paul at Halifax, on Friday, April 25, 1794: Being the Day Appointed by Proclamation for a General Fast and Humiliation in His Majesty’s Province of Nova-Scotia (1794); and
- A Charge Delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Nova-Scotia at the Triennial Visitation: Holden in the Months of June and August, 1803 (1803).
Useful sources of information about the bishop include the following:
- A Missionary Apostle: A Sermon Preached in Westminster Abbey, Friday, August 12, 1887, on the Occasion of the Centenary of the Consecration of Charles Inglis, D.D., First Bishop of Nova Scotia (1887), by William Stephens Perry;
- A History of the Parish of Trinity Church in the City of New York, Part I: To the Close of the Rectorship of Dr. Inglis, A.D. 1783 (1898), edited by Morgan Dix; and
- Leaders of the Canadian Church (1918), edited by William Bestal Heeney.
Charles Inglis did not hold political differences against those who opposed British rule. Neither do I, an American, hold his Royalism against him. He was an ecclesiastical pioneer, a proverbial giant upon whose shoulders others stand. As the Bishop of Nova Scotia he sought the best interests of his diocese and the Kingdom of God. Our saint was indeed a man people should continue to honor.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
APRIL 28, 2016 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF JOHN ROSS MACDUFF AND GEORGE MATHESON, SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIAN MINISTERS AND AUTHORS
THE FEAST OF THE FIRST U.S. METHODIST BOOK OF WORSHIP, 1945
THE FEAST OF SAINT GUALFARDUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC HERMIT
THE FEAST OF SAINT PETER CHANEL, PROTOMARTYR OF OCEANIA
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
O God, our heavenly Father, who raised up your faithful servant Charles Inglis
to be a bishop and pastor in your Church and feed the flock:
Give abundantly to all pastors the gifts of your Holy Spirit,
that they may minister in your household as true servants of Christ
and stewards of your divine mysteries; through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Acts 20:17-35
Psalm 84 or 84:7-11
Ephesians 3:14-21
Matthew 24:42-47
–Adapted from Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints (2010), page 719
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Above: The Honorable Thaddeus Stevens, 1860-1868
Image Source = Library of Congress
THADDEUS STEVENS (APRIL 14, 1792-AUGUST 11/12, 1868)
U.S. Abolitionist, Congressman, and Witness for Civil Rights
“The Great Commoner”
One of the advantages of keeping a calendar of saints on a blog is recognizing people–whether or not from a denomination’s authorized calendar. Today I choose to recognize a saint who, to the best of my knowledge, does not occupy space on any church body’s calendar. That fact constitutes an oversight on their part. Many people–especially defensive Southerners with emotional attachments to the Confederacy–have heaped abuse on the reputation of Congressman Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania. Representations of him from the bad films The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Tennessee Johnson (1942) are laughably inaccurate. Of course, the Klansmen were the heroes in The Birth of a Nation, a movie which should make a person cringe if it does not bore one into unconsciousness first.
I begin at the end. Thaddeus Stevens lies buried in a cemetery at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a town where he had lived for many years. His epitaph follows:
I repose in this quiet and secluded spot
Not from any natural preference for solitude
But, finding no other cemeteries limited as to Race by Charter Rules,
I have chosen this that I might illustrate in my death
The Principles which I advocated through a long life
EQUALITY OF MAN BEFORE HIS CREATOR.
Thaddeus Stevens was born in Vermont on April 14, 1792. He was the second of four children of Sarah Morrill, a devout Baptist, and Joshua Stevens, a shoemaker and a surveyor. Joshua, a man with “rather dissipated habits,” abandoned his family, leaving Sarah to raise her children. She was devoted to them, and Thaddeus remained devoted to her until she died in 1854.
Our saint had a difficult personality. Inborn traits might have had something to do with that fact, but so did his disability: a lifelong limp caused by a clubfoot. This caused much taunting during his youth. And some thought of the disability as a curse from God. That accusation of being cursed by God might have influenced Stevens never to join a church, not that he was estranged from the Bible or hostile to organized religion. In fact, he knew the Bible very well, having kept a copy by his bedside throughout his life. And, in the early 1850s, in an attempt to convince his mother to leave Vermont and move to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where there was no Baptist congregation nearby, Stevens offered to pay split the construction costs for a Baptist church with the Baptists. Sarah died first, however.
Well-educated, Stevens moved to Pennsylvania in 1815 and opened a law office at Gettysburg the following year. In 1821 he was complicit in returning a slave woman and her children to servitude. This troubled his conscience greatly, so he became a strong, uncompromising abolitionist. Stevens was, in fact, chiefly responsible for the equalization of pay for White and African-American soldiers and the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 in 1864. He also favored Radical Reconstruction, with its insistence on enforcing the civil rights of former slaves. And he worked hard to remove President Andrew Johnson (in office 1865-1869), an unapologetic racist and foe of the former slaves, from office. The saint’s methods constituted an overreach, but his heart and mind were in the right place. (Johnson had said of the former slaves,
Damn them!
To call him a twit is to understate the case greatly.)
As a man Stevens encouraged people to virtue and tried to act kindly, despite his acerbic tendencies. He discouraged his nephew from drinking. And Stevens was a kind employer to the workers at his iron works. Steeped in the Bible, Stevens, as a state legislator in 1842, opposed capital punishment, stating,
Society ought to know nothing of vengeance.
Eight years earlier, he had pushed through the legislature a law creating free public schools in the commonwealth. A year later, in 1835, he had prevented that law’s repeal. The major complaint against free public schools was that some people did not want to pay for schools they did not intend to use. But, Stevens rebutted, people already paid for courts and jails they did not intend to use.
Stevens, as a political creature, supported equality of access to opportunities for social advancement and personal improvement. This led him to favor a strong role for the government in society, hence his support for public schools and for public works projects, such as those of Henry Clay’s proposed American System. Stevens was a natural Federalist then Anti-Mason then Whig then Republican. As I have explained to students in U.S. history courses, the political labels “Democratic” and “Republican” have been constant since 1854 yet the substance of them has changed more than once. The fact that a certain historical figure fit into a particular political party in the 1800s does not mean that he or she would find a home there or in its successor today. My readings about Stevens and my knowledge of modern U.S. politics cause me to conclude that he would not have fit easily into the post-Goldwater and Reagan Republican Party. Certainly the Southern Strategy (appealing to Southern segregationists, beginning in the 1960s) would have offended his morality.
Stevens died about midnight on August 11-12, 1868, after having been ill for a while. At the tail end of his life he received a Roman Catholic baptism. How conscious he was of this baptism was uncertain then and remains at least as uncertain today. Yet we can be certain of the fact that there was a Protestant funeral him to rival the Roman Catholic funeral.
Professor Hans L. Trefousse, author of Thaddeus Stevens: Nineteenth-Century Egalitarian (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1997), the main source of my notes for this post, concluded:
His policies often sounded harsh, whether vindictive or not, but his legacy made possible racial progress in the twentieth century, finally showing that his life had not been a failure. Ahead of his time, he worked for an interracial democracy. It was a goal for which he assuredly deserves to be remembered.
–page 245
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JULY 2, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF WALTER RAUSCHENBUSCH, WASHINGTON GLADDEN, AND JACOB RIIS, ADVOCATES OF THE SOCIAL GOSPEL
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Holy and righteous God, you created us in your image.
Grant us grace to contend fearlessly against evil
and to make no peace with oppression.
Help us, like your servant Thaddeus Stevens,
to work for justice among people and nations,
to the glory of your name,
through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.
Hosea 2:18-23
Psalm 94:1-15
Romans 12:9-21
Luke 6:20-36
—Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 60
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.
SUNDRY THOUGHTS 
You must be logged in to post a comment.