Above:  The Coffin House, Fountain City, Indiana

Image in the Public Domain

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LEVI COFFIN, JR. (OCTOBER 28, 1798-SEPTEMBER 16, 1877)

U.S. Quaker Abolitionist and “President of the Underground Railroad”

husband of

CATHERINE WHITE COFFIN (SEPTEMBER 10, 1803-MAY 22, 1881)

U.S. Quaker Abolitionist and “Aunt Katie” of the Underground Railroad

Levi Coffin comes to this, A Great Cloud of Witnesses:  An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via G. Scott Cady and Christopher L. Webber, A Year with American Saints (2006).  Catherine Coffin joins her husband by virtue of having been his wife and his colleague in the struggle for social justice.  One cannot properly tell the story of one Coffin without telling the story of the other Coffin.

Above:  Levi Coffin

Image in the Public Domain

Levi Coffin, born in Guilford County, North Carolina, on October 28, 1798, was a son of Levi and Prudence Williams Coffin.  The Quaker family of abolitionists helped runaway slaves.

Above:  Catherine Coffin

Image in the Public Domain

Catherine White, born in Guilford County, North Carolina, on September 10, 1803, was a daughter of Stanton and Mary White.  That Quaker family of abolitionists was also involved in helping runaway slaves.

Levi and Catherine fell in love.  They married on October 28, 1824.  There in North Carolina, they made their home a station of the Underground Railroad.  Levi became known to slave-hunters as the “President” of the local Underground Railroad.

In 1826, the Coffins moved to Newport (now Fountain City), Indiana.  Levi opened a general store, which became a profitable enterprise.  He and Catherine made their home a station of the Underground Railroad.  They usually had a full house.  The couple raised six children.  Also, about 20,000 slaves passed through the house in twenty-one years.  Slave-hunters knew where to find the Coffins, and threatened them repeatedly.  Yet the Coffins had many local allies.  Levi handled the financial side of the local Underground Railroad operation.  Catherine (“Aunt Katie”) helped to host her guests, cooked for them, and organized a sewing society to make clothes for the escaped slaves.  Many local people contributed financially to the Coffins’ efforts, too.

The Coffins and other conductors of the Underground Railroad were criminals, technically.  They were, according to the federal Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 (then of 1850), committing a property crime.  These conductors of the Underground Railroad were helping property escape to freedom.

By the 1840s, Quakers participating in the Underground Railroad were coming under pressure from their church to cease and desist.  The Coffins persisted, however.  They persisted after their expulsion from their meeting house in 1843.

Levi eventually realized his moral responsibility as a merchant.  He had been selling items that were products of slavery.  Therefore, he joined the Free Produce movement in the 1840s.  After the couple moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1847, he opened a new store and continued in the Free Produce movement.  The couple also continued as conductors of the Underground Railroad.

Eventually, the need for the Underground Railroad ended.  The Coffins visited wounded soldiers in the local military hospital and helped runaway slaves in refugee camps during the Civil War.  After the war, Levi raised funds to help African Americans start businesses and farms.  Also, the couple worked with the Western Freedmen’s Aid Society.

Levi wrote his autobiography, Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, the Reputed President of the Underground Railroad (1876), at the end of his life.  He, aged 78 years, died in Cincinnati on September 16, 1877.

Catherine, aged 77 years, died in Cincinnati on May 22, 1881.

Levi and Catherine had the courage of their nonviolent, moral convictions.  They risked criminal convictions by acting morally to help slaves live as free people.

May you, O reader, and I have the moral courage to behave morally, even when doing so may be criminal.  When the law is unjust, may people act justly.  May they follow the higher law–the highest law, the Golden Rule.

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God of compassion, justice, and freedom, we thank you for the

faithful and courageous lives and legacies of Levi and Catherine Coffin.

May we, who live in a different time and set of circumstances,

derive from their examples inspiration to live according to the Golden Rule,

regardless of the risks to ourselves, in the name of Christ.

May we recognize your image in all other people and treat them accordingly.

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

Leviticus 19:17-18 and Deuteronomy 6:1-8

Psalm 27

2 John 4-6

Matthew 22:34-40

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

APRIL 14, 2021 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF EDWARD THOMAS DEMBY AND HENRY BEARD DELANY, EPISCOPAL SUFFRAGAN BISHOPS FOR COLORED WORK

THE FEAST OF SAINTS ANTHONY, JOHN, AND EUSTATHIUS OF VILNIUS, MARTYRS IN LITHUANIA, 1347 

THE FEAST OF GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL, COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF SAINT WANDREGISILUS OF NORMANDY, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT; AND SAINT LAMBERT OF LYONS, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT AND BISHOP

THE FEAST OF SAINT ZENAIDA OF TARSUS AND HER SISTER, SAINT PHILONELLA OF TARSUS; AND SAINT HERMOINE OF EPHESUS; UNMERCENARY PHYSICIANS

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BEGINNINGS

Above:  Maryknoll Logo

Image in the Public Domain

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THOMAS FREDERICK PRICE (AUGUST 19, 1860-SEPTEMBER 12, 1919)

Cofounder of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers

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JAMES ANTHONY WALSH (FEBRUARY 24, 1867-APRIL 14, 1936)

Cofounder of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers

Cofounder of the Maryknoll Sisters of Saint Dominic

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MARY JOSEPHINE ROGERS (OCTOBER 27, 1882-OCTOBER 9, 1955)

Foundress of the Maryknoll Sisters of Saint Dominic

Also known as Mother Mary Joseph Rogers

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One of my goals in renovating this, my Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days is to emphasize relationships and influences.  The biographies of these three saints, with their overlapping lives, are ideal for telling together.

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Thomas Frederick Price was a man devoted to missionary work.  He, born in Wilmington, North Carolina, on August 14, 1860, grew up in a Roman Catholic family.  The prices experienced much hostility from many of their Protestant neighbors.  Our saint, who discerned his priestly vocation at an early age, studied at St. Charles Seminary, Catonsville, Maryland, from 1877 to 1881.  Then, from 1881 to 1886, he studied at St. Mary’s Seminary, Baltimore, Maryland.  On June 20, 1886, the date of Price’s priestly ordination in Wilmington, North Carolina, he became the first Roman Catholic priest native to that state.  He, at first a priest in the Asheville-Bern area, eventually undertook, with his bishop’s approval, a program of statewide evangelism.  Price began to publish and edit a magazine, The Truth, in 1897.  He also opened the Nazareth Orphanage in 1898.  Four years later Price opened the missionary training house at Nazareth.  From 1902 to 1909 he served as the spiritual director of the Regina Apostolorum.

James Anthony Walsh, named in G. Scott Cady and Christopher L. Webber, A Year with American Saints (2006), also devoted his life to missionary work.  He, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on February 24, 1867, attended public schools then Boston College, Harvard College, and St. John’s Seminary in Brighton, Massachusetts.  He, ordained to the priesthood in Boston on May 20, 1892, served first as the curate of St. Patrick’s Church, Roxbury.  Starting in 1903, he was the diocesan Director of the Society of the Propagation of the Faith, with offices in Boston.  In 1907 Walsh founded a missionary magazine, The Field Afar.  Mary Josephine “Mollie” Rogers worked for the magazine.

Rogers, also named in A Year with American Saints (2006), devoted most of her life to foreign missions.  She, born to an Irish Catholic family in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 27, 1882, attended public schools; the family was attempting to fit in with Boston society.  In 1901 she matriculated at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, where Roman Catholics were marginal.  At Smith College, as an undergraduate student, she became involved in the Student Volunteer Movement, with its focus on foreign missions.  Later, as a graduate student teaching zoology.  Rogers helped to start the Newman Club, founded as a Catholic missions club.  This effort brought her into contact with Father James A. Walsh, whom she met in his Boston office in December 1906.  Within two years she had abandoned her graduate program, gone to work in the offices of The Field Afar, and begun teaching in a local school.

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PRICE AND WALSH

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Price and Walsh had been working on the same proposal independently.  They had been writing about the need for a seminary to prepare American men to become foreign missionary priests.  Their meeting at the Eucharistic Congress, Montreal, Canada, in 1910 led to collaboration.  The following year they traveled to Rome, to ask Pope Pius X to approve their new order, the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, a.k.a. the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers.  The Holy Father did approve, on June 29, 1911.  The site of the new seminary became Ossining, New York.  The first group of missionary priests, headed for China, was ready in 1918.  James E. Walsh (1891-1981) was one of those priests.  Price, fulfilling a dream to become a missionary, went to China as a missionary.  He, 59 years old, died of a burst appendix in Hong Kong on September 12, 1919.

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WALSH AND ROGERS

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Father James A. Walsh, the Maryknoll Superior General from 1911 to 1936, helped Rogers and other women become fully involved in foreign missions.  The women were auxiliary to the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, but were more effective in the Foreign Missions Sisters of Saint Dominic (now the Maryknoll Sisters of Saint Dominic), which Mollie Rogers and James A. Walsh founded on February 14, 1920.  Rogers led the order until her death, in 1955.  She founded the Maryknoll Contemplative Community in 1932.

James A. Walsh ended his days as Bishop Walsh.  On June 29, 1933, in Rome, he became the Titular Bishop of Siene.  He, aged 69 years, died on April 14, 1936.

Rogers, aware of the Presence of God, encouraged the sisters to cultivate that sense in their lives.  The goal, in her mind, was for the sisters to see each other as God saw them.  She understood the importance of justice in relationships.  The basis of such justice, she insisted, was loving, fearless honesty.

Rogers, aged 72 years, died on October 9, 1955.

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The Maryknoll Fathers, Brothers, and Sisters have taken the Gospel of Christ to the ends of the earth.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 17, 2018 COMMON ERA

THE SIXTEENTH DAY OF ADVENT, YEAR C

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON, ABOLITIONIST AND FEMINIST; AND MARIA STEWART, ABOLITIONIST, FEMINIST, AND EDUCATOR

THE FEAST OF EGLANTYNE JEBB AND DOROTHY BUXTON, FOUNDERS OF SAVE THE CHILDREN

THE FEAST OF FRANK MASON NORTH, U.S. METHODIST MINISTER

THE FEAST OF MARY CORNELIA BISHOP GATES, U.S. DUTCH REFORMED HYMN WRITER

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Everlasting God, you have sent your messengers to carry the good news of Christ into the world;

grant that we who commemorate James A. Walsh, Thomas Price, and Mary Josephine “Mollie” Rogers

may know the hope of the gospel in the our hearts and show forth its light in all our ways;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Isaiah 49:1-6

Psalm 67 or 96

Acts 16:6-10

Matthew 9:25-38

–Adapted from A New Zealand Prayer Book (1989), 682-683

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Above:  Dmitry Bortniansky 

Image in the Public Domain

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DMITRY STEPANOVYCH BORTNIANSKY (OCTOBER 28, 1751-OCTOBER 10, 1825)

Russian Orthdox Composer

Dmitry Bortniansky was a major Russian Orthodox composer.  He, born at Hluhkiv, Cossack Hetmanate (now Ukraine), the Russian Empire, on October 28, 1751, grew up singing in his parish choir.  He studied music and composition under Baldassare Galuppi in St. Petersburg (1758-1769) and Italy (1769f).  In Italy Bortniansky composed Italian-language operas and Latin and German sacred works.  Our saint, back in St. Petersburg in 1779, composed French-language operas as well as instrumental works.  In the realm of Russian Orthodox sacred music our saint fused Western and traditional Russian styles, adding polyphony.  Starting in 1796, he served as the first native-born Director of the Imperial Chapel Choir.  Our saint died in St. Petersburg on October 10, 1825.  He was 73 years old.

Bortniansky’s works included the following:

1. Sinfonia Concertante in B Flat Major;
2. Let My Prayer Arise;
3. Lord, Make Me to Know My End;
4. I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes Unto the Hills;
5. Cherubic Hymn;
6. O Sing Unto the Lord a New Song;
7. Triumph, O Ye This Day;
8. The King Shall Joy in Thy Strength;
9. Make a Joyful Noise Unto God;
10. Lord Hear Thee in the Day of Trouble;
11. Glory to God in the Highest;
12. O Come, Let Us Sing Unto the Lord;
13. I Will Sing of the Mercies of the Lord Forever;
14. This is the Day Which the Lord Hath Made;
15. Sing Praises to God;
16. Blessed is the Lord;
17. I Will Sing a New Song Unto Thee;
18. Sing Aloud Unto God Our Strength;
19. My Heart is Inditing a Good Matter;
20. Ye People, Let Us Come and Sing of Christ’s Resurrection;
21. I Will Extol Thee;
22. How Amiable are Thy Tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts;
23. It is a Good Thing to Give Thanks Unto the Lord;
24. The Lord Said Unto My Lord;
25. In Thee, O Lord, Do I Put My Trust;
26. He That Dwelleth in the Secret Place;
27. The Lord is My Light and My Salvation;
28. Blessed is the People that Know the Joyful Sound;
29. We, the Unworthy, Shall Not Cease;
30. Lord God of Israel, There is No God Like Thee;
31. I Cried to the Lord with My Voice;
32. Blessed is the Man that Feareth the Lord;
33. I Will Praise the Name of God with a Song;
34. Hear My Voice, O God;
35. O Clap Your Hands, All Ye People;
36. Why Art Thou Cast Down, O My Soul?;
37. Let God Arise, Let His Enemies Be Scattered; and
38. Lord, Who Shall Abide in Thy Tabernacle.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 17, 2018 COMMON ERA

THE SIXTEENTH DAY OF ADVENT, YEAR C

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON, ABOLITIONIST AND FEMINIST; AND MARIA STEWART, ABOLITIONIST, FEMINIST, AND EDUCATOR

THE FEAST OF EGLANTYNE JEBB AND DOROTHY BUXTON, FOUNDERS OF SAVE THE CHILDREN

THE FEAST OF FRANK MASON NORTH, U.S. METHODIST MINISTER

THE FEAST OF MARY CORNELIA BISHOP GATES, U.S. DUTCH REFORMED HYMN WRITER

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Eternal God, light of the world and Creator of all that is good and lovely:

We bless your name for inspiring Dmitry Bortniansky

and all those who with music have filled us with love for you;

through Jesus Christ our Savior, who with you and the Holy Spirit

lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

1 Chronicles 29:14b-19

Psalm 90:14-17

2 Corinthians 3:1-3

John 21:15-17, 24-25

–Adapted from Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), 728

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Above:  The Signature of Harry Webb Farrington

Image Source = Ghpierson

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HARRY WEBB FARRINGTON (JULY 14, 1879-OCTOBER 27, 1930)

U.S. Methodist Minister and Hymn Writer

Before I write about Farrington’s life and legacy I choose to focus on a technical matter germane to the preparation of this post.  I have a collection of hymnals and their companion volumes.  I also consult certain hymn websites as well as government records (available online) and newspapers.com, the only website I pay to use.  Some of these sources contradict each other regarding the dates (even the year) and locations of both Farrington’s fateful accident as well as his death.  As a matter of principle I am tolerant of a range of opinions yet insist that objective reality is fixed.  In other words, Farrington died at a place on a given date; this is not a subjective matter.  Information regarding that question is either accurate or inaccurate.  Some say he died on October 25; others on October 27.  Certain sources indicate that Farrington died in 1930, but others place his death in 1931.  I tell you, O reader, that I have researched this matter, weighed sources against each other, and endeavored to write accurately of our saint’s life and legacy.  If I have not succeeded fully, that fact has not resulted from a lack of effort.

Harry Webb Farrington devoted his life to the glory of God and the benefit of others, especially children.  He, born at Nassau, the Bahamas, to William Farrington and Emma Russell Farrington on July 14, 1879, became an orphan while an infant.  Our saint grew up a Methodist in Maryland (starting in Baltimore).  He studied at Darlington Academy, Darlington, and had a conversion experience at the Darlington Methodist Episcopal Church.  Our saint became a Methodist minister, serving in New England starting in 1903.  He continued his studies at Dickinson Seminary, Syracuse University (B.A., 1907).  While there he played basketball and football.  Farrington went on to study at the Boston University School of Theology (S.T.B., 1910) before entering a M.A. program in philosophy and education at Harvard University in 1910.

In 1910, at Harvard, Farrington entered a poem into a Christmas hymn contest at the university.  His submission, “I Know Not How that Bethlehem’s Babe,” was the prize-winning text.  It became a staple of many denominational hymnals in the early and middle twentieth century and was, by 1966, the only one of his 29 hymns still in common use.  The Methodist Hymnal (1935) contained two of Farrington’s hymns, including the text from 1910.  That number decreased to one in The Methodist Hymnal (1966) and none in The United Methodist Hymnal (1989).

I know not how that Bethlehem’s Babe

Could in the Godhead be;

I only know the manger Child

Has brought God’s life to me.

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I know not how that Calvary’s cross

A world from sin could free;

I only know its matchless love

Has brought God’s love to me.

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I know not that Joseph’s tomb

Could solve death’s mystery;

I only know a living Christ,

Our immortality.

Farrington’s other prize-winning hymn was “Dear Lord, Who Sought at Dawn of Day” (1925), for which the Homilietical Review honored him in 1927.

After our saint received his degree from Harvard he taught there for a year then, in 1914, went to work for the Methodist Episcopal Church as a field secretary for the Board of Sunday Schools.  He pioneered weekday religious education for young people in Gary, Indiana, in 1914 and in the City of New York two years later.

Farrington participated in World War I.  He was, in fact, the first American citizen to receive a commission in the French army, in 1918.  For his work, which was directing athletics for the French army, he received a lifelong commission in the 7th and 10th Cuirassiers and the title Marechal des Logis Adjutant au Colonel, equivalent to the rank of major in the U.S. Army.  At the time the only non-Frenchman to hold that rank was the King of Italy.

Farrington, back in the United States in 1919, began the next phase of his life.  He became assistant minister of Grace Methodist Episcopal Church, New York City.  On June 24, 1920, he married Dora Wilhemina Davis, daughter of Methodist missionaries to India.  Both the husband and the wife were 39 years old.  From 1920 to 1923 our saint served as the Director of Education of the Methodist Church Welfare League.  Farrington lectured in New York City schools through 1928 and traveled to lecture in other places about religious education and social ethics also.  Over the years he spoke to more than 2,500,000 young people.

Farrington also published books, including seven volumes of poetry, an autobiography, and profiles of great Americans.  His published works included the following;

1. Poems from France (1920);
2. Rough and Brown (1921);
3. Walls of America; or, The House of Uncle Sam (1925);
4. Cher Ami (1926); and
5. Kilts to Togs (1930).

Farrington died in 1930.  On July 2, at Ocean Grove, New Jersey, he fell from a second-story porch and fell 15 feet to a concrete sidewalk when a railing gave way.  This accident paralyzed the 49-year-old minister.  He did, aged 50 years, at the Methodist Episcopal Hospital in Brooklyn on October 27.  His widow published two posthumous volumes (Valleys and Visions and Land of Only If) of his poetry in 1932.

I have found titles of seven of Farrington’s hymns.  Of those I have located the texts of four.  Of those four I have incorporated the text of one into this post and added the texts of three to my GATHERED PRAYERS weblog.  I have yet to find the texts of twenty-five of Farrington’s hymns, including the following:

1. “Our Father Made the Lovely Earth,”
2. “The Storm God of Stern Sinai’s Hill,” and
3. “The World Came to My Home Today.”

Those three hymns were available in hymnals for children, appropriately.

Armin Haeussler described Farrington as

a man of keen intellect, brave heart, high purpose, and profound faith in Christ.

—The Story of Our Hymns:  The Handbook to the Hymnal of the Evangelical and Reformed Church (1952), page 651

That was an accurate assessment.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 15, 2015 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT BONAVENTURE, THEOLOGIAN

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Dear God of beauty,

you have granted literary ability and spiritual sensitivity to

Harry Webb Farrington 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

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Above:  Design Drawing for a Stained -Glass Window with the Publican

Image Source = Library of Congress

Designed by J. & R. Lamb Studios between 1857 and 1999

Grace, Divine and Human

The Sunday Closest to October 26

Twentieth Sunday After Pentecost

OCTOBER 23, 2019

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The Assigned Readings:

Joel 2:23-32 and Psalm 65

or 

Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 35:12-17 or Jeremiah 14:7-10, 19-22 and Psalm 84

then 

2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18

Luke 18:9-14

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God, increase in us the gifts of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain what you promise, make us love what you command; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

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Some Related Posts:

Prayer of Praise and Adoration:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/03/30/prayer-of-praise-and-adoration-for-the-twenty-third-sunday-after-pentecost/

Prayer of Confession:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/03/30/prayer-of-confession-for-the-twenty-third-sunday-after-pentecost/

Prayer of Dedication:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/03/30/prayer-of-dedication-for-the-twenty-third-sunday-after-pentecost/

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The biblical texts contain many repeated themes.  Among them is the command to obey God’s laws coupled with warnings of the consequences for not doing so followed by those consequences.  The Prophet Jeremiah, aware of those sins and their consequences, asked God for mercy on the people in Chapter 14.  In Jeremiah 15, however, God paid “no” in many words.

Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 35, which speaks of the divine preference for the poor, the widows, the orphans, and the wronged, begins with:

To keep the law is worth many offerings;….—35:1, The Revised English Bible

Much of the Old Testament tradition agrees with that statement.  So does the Pharisee from the parable in Luke 18:9-14.  He has kept the Law of Moses as best he knows how, as his tradition has told him to do.  But he misses one thing, another element of the Old Testament tradition:  humility before God.

You desire no sacrifice, or I would give it:

But you take no delight in burnt offerings.

The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit:

A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

–Psalm 54:16-17, A New Zealand Prayer Book (1989)

St. Paul the Apostle understood all this well.  What admirers wrote in his name after he died the Apostle could have said during his lifetime:

I have fought the good fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept the faith;….—2 Timothy 4:7, The New Jerusalem Bible

The crown of righteousness is a matter of grace; we do not earn it.  Yes, James 2:24 (The Revised English Bible) tells us:

You seen then it is by action and not by faith alone that a man is justified.

But faith, in that formulation, is intellectual, so words are necessary for justification to God.  In the Pauline tradition, however, faith is inherently active, so:

For all alike have sinned, and are justified by God’s free grace alone, through his act of liberation in the person of Christ Jesus.

–Romans 3:23-24, The Revised English Bible

Therefore:

What room then is left for human pride?  It is excluded.  And on what principle?  The keeping of the law would not exclude it, but faith does.  For our argument is that people are justified by faith quite apart from any question of keeping the law.

–Romans 3:27-28, The Revised English Bible

According to St. Paul, the Law of Moses did its job until Christ did his, so Jesus has fulfilled the Law.

Even in judgment there can be hope, hence the lection from Joel.  The judgment which Jeremiah hoped would not come did arrive.  Later, however, so did mercy in extravagant doses.  Grace indeed!

Grace is also something we are supposed to extend to each other.

In January 2013 Jim McGown, a friend (now deceased), gave me a good book, the last of a sequence of fine volumes he imparted to me.  The last book is a daily devotional guide for Lent, Year C, by Bishop N. T. Wright.  The following lines come from Wright’s discussion of the parable from Luke:

Wasn’t the poor chap [the Pharisee] simply doing what God had told him to do?

Well, from one point of view, yes.  But Jesus was constantly nudging people, or positively shoving them, towards seeing everything differently.  Prayer is about loving God, and the deepest Jewish traditions insist that loving God is something you do with your hart, mind, soul and strength, and your neighbour as yourself, not calculating whether you’ve done everything just right and feeling smug because your neighbour hasn’t managed it so well.

–Lent for Everyone:  Luke, Year C—A Daily Devotional (Louisville, KY:  Westminster/John Knox Press, 2012, pages 77-78; published originally in the United Kingdom in 2009 by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge)

So I extend to you, O reader, a small portion of grace which a friend, at God’s prompting, gave to me.  Each of us is called to respond positively to God, who has done much for us.  Part of this sacred vocation is extending grace to our fellow human beings.  We have an excellent role model:  Jesus of Nazareth.  May we follow him.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MAY 8, 2013 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT BENEDICT II, BISHOP OF ROME

THE FEAST OF DAME JULIAN OF NORWICH, SPIRITUAL WRITER

THE FEAST OF SAINT MAGDALENA OF CANOSSA, FOUNDER OF THE DAUGHTERS OF CHARITY AND THE SONS OF CHARITY

THE FEAST OF SAINT PETER OF TARENTAISE, ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP

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Above:  Flag of Ethiopia

SAINT AEDESIUS (A.K.A. SAINT EDESIUS) (LIVED DURING THE 300S)

Priest and Missionary

colleague (and possibly brother) of

SAINT FRUMENTIUS (DIED CIRCA 380)

First Bishop of Axum and Abuna of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church

Disclaimer:  Accounts I have located, consulted, and used to write this post disagree on details.  I have, however, attempted to sort through the discrepancies and to write as accurately as possible.  Sometimes objective reality blends with legend.  Distinguishing between the two categories can prove difficult when examining the stories over 1700 years after the fact.

Sometimes life offers unexpected opportunities.  Who would have expected that two Syrian students of philosophy, en route back home from a journey to India, would have played a vital role in Ethiopian history?

In 340 the two saints from Tyre survived the killing of most of their shipmates when the vessel stopped along the coast of the Kingdom of Aksum, which included parts of present-day Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Yemen.  They joined the court of King Ousanas subsequent to this event; St. Aedesius served as cupbearer and St. Frumentius as secretary.  The saints remained in the royal court after Ousanas died; St. Frumentius functioned as tutor to the young Ezana II.  When Ezana II began to govern in his own right the saints left the kingdom.  St. Aedesius returned to Tyre, where he became a priest.  St. Frumentius traveled to Alexandria, Egypt, where he asked St. Athanasius to send a missionary.  St. Athanasius sent St. Frumentius.

Christianity had arrived in the Aksumite Kingdom before the two Syrians arrived.  St. Philip the Evangelist  played a vital role in introducing Christianity to the region by witnessing to an Ethiopian eunuch.  Traveling Roman merchants had brought it along with their wares.  But the two saints aided greatly in the faith’s propagation.  St. Frumentius, known to the locals as Abuna Salama, became the first Abuna (“Father” or Patriarch) of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, often called simply the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.  His Christological orthodoxy led to the enmity of Roman Emperor Constantius II (reigned 337-361), an Arian.  And, in the 300s, St. Aedesius, at Tyre, told Rufinus of Aquileia, a church historian, of the legacy of his friend and colleague.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, historically

…the prime source and custodian of the cultural and literary heritage of the nation

—The New Encyclopedia Britannica, Macropedia, Volume 6 (1982), page 1001,

was subordinate to the Coptic Church until 1959.

A side note:  John J. Delaney, in Dictionary of Saints (Garden City, NY:  Doubleday and Company, 1980), page 239, refers to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church as

the dissident Ethiopian Church.

Is it my imagination, or do I detect an attitude?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

OCTOBER 11, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT NECTARIUS, ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE

THE FEAST OF SAINT KENNETH OF SCOTLAND, ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONARY

THE FEAST OF CECIL FRANCES ALEXANDER, POET AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF SAINT PHILIP THE EVANGELIST, DEACON

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Almighty God, whose will it is to be glorified in your servants,

and who raised up your servants

Saint Aedesius and Saint Frumentius

to be the light of the world:

Shine, we pray, in our hearts,

that we also in our generation may show forth your praise,

who called us out of darkness into marvelous light;

through Jesus Christ our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.  Amen.

Isaiah 49:1-6

Psalm 98 or 98:1-4

Acts 17:22-31

Matthew 28:16-20

—Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), page 717

Calendula

Image Source = Alvesgaspar

1 (Anthony Ashley Cooper, Lord Shaftesbury, British Humanitarian and Social Reformer)

• Chuck Matthei, Founder and Director of the Equity Trust, Inc.
• Marie-Joseph Aubert, Founder of the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion
• Ralph W. Sockman, United Methodist Minister and Spiritual Writer
• Romanus the Melodist, Deacon and Hymnodist
• Thérèse of Lisieux, Roman Catholic Nun and Mystic

2 (Petrus Herbert, German Moravian Bishop and Hymnodist)

• Carl Doving, Norwegian-American Lutheran Minister and Hymn Translator
• James Allen, English Inghamite then Glasite/Sandemanian Hymn Writer; and his great-nephew, Oswald Allen, English Glasite/Sandemanian Hymn Writer
• Maria Anna Kratochwil, Polish Roman Catholic Nun and Martyr, 1942

3 (George Kennedy Allen Bell, Anglican Bishop of Chichester)

• Alberto Ramento, Prime Bishop of the Philippine Independent Church
• Gerard of Brogne, Roman Catholic Abbot
• John Raleigh Mott, U.S. Methodist Lay Evangelist, and Ecumenical Pioneer
• William Scarlett, Episcopal Bishop of Missouri, and Advocate for Social Justice

4 (Francis of Assisi, Founder of the Order of Friars Minor)

• Agneta Chang, Maryknoll Sister and Martyr in Korea, 1950
• H. H. Rowley, English Baptist Minister and Biblical Scholar

5 (David Nitschmann, Sr., “Father Nitschmann,” Moravian Missionary; Melchior Nitschmann, Moravian Missionary and Martyr, 1729; Johann Nitschmann, Jr., Moravian Missionary and Bishop; Anna Nitschman, Moravian Eldress; and David Nitschmann, Missionary and First Bishop of the Renewed Moravian Church)

• Cyriacus Schneegass, German Lutheran Minister, Musician, and Hymn Writer
• Francis Xavier Seelos, German-American Roman Catholic Priest
• Harry Emerson Fosdick, U.S. Northern Baptist Minister and Opponent of Fundamentalism

6 (George Edward Lynch Cotton, Anglican Bishop of Calcutta)

• Ernest William Olson, Swedish-American Lutheran Poet, Editor, Hymn Translator, and Hymn Writer
• Heinrich Albert, German Lutheran Composer and Poet
• John Ernest Bode, Anglican Priest, Poet, and Hymn Writer
• Joseph Lowery, African-American United Methodist Minister and Civil Rights Leader; “The Dean of the Civil Rights Movement”
• William Tyndale, English Reformer, Bible Translator, and Martyr, 1536; and Miles Coverdale, English Reformer, Bible Translator, and Bishop of Exeter

7 (Wilhelm Wexels, Norwegian Lutheran Minister, Hymn Writer, and Hymn Translator; his niece, Marie Wexelsen, Norwegian Lutheran Novelist and Hymn Writer; Ludwig Lindeman, Norwegian Lutheran Organist and Musicologist; and Magnus Landstad, Norwegian Lutheran Minister, Folklorist, Hymn Writer, and Hymnal Editor)

• Bradford Torrey, U.S. Ornithologist and Hymn Writer
• Claus Westermann, German Lutheran Minister and Biblical Translator
• Herbert G. May, U.S. Biblical Scholar and Translator
• Johann Gottfried Weber, German Moravian Musician, Composer, and Minister
• John Woolman, Quaker Abolitionist

8 (Erik Routley, English Congregationalist Hymnodist)

• Abraham Ritter, U.S. Moravian Merchant, Historian, Musician, and Composer
• Alexander Penrose Forbes, Scottish Episcopal Bishop of Brechin; Church Historian; and Renewer of the Scottish Episcopal Church
• John Clarke, English Baptist Minister and Champion of Religious Liberty in New England
• Richard Whately, Anglican Archbishop of Dublin, Ireland
• William Dwight Porter Bliss, Episcopal Priest; and Richard Theodore Ely; Economists

9 (Denis, Bishop of Paris, and His Companions, Roman Catholic Martyrs)

• John Leonardi, Founder of the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God of Lucca; and Joseph Calasanctius, Founder of the Clerks Regular of Religious Schools
• Penny Lernoux, U.S. Roman Catholic Journalist and Moral Critic
• Robert Grosseteste, English Roman Catholic Scholar, Philosopher, and Bishop of Lincoln
• Wilfred Thomason Grenfell, Medical Missionary to Newfoundland and Labrador

10 (Johann Nitschmann, Sr., Moravian Missionary and Bishop; David Nitschmann, Jr., the Syndic, Moravian Missionary and Bishop; and David Nitschmann, the Martyr, Moravian Missionary and Martyr, 1729)

• Christian Ludwig Brau, Norwegian Moravian Teacher and Poet
• Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury
• Jean-Baptiste Lamy, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Santa Fe, New Mexico
• Louis FitzGerald Benson, U.S. Presbyterian Minister and Hymnodist
• Vida Dutton Scudder, Episcopal Professor, Author, Christian Socialist, and Social Reformer

11 (PHILIP THE EVANGELIST, DEACON)

12 (Martin Dober, Moravian Bishop and Hymn Writer; Johann Leonhard Dober, Moravian Missionary and Bishop; and Anna Schindler Dober, Moravian Missionary and Hymn Writer)

• Cecil Frances Alexander, Irish Anglican Hymn Writer
• Edith Cavell, English Nurse and Martyr, 1915
• Elizabeth Fry, English Quaker Social Reformer and “Angel of the Prisons”
• João Bosco Burnier, Brazilian Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr, 1976
• Nectarius of Constantinople, Archbishop

13 (Christian David, Moravian Missionary)

• Alban Butler, English Roman Catholic Priest and Hagiographer
• Henry Stephen Cutler, Episcopal Organist, Choirmaster, and Composer
• Vincent Taylor, British Methodist Minister and Biblical Scholar

14 (Callixtus I, Anterus, and Pontian, Bishops of Rome; and Hippolytus, Antipope)

• Roman Lysko, Ukrainian Greek Catholic Priest and Martyr, 1949
• Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky, Episcopal Bishop of Shanghai, and Biblical Translator
• Thomas Hansen Kingo, Danish Lutheran Bishop, Hymn Writer, and “Poet of Eastertide”

15 (Teresa of Avila, Spanish Roman Catholic Nun, Mystic, and Reformer)

• Gabriel Richard, French-American Roman Catholic Missionary Priest in Detroit, Michigan
• Obadiah Holmes, English Baptist Minister and Champion of Religious Liberty in New England

16 (Albert E. R. Brauer, Australian Lutheran Minister and Hymn Translator)

• Augustine Thevarparampil, Indian Roman Catholic Priest and “Good Shepherd of the Dalits”
• Gaspar Contarini, Italian Roman Catholic Cardinal and Agent of Reconciliation
• Hedwig of Andechs, Roman Catholic Princess and Nun; and her daughter, Gertrude of Trzebnica, Roman Catholic Abbess
• Józef Jankowski, Polish Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr, 1941

17 (Charles Gounod, French Roman Catholic Composer)

• Birgitte Katerine Boye, Danish Lutheran Poet, Playwright, Hymn Translator, and Hymn Writer
• John Bowring, English Unitarian Hymn Writer, Social Reformer, and Philanthropist
• Richard McSorley, U.S. Roman Catholic Priest, Professor, and Peace Activist

18 (LUKE THE EVANGELIST, PHYSICIAN)

19 (Martyrs of North America, 1642-1649)

• Claudia Frances Ibotson Hernaman, Anglican Hymn Writer and Translator
• Jerzy Popieluszko, Polish Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr, 1984
• Paul of the Cross, Founder of the Congregation of Discaled Clerks of the Most Holy Cross and Passion

20 (Philip Schaff and John Williamson Nevin, U.S. German Reformed Historians, Theologians, and Liturgists)

• Friedrich Funcke, German Lutheran Minister, Composer, and Hymn Writer
• James W. C. Pennington, African-American Congregationalist and Presbyterian Minister, Educator, and Abolitionist
• John Harris Burt, Episcopal Bishop of Ohio, and Civil Rights Activist
• Mary A. Lathbury, U.S. Methodist Hymn Writer

21 (George McGovern, U.S. Senator and Stateman; and his wife, Eleanor McGovern, Humanitarian)

• David Moritz Michael, German-American Moravian Musician and Composer
• Laura of Saint Catherine of Siena, Founder of the Works of the Indians and the Congregation of Missionary Sisters of Immaculate Mary and of Saint Catherine of Siena
• Walter Sisulu and Albertina Sisulu, Anti-Apartheid Activists and Political Prisoners in South Africa

22 (Paul Tillich, German-American Lutheran Theologian)

• Emily Gardiner Neal, Episcopal Deacon, Religious Writer, and Leader of the Healing Movement in The Episcopal Church
• Emily Huntington Miller, U.S. Methodist Author and Hymn Writer
• Frederick Pratt Green, British Methodist Minister, Poet, and Hymn Writer
• Katharina von Schlegal, German Lutheran Hymn Writer
• Martyrs of Heraclea, 304

23 (JAMES OF JERUSALEM, BROTHER OF JESUS)

24 (Rosa Parks, African-American Civil Rights Activist)

• Fritz Eichenberg, German-American Quaker Wood Engraver
• Henry Clay Shuttleworth, Anglican Priest and Hymn Writer
• Pavel Chesnokov, Russian Orthodox Composer
• Proclus, Archbishop of Constantinople; and Rusticus, Bishop of Narbonne

25 (Johann Daniel Grimm, German Moravian Musician)

26 (Alfred the Great, King of the West Saxons)

• Arthur Campbell Ainger, English Educator, Scholar, and Hymn Writer
• Eric Norelius, Swedish-American Lutheran Minister
• Francis Pott, Anglican Priest and Hymn Writer and Translator
• Henry Stanley Oakeley, Composer
• Philip Nicolai, German Lutheran Minister and Hymn Writer

27 (James A. Walsh and Thomas Price, Co-Founders of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers; and Mary Josephine Rogers, Founder of the Maryknoll Sisters of Saint Dominic)

• Aedesius, Priest and Missionary; and Frumentius, First Bishop of Axum and Abuna of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
• Dmitry Bortniansky, Russian Orthodox Composer
• Harry Webb Farrington, U.S. Methodist Minister and Hymn Writer
• Levi Coffin and Catherine Coffin, U.S. Quaker Abolitionists and Conductors of the Underground Railroad

28 (SIMON AND JUDE, APOSTLES AND MARTYRS)

29 (Martyrs of Lien-Chou, China, October 28, 1905)

• Bartholomaus Helder, German Lutheran Minister, Composer, and Hymn Writer
• James Hannington, Anglican Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Guinea; and His Companions, Martyrs
• Joseph Grigg, English Presbyterian Minister and Hymn Writer
• Paul Manz, Dean of Lutheran Church Music

30 (Hugh O’Flaherty, “Scarlet Pimperel of the Vatican”)

• Elizabeth Comstock, Anglo-American Quaker Educator, Abolitionist, and Social Reformer
• Marcellus the Centurion and Cassian of Tangiers, Roman Catholic Martyrs, 298
• Oleksa Zarytsky, Ukrainian Greek Catholic Priest and Martyr, 1963
• Walter John Mathams, British Baptist then Presbyterian Minister, Author, and Hymn Writer

31 (Reformation Day)

• Daniel C. Roberts, Episcopal Priest and Hymn Writer
• Gerhard Von Rad and Martin Noth, German Lutheran Biblical Scholars
• Ivan Kochurov, Russian Orthodox Priest and Martyr, 1917
• Paul Shinji Sasaki, Anglican Bishop of Mid-Japan, Bishop of Tokyo, and Primate of Nippon Sei Ko Kei; and Philip Lendel Tsen, Anglican Bishop of Honan and Presiding Bishop of Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui

 

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