I would rather die than go on living as a neutral, not daring to call good and evil by their proper names, not daring to give my last ounce of blood for the oppressed.

Above:  Vincent Lebbe

Image in Public Domain

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FRÉDÉRIC-VINCENT LEBBE (AUGUST 19, 1877-JUNE 24, 1940)

Belgian-Chinese Roman Catholic Priest, Missionary, and Founder of the Little Brothers of Saint John the Baptist

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–Vincent Lebbe

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Vincent Lebbe comes to this, A Great Cloud of Witnesses:  An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via Robert Ellsberg, All Saints:  Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time (1997).

Frédéric-Vincent Lebbe, like his Presbyterian contemporary, Pearl S. Buck, was a culturally sensitive missionary.  Lebbe, born in Ghent, Belgium, on August 19, 1877, grew up in a Roman Catholic family.  At the tender age of 11 years, our saint discerned his vocation to become a missionary priest in China, and to die there.  He joined the Congregation of the Mission (the Vincentians/the Lazarists) in Paris in 1895.  Lebbe arrived in China in 1901 and joined the ranks of priests on October 28.  Alphonse Favier (1837-1905), the Titular Bishop of Pentacomia, ordained him in Beijing.

Lebbe, unlike many of his fellow missionaries, respected Chinese culture.  He, unpretentious, carried his own luggage off the boat when he arrived in 1901, although, as one fellow missionary told him,

In China no missionary ever carries his own case.

Lebbe rejected all political and cultural imperialism.  Cultural imperialism caused many Chinese people to perceive all Christian missionaries as imperial agents.  Many were, of course.  Rather, our saint identified as Chinese.  He even became a Chinese citizen in 1927.  Lebbe mastered Chinese, dressed like a Chinese laborer, and encouraged indigenous leadership of the Church.  In 1926, Pope Pius XI consecrated six Chinese bishops, all of whom Lebbe had recommended.

Lebbe, an outcast and a traitor, according to many of his European counterparts, was home.  He resigned from the Congregation of the Mission in 1929 and led the new Little Brothers of Saint John the Baptist.  During the war with China, our saint led efforts to save many lives while placing his life at risk.  This did not prevent Communists from mistaking him for a government spy.  After six weeks as a prisoner of Communist forces in 1940, Lebbe was in a weakened state.  He, released, died on June 14, 1940.  Lebbe was 62 years old.  The Chinese government declared a day of mourning for the man whose Chinese name translated as, “the thunder that sings in the distance.”

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MAY 17, 2020 COMMON ERA

THE SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER, YEAR A

THE FEAST OF THOMAS BRADBURY CHANDLER, ANGLICAN PRIEST; HIS SON-IN-LAW, JOHN HENRY HOBART, EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF NEW YORK; AND HIS GRANDSON, WILLIAM HOBART HARE, APOSTLE TO THE SIOUX AND EPISCOPAL MISSIONARY BISHOP OF NIOBRARA THEN SOUTH DAKOTA

THE FEAST OF SAINT CATERINA VOLPICELLI, FOUNDRESS OF THE SERVANTS OF THE SACRED HEART; SAINT LUDOVICO DA CASORIA, FOUNDER OF THE GRAY FRIARS OF CHARITY AND COFOUNDER OF THE GRAY SISTERS OF SAINT ELIZABETH; AND SAINT GIULIA SALZANO, FOUNDRESS OF THE CONGREGATION OF THE CATECHETICAL SISTERS OF THE SACRED HEART

THE FEAST OF CHARLES HAMILTON HOUSTON AND THURGOOD MARSHALL, ATTORNEYS AND CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS

THE FEAST OF DONALD COGGAN, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY

THE FEAST OF SAINT IVAN ZIATYK, POLISH UKRAINIAN GREEK CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1952

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God of grace and might, we praise you for your servant Vincent Lebbe,

to whom you gave gifts to make the good news known.

Raise up, we pray, in every country, heralds and evangelists of your kingdom,

so that the world may know the immeasurable riches of our Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Isaiah 62:1-7

Psalm 48

Romans 10:11-17

Luke 24:44-53

–Adapted from Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), 37

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JOHN GERARD, S.J.

Above:  The Flag of England

Image in the Public Domain

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JOHN GERARD (OCTOBER 4, 1564-JULY 27, 1637)

English Jesuit Priest

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MARY WARD (JANUARY 23, 1586-JUNE 23, 1645)

Foundress of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary

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John Gerard and Mary Ward come to my Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days via Robert Ellsberg, All Saints:  Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time (New York:  The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1997), where they have separate feast days.

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John Gerard was a Jesuit priest.  He, born in Derbyshire, England, on October 4, 1564, joined the Society of Jesus in August 1588, at the at the age of 23 years.  The young priest returned to his homeland later that year.  For years, due to his knowledge of hunting and falconry, Gerard passed as a country gentleman.  Meanwhile he worked as an underground priest, saying Masses for Roman Catholic members of the gentry and those who worshiped in their homes.  Our saint did this while evading priest hunters until 1594, when authorities arrested him.  Our saint, treated harshly–even tortured–then became a prisoner in the Tower of London in 1597.  Later that year he escaped from that prison and went on the lam until 1606.

The Gunpowder Plot (1605) backfired on a few guilty and a host of innocent Roman Catholics.  It was a failed conspiracy to blow up the Houses of Parliament.  Gerard was a friend and a priest to some of the conspirators, but none of them told him of the plot.  Nevertheless, there was an arrest warrant with his name on it.  Also, authorities doubled down on the persecution of Roman Catholics.  On orders of his superiors Gerard escaped in 1606.  On May 3 of that year our saint left England when he posed as a retainer of the Spanish Ambassador.

Gerard landed in Flanders, where he became the Jesuit superior.  By 1620 he had become the novice-master at Liege.  He lost that position that year due to his advocacy for Mary Ward.

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MARY WARD

Mary Ward was a woman who suffered for her faith at the hands of both the Roman Catholic Church and The Church of England.  She, born on January 23, 1586, came from Roman Catholic gentry.  Her family hosted underground priests and illegal Masses.  Ward, discerning a vocation to become a nun, rejected all opportunities to marry.  She, smuggled out of England, made her way to Belgium.  There, in 1606, she reluctantly obey a bishop’s order to become a lay sister (servant) to a Poor Clares community instead.

Conventional methods were not for Ward, however.  She discerned a vocation to found a new order of nuns–the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Before Ward could do that, however, she visited England clandestinely.  Our saint assisted priests saying illegal Masses in homes.  She also visited incarcerated priests.  Eventually authorities captured, imprisoned, and sentenced Ward to death, before exiling her instead.

Ward, back in Europe, founded her new order, with papal permission.  The free schools for girls were not controversial, but the lack of episcopal supervision was.  Were women not supposed to be under male supervision?  In 1631 the Church suppressed the order, which had yet to receive papal recognition.  Ward spent a brief term as a prisoner of Holy Mother Church; she was allegedly a heretic and a schismatic.

Ward, her health broken and her vocation destroyed, returned to England, despite the great risks (such as incarceration, torture, and death) of doing so.  She died, aged 59 years, at York on June 23, 1645.

Pope Clement XI confirmed the rule of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1703.

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JOHN GERARD, S.J.

Gerard, a confessor at the Jesuit college in Rome, died in the Eternal City on July 27, 1637.  He was 72 years old.

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John Gerard and Mary Ward deserve recognition on multiple calendars of saints.  Robert Ellsberg has done a fine job by adding them to his calendar in All Saints.  I follow his example (except by merging the feasts) gladly here.  Hopefully ecclesiastical organizations will formally recognize Gerard and Ward in years to come.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

FEBRUARY 6, 2018 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT MARCUS AURELIUS CLEMENS PRUDENTIUS, POET AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF SAINTS MATEO CORREA-MAGALLANES AND MIGUEL AGUSTIN PRO, MEXICAN ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS AND MARTYRS

THE FEAST OF SAINT VEDAST (VAAST), ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF ARRAS AND CAMBRAI

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM BOYCE AND JOHN ALCOCK, ANGLICAN COMPOSERS

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Almighty God, you have surrounded us with a great cloud of witnesses:

Grant that we, encouraged by the good example of your servants

John Gerard and Mary Ward,

may persevere in running the race that is set before us,

until at last we may with them attain to your eternal joy;

through Jesus Christ, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Micah 6:6-8

Psalm 15

Hebrews 12:1-2

Matthew 25:31-40

–Adapted from Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), page 724

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Above:  Herrnhut, 1765

Image in the Public Domain

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WILHELM HEINRICH WAUER (JUNE 23, 1826-JANUARY 3, 1902)

German Moravian Composer and Musician

Many careers and jobs are respectable and edifying to the people who hold them and to their communities.  And many of the saints on this, the Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, made their lasting spiritual contributions via such careers and jobs.  Others, however, made their lasting spiritual contributions via their hobbies instead.  Wilhelm Heinrich Wauer (1826-1902) was one of these.

Wauer was a resident of Herrnhut, the Moravian headquarters, in Saxony, Germany.  He entered the world there on June 23, 1826, and died there on January 3, 1902.  He spent only two and a half years away from Herrnhut, when attending school at Niesky, Germany.  Our saint’s day job was managing business correspondence in English and Spanish for Abraham Duringer and Company, a manufacturing firm at Herrnhut.  Wauer became so literate in the two languages that he enjoyed reading literature in them.  He also enjoyed studying, singing, and composing music.  Thus he sang in the Herrnhut choir, introduced works of great European composers (especially Felix Mendelssohn, his favorite) to local musicians, and composed songs, cantatas, and an oratorio.

His music has survived him.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 9, 2015 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINTS PEPIN ON LANDEN, ITTA OF METZ, THEIR RELATIONS, AMAND, AUSTREGISILUS, AND SULPICIUS II OF BOURGES, FAITHFUL CHRISTIANS ACROSS GENERATIONAL LINES

THE FEAST OF SAINT ADRIAN OF CANTERBURY, ABBOT

THE FEAST OF SAINT ANTHONY MARY PUCCI, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST

THE FEAST OF JULIA CHESTER EMERY, NATIONAL SECRETARY OF THE WOMEN’S AUXILIARY OF THE BOARD OF MISSIONS, THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH

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God of grace and glory,

you have given a rich variety of interests and talents to us; thank you.

Thank you for those who have served you and helped their fellow human beings

in their daily lives habitually via their vocations yet most memorably their avocations,

and for those who do so.

May we, reminded of and encouraged in our responsibilities to you and each other by their examples,

continue faithfully in the endeavors you assign us.

In the name of Jesus, who came to serve, not to be served.  Amen.

Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 38:24-34a

Psalm 33

Romans 14:7-8

Matthew 5:13-16

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 14, 2013 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM CROFT, ANGLICAN ORGANIST AND COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF JONATHAN MYRICK DANIELS, EPISCOPAL SEMINARIAN AND MARTYR

THE FEAST OF SAINT MAXIMILLIAN KOLBE, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR

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Above:  Central Moravian Church, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, February 1969

Photographer = Jack E. Boucher

Image Source = Library of Congress

Reproduction Number = HABS PA,48-BETH,2–5

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HEINRICH GOTTLOB GUTTER (JUNE 23, 1797-JULY 8, 1847)

German-American Moravian Instrument Maker, Repairman, and Merchant

The Moravian Church has a long and venerable tradition of placing a high value on quality in music–vocal and instrumental.  People such as Heinrich Gottlob Gutter (1797-1847), a German-born resident of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, from 1817 until his death, were crucial to the instrumental side of music.  He emigrated from his fatherland in 1817 to live in the home of his uncle, Christian Gottlob Paulus, an instrument maker in Bethlehem.  Two years later Gutter joined the Unitas Fratrum and opened his main business, which primarily entailed selling and repairing instruments.  He also made some instruments.  A second stream of income came from a lumber business.  Gutter also played clarinet in the Columbian Band, which supported the 97th Regiment of the Pennsylvania militia.

Another long and venerable tradition of the Moravian Church is treating even the seemingly most mundane tasks as sacred–for the glory of God and benefit of the family, community, et cetera.  This was Gutter’s understanding of his work.  It is also my interpretation of his vocation, which I honor.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 8, 2015 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT THORFINN OF HAMAR, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP

THE FEAST OF GALILEO GALILEI, SCIENTIST

THE FEAST OF HARRIET BEDELL, EPISCOPAL DEACONESS

THE FEAST OF NATE SAINT AND THE OTHER MARTYRS OF THE ECUADOR MISSION, PROTESTANT MISSIONARIES

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Almighty God, you have surrounded us with a great cloud of witnesses:

Grant that we, encouraged by the good example of your servant Heinrich Gottlob Gutter,

may persevere in running the race that is set before us,

until at last we may with him attain to your eternal joy;

through Jesus Christ, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Micah 6:6-8

Psalm 15

Hebrews 12:1-2

Matthew 25:31-40

–Adapted from Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), page 724

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Above:  Landing Stage, Liverpool, England, 1900

Image Source = Library of Congress

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JOHN JOHNS (MARCH 17, 1801-JUNE 23, 1847)

English Presbyterian Minister and Hymn Writer

The hymnal companion volumes from my liturgical library which contain information about John Johns list him as a Presbyterian.  Yet, when I searched online, I found (in one source) a different story–that he was always a Unitarian.  I know from the hymnal companion volumes that a Unitarian minister influenced our saint’s education, but those same books are not reticent to identify a Unitarian as a Unitarian, so their contributors had no reason to conceal anyone’s Unitarian affiliation.  And, according to hymn sites, Johns wrote a hymn about the necessity of being born again.  Thus I list him as a Presbyterian.

John Johns, born in Plymouth, England, in 1801, and educated at Plymouth and Liverpool, entered the Presbyterian ministry in 1820 at Crediton.  Sixteen years later he moved to Liverpool, where he labored among the poor people.  The “minister to the poor” died in 1847 of a fever which was rampant in the district in which he was working.

Johns, a fine poet, published  three volumes of his verse:

1. Dews of Castille:  A Collection of Poems (1828);
2. The Valley of the Nymphs (1829); and
3. Georgiacs of Life (1846).

The Handbook to The Hymnal (1935), Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., refers to our saint’s literary skill and acumen as an organized or work among the poor then concludes that:

….his memory is best cherished because of the offering of his heart and life in the service of the Master among the poor.

–page 419

The following hymn encapsulates his commitments well:

Come, Kingdom of our God,

Sweet reign of light and love,

Shed peace and hope and joy abroad,

And wisdom from above.

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Come, Kingdom of our God,

And make the broad earth thine;

Stretch o’er her lands and isles the rod

That flowers with grace divine.

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Soon may all tribes be blest

With fruit from life’s glad tree;

And in its shade like brothers rest,

Sons of one family.

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Come, Kingdom of God,

And raise thy glorious throne

In worlds by the undying trod,

Where God shall bless His own.

Johns spent much of his life and died serving Christ in the poor people of Liverpool.  He is a natural choice for inclusion in the Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 14, 2014 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINTS MACRINA THE ELDER, BASIL THE ELDER, EMILA, NAUCRATIUS, AND PETER OF SEBASTE, FAITHFUL CHRISTIANS OVER THREE GENERATIONS

THE FEAST OF CIVIL RIGHTS MARTYRS AND ACTIVISTS

THE FEAST OF RICARDO MONTALBAN, ACTOR

THE FEAST OF SAINT SAVA, FOUNDER OF THE SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

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O 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 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

Above:  Elijah in the Wilderness, by Washington Allston

Terrifying Grace

The Sunday Closest to June 22

Second Sunday After Pentecost

JUNE 19, 2016

JUNE 23, 2019

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The Assigned Readings:

1 Kings 19:1-4 (5-7), 8-15a and Psalms 42 and 43

or 

Isaiah 65:1-9 and Psalm 22:18-27

then 

Galatians 3:23-29

Luke 8:26-39

The Collect:

Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness, and minister your justice with compassion; for the sake of our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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Some Related Posts:

Prayer of Praise and Adoration:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/prayer-of-praise-and-adoration-for-the-fifth-sunday-after-pentecost/

Prayer of Confession:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/prayer-of-confession-for-the-fifth-sunday-after-pentecost/

Prayer of Dedication:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/prayer-of-dedication-for-the-fifth-sunday-after-pentecost/

The Remnant:

http://taylorfamilypoems.wordpress.com/2011/08/09/the-remnant/

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As I took notes on the readings then pondered connections the first unifying thread I noticed was fear.  To begin with the Old Testament options, Elijah was a fugitive  from the wrath of Queen Jezebel after the contest with the priests of Baal.  Yet God, who was present in the silence, not the storm, encouraged the prophet and gave him more tasks to complete.  Third Isaiah reminded his audience that a remnant of the faithful would survive the destruction of the wicked.  So the faithful needed not to fear, although the wicked did.

In the Gospel of Luke Jesus healed a demoniac (whatever his modern psychiatric label would be) and killed a herd of swine.  Then fearful locals asked our Lord to depart the premises.  What scared them?  The loss of the swine, economic assets, disturbed some obvious reasons.  And the demonstration of such power certainly disturbed others.  But the healing was the scariest part of the sequence of events.  Who were the locals relative to the man if he, once ill, was now well?

Change disturbs many people profoundly.  We become accustomed to the status quo, even if we know that it is imperfect.  But at least it is familiar.  Some things, of course, should remain constant, so discomfort with some change is healthy and proper.  But resistance to change in general constitutes a spiritual dysfunction.  Besides, life is replete with change.  One who likes things just so and constant will not cope well with life.  And an organism that is not changing is dead.

Speaking of change, Christ Jesus overrides a variety of distinctions, such as slave and free person, male and female, and Jew and Gentile. Opposites such as these cease to matter in the context of our Lord.   That causes me great joy.  Yet many others find that breaking down barriers frightening.  If we define ourselves by who and what we are not rather than by who and what we are, it is terrifying news.

Grace scandalizes many of us.  It calls us as we are and leads us to become a new creation.  Grace ignores categories we use to make sense of the world and destroys our illusion that we know more than we do.  Grace tell sus that we need not hide from our enemies if God is with us.  We still might die–the Romans did crucify Jesus–but divine power remains unrivaled.  And God will preserve a remnant of the faithful as the wicked perish.  The members of that remnant will have a responsibility to minister grace to others, for grace is free, not cheap.

Dare we embrace this potentially upsetting and terrifying grace?  Or do we prefer the comfortable fictions and realities which comfort us while afflicting others?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JUNE 16, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF RUFUS JONES, QUAKER THEOLOGIAN

THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN FRANCIS REGIS, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST

THE FEAST OF JOSEPH BUTLER, ANGLICAN BISHOP

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Honeysuckles

Image in the Public Domain

1 (Justin Martyr, Christian Apologist and Martyr, 166/167)

• David Abeel, U.S. Dutch Reformed Minister and Missionary to Asia
• Pamphilus of Caesarea, Bible Scholar and Translator; and His Companions, Martyrs, 309
• Samuel Stennett, English Seventh-Day Baptist Minister and Hymn Writer; and John Howard, English Humanitarian
• Simeon of Syracuse, Roman Catholic Monk
• William Robinson, Marmaduke Stephenson, and Mary Dyer, British Quaker Martyrs in Boston, Massachusetts, 1659 and 1660

2 (Blandina and Her Companions, the Martyrs of Lyons, 177)

• Anders Christensen Arrebo, “The Father of Danish Poetry”
• Christoph Homburg, German Lutheran Hymn Writer
• John Lancaster Spalding, Roman Catholic Bishop of Peoria then Titular Bishop of Seythopolis
• Margaret Elizabeth Sangster, Hymn Writer, Novelist, and Devotional Writer
• Stephen of Sweden, Roman Catholic Missionary, Bishop, and Martyr, Circa 1075

3 (John XXIII, Bishop of Rome)

• Christian Gottfried Geisler and Johann Christian Geisler, Silesian Moravian Organists and Composers; and Johannes Herbst, German-American Organist, Composer, and Bishop
• Frances Ridley Havergal, English Hymn Writer and Composer
• Ole T. (Sanden) Arneson, U.S. Norwegian Lutheran Hymn Translator
• Will Campbell, Agent of Reconciliation

4 (Stanislaw Kostka Starowieyski, Roman Catholic Martyr, 1941)

• Francis Caracciolo, Co-Founder of the Minor Clerks Regular
• Maurice Blondel, French Roman Catholic Philosopher and Forerunner of the Second Vatican Council
• Petroc, Welsh Prince, Abbot, and Missionary
• Thomas Raymond Kelly, U.S. Quaker Mystic and Professor of Philosophy

5 (Dorotheus of Tyre, Bishop of Tyre, and Martyr, Circa 362)

• Elias Benjamin Sanford, U.S. Methodist then Congregationalist Minister and Ecumenist
• Orlando Gibbons, Anglican Organist and Composer; the “English Palestrina”

6 (Franklin Clark Fry, President of The United Lutheran Church in America and the Lutheran Church in America)

• Claude of Besançon, Roman Catholic Priest, Monk, Abbot, and Bishop

• Henry James Buckoll, Author and Translator of Hymns
• Ini Kopuria, Founder of the Melanesian Brotherhood
• Johann Friedrich Hertzog, German Lutheran Hymn Writer
• William Kethe, Presbyterian Hymn Writer

7 (Matthew Talbot, Recovering Alcoholic in Dublin, Ireland)

• Anthony Mary Gianelli, Founder of the Missionaries of Saint Alphonsus Liguori and the Sisters of Mary dell’Orto
• Frederick Lucian Hosmer, U.S. Unitarian Hymn Writer
• Hubert Lafayette Sone and his wife, Katie Helen Jackson Sone, U.S. Methodist Missionaries and Humanitarians in China, Singapore, and Malaysia
• Seattle, First Nations Chief, War Leader, and Diplomat

8 (Clara Luper, Witness for Civil Rights)

• Bliss Wiant, U.S. Methodist Minister, Missionary, Musician, Music Educator, and Hymn Translator, Arranger, and Harmonizer; and his wife, Mildred Artz Wiant, U.S. Methodist Missionary, Musician, Music Educator, and Hymn Translator
• Charles Augustus Briggs, U.S. Presbyterian Minister, Episcopal Priest, Biblical Scholar, and Alleged Heretic; and his daughter, Emilie Grace Briggs, Biblical Scholar and “Heretic’s Daughter”
• Gerard Manley Hopkins, English Roman Catholic Poet and Jesuit Priest
• Henry Downton, Anglican Priest, Hymn Writer, and Hymn Translator
• Roland Allen, Anglican Priest, Missionary, and Mission Strategist

9 (Columba of Iona, Celtic Missionary and Abbot)

• Giovanni Maria Boccardo, Founder of the Poor Sisters of Saint Cajetan/Gaetano; and his brother, Luigi Boccardo, Apostle of Merciful Love
• José de Anchieta, Apostle of Brazil and Father of Brazilian National Literature
• Thomas Joseph Potter, Roman Catholic Priest, Poet, and Hymn Writer
• Will Herzfeld, U.S. Lutheran Ecumenist, Presiding Bishop of the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches, and Civil Rights Activist

10 (James of Nisibis, Bishop; and Ephrem of Edessa, “The Harp of the Holy Spirit”)

• Frank Laubach, U.S. Congregationalist Minister and Missionary
• Frederick C. Grant, Episcopal Priest and New Testament Scholar; and his son, Robert M. Grant, Episcopal Priest and Patristics Scholar
• Getulius, Amantius, Caeraelis, and Primitivus, Martyrs at Tivoli, 120; and Symphorosa of Tivoli, Martyr, 120
• Landericus of Paris, Roman Catholic Bishop
• Thor Martin Johnson, U.S. Moravian Conductor and Music Director

11 (BARNABAS THE APOSTLE, CO-WORKER OF SAINT PAUL THE APOSTLE)

12 (Edwin Paxton Hood, English Congregationalist Minister, Philanthropist, and Hymn Writer)

• Christian David Jaeschke, German Moravian Organist and Composer; and his grandson, Henri Marc Hermann Voldemar Voullaire, Moravian Composer and Minister
• Enmegahbowh, Episcopal Priest and Missionary to the Ojibwa Nation
• Joseph Dacre Carlyle, Anglican Priest and Hymn Writer
• Milton Smith Littlefield, Jr., U.S. Presbyterian and Congregationalist Minister, Hymn Writer, and Hymnal Editor
• William Cullen Bryant, U.S. Poet, Journalist, and Hymn Writer

13 (Spyridon of Cyprus, Bishop of Tremithus, Cyprus; and his convert, Tryphillius of Leucosia, Bishop of Leucosia, Cyprus; Opponents of Arianism)

• Brevard S. Childs, U.S. Presbyterian Biblical Scholar
• Sigismund von Birken, German Lutheran Hymn Writer

14 (Methodius I of Constantinople, Defender of Icons and Ecumenical Patriarch of Constaninople; and Joseph the Hymnographer, Defender of Icons and the “Sweet-Voiced Nightingale of the Church”)

• David Low Dodge, U.S. Presbyterian Businessman and Pacifist

15 (John Ellerton, Anglican Priest and Hymn Writer and Translator)

• Carl Heinrich von Bogatsky, Hungarian-German Lutheran Hymn Writer
• Dorothy Frances Blomfield Gurney, English Poet and Hymn Writer
• Evelyn Underhill, Anglican Mystic and Theologian
• Landelinus of Vaux, Roman Catholic Abbot; Aubert of Cambrai, Roman Catholic Bishop; Ursmar of Lobbes, Roman Catholic Abbot and Missionary Bishop; and Domitian, Hadelin, and Dodo of Lobbes, Roman Catholic Monks

16 (George Berkeley, Irish Anglican Bishop and Philosopher; and Joseph Butler, Anglican Bishop and Theologian)

• Francis J. Uplegger, German-American Lutheran Minister and Missionary; “Old Man Missionary”
• John Francis Regis, Roman Catholic Priest
• Norman Macleod, Scottish Presbyterian Minister and Hymn Writer; and his cousin, John Macleod, Scottish Presbyterian Minister, Liturgist, and Hymn Writer
• Rufus Jones, U.S. Quaker Theologian and Co-Founder of the American Friends Service Committee
• William Hiram Foulkes, U.S. Presbyterian Minister and Hymn Writer

17 (Samuel Barnett, Anglican Canon of Westminster, and Social Reformer; and his wife, Henrietta Barnett, Social Reformer)

• Edith Boyle MacAlister, English Novelist and Hymn Writer
• Emily de Vialar, Founder of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Apparition
• Jane Cross Bell Simpson, Scottish Presbyterian Poet and Hymn Writer
• Mark Hopkins, U.S. Congregationalist Minister, Theologian, Educator, and Physician
• Teresa and Mafalda of Portugal, Princesses, Queens, and Nuns; and Sanchia of Portugal, Princess and Nun

18 (William Bingham Tappan, U.S. Congregationalist Minister, Poet, and Hymn Writer)

• Adolphus Nelson, Swedish-American Lutheran Minister and Hymn Writer
• Bernard Mizeki, Anglican Catechist and Convert in Southern Rhodesia, 1896
• Johann Franck, Heinrich Held, and Simon Dach, German Lutheran Hymn Writers
• Richard Massie, Hymn Translator
• Vernard Eller, U.S. Church of the Brethren Minister and Theologian

19 (John Dalberg Acton, English Roman Catholic Historian, Philosopher, and Social Critic)

• Adelaide Teague Case, Episcopal Professor of Christian Education, and Advocate for Peace
• Michel-Richard Delalande, French Roman Catholic Composer
• William Pierson Merrill, U.S. Presbyterian Minister, Social Reformer, and Hymn Writer

20 (Joseph Augustus Seiss, U.S. Lutheran Minister, Liturgist, Hymn Writer, and Hymn Translator)

• Alfred Ramsey, U.S. Lutheran Minister and Hymn Translator
• Bernard Adam Grube, German-American Minister, Missionary, Composer, and Musician
• Charles Coffin, Roman Catholic Priest and Hymn Writer
• Hans Adolf Brorson, Danish Lutheran Bishop, Hymn Writer, and Hymn Translator
• William John Sparrow-Simpson, Anglican Priest, Hymn Writer, and Patristics Scholar

21 (Aloysius Gonzaga, Jesuit)

• Carl Bernhard Garve, German Moravian Minister, Liturgist, and Hymn Writer
• Charitie Lees Smith Bancroft de Chenez, Hymn Writer
• John Jones and John Rigby, Roman Catholic Martyrs, 1598 and 1600

22 (Alban, First British Martyr, Circa 209 or 305)

• Desiderius Erasmus, Dutch Roman Catholic Priest, Biblical and Classical Scholar, and Controversialist; John Fisher, English Roman Catholic Classical Scholar, Bishop of Rochester, Cardinal, and Martyr, 1535; and Thomas More, English Roman Catholic Classical Scholar, Jurist, Theologian, Controversialist, and Martyr, 1535
• Gerhard Gieschen, U.S. Lutheran Minister and Hymn Translator
• James Arthur MacKinnon, Canadian Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr in the Dominican Republic, 1965
• Nicetas of Remesiana, Roman Catholic Bishop
• Paulinus of Nola, Roman Catholic Bishop of Nola

23 (John Gerard, English Jesuit Priest; and Mary Ward, Founder of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary)

• Heinrich Gottlob Gutter, German-American Instrument Maker, Repairman, and Merchant
• John Johns, English Presbyterian Minister and Hymn Writer
• Vincent Lebbe, Belgian-Chinese Roman Catholic Priest and Missionary; Founder of the Little Brothers of Saint John the Baptist
• Wilhelm Heinrich Wauer, German Moravian Composer and Musician

24 (NATIVITY OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST)

25 (William Henry Heard, African Methodist Episcopal Missionary and Bishop)

• Domingo Henares de Zafira Cubero, Roman Catholic Bishop of Phunhay, Vietnam, and Martyr, 1838; Phanxicô Đo Van Chieu, Vietnamese Roman Catholic Catechist and Martyr, 1838; and Clemente Ignacio Delgado Cebrián, Roman Catholic Bishop and Martyr in Vietnam, 1838
• William of Vercelli, Roman Catholic Hermit; and John of Matera, Roman Catholic Abbot

26 (Isabel Florence Hapgood, U.S. Journalist, Translator, and Ecumenist)

• Andrea Giacinto Longhin, Roman Catholic Bishop of Treviso
• Pearl S. Buck, U.S. Presbyterian Missionary, Novelist, and Social Activist
• Philip Doddridge, English Congregationalist Minister and Hymn Writer
• Theodore H. Robinson, British Baptist Orientalist and Biblical Scholar
• Virgil Michel, U.S. Roman Catholic Monk, Academic, and Pioneer of Liturgical Renewal

27 (Cornelius Hill, Oneida Chief and Episcopal Priest)

• Arialdus of Milan, Italian Roman Catholic Deacon and Martyr, 1066
• Hugh Thomson Kerr, Sr., U.S. Presbyterian Minister and Liturgist; and his son, Hugh Thomson Kerr, Jr., U.S. Presbyterian Minister, Scholar, and Theologian
• James Moffatt, Scottish Presbyterian Minister, Scholar, and Bible Translator
• John the Georgian, Abbot; and Euthymius of Athos and George of the Black Mountain, Abbots and Translators

28 (Teresa Maria Mastena, Founder of the Institute of the Sisters of the Holy Face)

• Clara Louise Maass, U.S. Lutheran Nurse and Martyr, 1901
• Plutarch, Marcella, Potanominaena, and Basilides of Alexandria, Martyrs, 202
• William Mundy and John Mundy, English Composers and Musicians

29 (PETER AND PAUL, APOSTLES AND MARTYRS)

30 (Johann Olaf Wallin, Archbishop of Uppsala, and Hymn Writer)

• Gennaro Maria Sarnelli, Italian Roman Catholic Priest and Missionary to the Vulnerable and Exploited People of Naples
• Heinrich Lonas, German Moravian Organist, Composer, and Liturgist
• Paul Hanly Furfey, U.S. Roman Catholic Priest, Sociologist, and Social Radical
• Philip Powel, English Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr, 1646

Floating

• First Book of Common Prayer, 1549

 

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