Above:  Blessed Nicholas Spira

Image in the Public Domain

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BLESSED NICHOLAS SPIRA (1484-JULY 10, 1568)

Roman Catholic Abbot

Blessed Nicholas Spira spent most of his life serving God.  Our saint, born in Brussels, Flanders (now Belgium), in 1484, was a son of an attorney.  Spira, well-educated, joined the Premonstratensians (also known as the Norbertines and the White Canons, founded by St. Norbert of Xanten) at Grimbergen, Brabant, Flanders.  Spira, a monk, became a sub-prior then a prior then, in 1543, a prior.  He had a strong devotion to the Holy Eucharist.  Spira fled the monastery in 1566, for a mob of Protestants was burning the abbey.

Spira, aged about 84 years, died on July 10, 1568.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 3, 2020 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINTS FLAVIAN AND ANATOLIUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE, PATRIARCHS; AND SAINTS AGATHO, LEO II, AND BENEDICT II, BISHOPS OF ROME; DEFENDERS OF CHRISTOLOGICAL ORTHODOXY

THE FEAST OF SAINT DIONYSIUS OF ALEXANDRIA, PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA, AND CHURCH FATHER; SAINT EUSEBIUS OF LAODICEA, BISHOP OF LAODICEA; AND SAINT ANATOLIUS OF ALEXANDRIA, BISHOP OF LAODICEA

THE FEAST OF SAINT HELIODORUS OF ALTINUM, ASSOCIATE OF SAINT JEROME, AND BISHOP OF ALTINUM

THE FEAST OF IMMANUEL NITSCHMANN, GERMAN-AMERICAN MORAVIAN MINISTER AND MUSICIAN; HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW, JACOB VAN VLECK, U.S. MORAVIAN BISHOP, MUSICIAN, COMPOSER, AND EDUCATOR; HIS SON, WILLIAM HENRY VAN VLECK, U.S. MORAVIAN BISHOP; HIS BROTHER, CARL ANTON VAN VLECK, U.S. MORAVIAN MINISTER, MUSICIAN, COMPOSER, AND EDUCATOR; HIS DAUGHTER, LISETTE (LIZETTA) MARIA VAN VLECK MEINUNG; AND HER SISTER, AMELIA ADELAIDE VAN VLECK, U.S. MORAVIAN COMPOSER AND EDUCATOR

THE FEAST OF JOHN CENNICK, BRITISH MORAVIAN EVANGELIST AND HYMN WRITER

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O God, by whose grace your servant Blessed Nicholas Spira,

kindled with the flame of your love, became a burning and a shining light in your Church:

Grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline,

and walk before you as children of light;

through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Acts 2:42-47a

Psalm 133 or 34:1-8 or 119:161-168

2 Corinthians 6:1-10

Matthew 6:24-33

–Adapted from Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), 723

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The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

Above:  The Flag of Scotland

Image in the Public Domain

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GEORGE WISHART (CIRCA 1513-MARCH 1, 1546)

Scottish Calvinist Reformer and Martyr, 1546

Also known as George Wisehart

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WALTER MILNE (CIRCA 1476-LATE APRIL 1558)

Scottish Protestant Martyr, 1558

Also known as Walter Mill and Walter Myln

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–Tertullian (150-220)

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I, after taken a detour into drafting lectionary-based devotions (for publication at other weblogs, starting in March) and writing about episodes of Starhunter Redux for a few months, return to augmenting this, A Great Cloud of Witnesses:  An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, with new posts about saints with feast days in March.  The first five posts cover six saints, four of whom died as Roman Catholics.  Today, however, we have two saints who died because they insisted on being Protestants.

George Wishart came from a prominent family and received a fine education.  He, born circa 1513 in Kincaidineshire, Scotland, was a son of James Wishart (d. 1525) and Elizabeth Learmont.  Our saint finished growing up under the guidance of his mother and his uncle, Sir James Learmont.  Wishart (M.A., King’s College, Aberdeen; then University of Leuven, Belgium, 1531) began to study Reformed theology in Europe.   He worked as the schoolmaster and a teacher of the New Testament (in Greek) at Montrose, Angus, until 1538, when the Bishop of Brechin terminated that employment for suspicion of heresy.

Allegations of heresy pursued Wishart for the remainder of his life.  He arrived in England in 1538, and left the following year; Thomas Cromwell investigated him for heresy.  Wishart, after traveling in Germany and Switzerland, returned to England by 1542.  That year he was studying and teaching at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.  The following year, however, Wishart returned to Scotland and resumed teaching at Montrose.  From 1544 to 1546 Wishart was an itinerant preacher, often traveling with his protégé, John Knox, who, in 1560, founded The Church of Scotland (Presbyterian).  Wishart’s life was in danger due to charges of heresy.  Cardinal David Beaton (1494-1516), the Archbishop of St Andrews (1539-1546), ordered Wishart’s arrest.

Cardinal Beaton, one of the bêtes noires of this account, suppressed alleged heresy ruthlessly.  Another target was Walter Milne (born circa 1476), a Scottish priest who, while in Europe, had imbibed Protestant theology then returned to the homeland as a changed man.  Milne, not wanting to burn at the stake, fled.  He also married.

Beaton and his agents caught up with Wishart in 1546.  Patrick Heaton, Lord Bothwell, had Wishart arrested at Ormiston, East Lothian, in January.   Our saint, eventually taken to St Andrews, received a show trial from Beaton.  Burning at the stake followed on March 1.  Wishart was about 33 years old.

This execution backfired on Beaton and helped to cause his assassination on May 29, 1546.

John Hamilton (1512-1571), the next Archbishop of St Andrews as not a paragon of religious toleration either.  He also sought out heretics so he could have been burned at the stake.  Among his victims was Walter Milne, who became a prisoner on April 20, 1558, at Dysart, Fife, Scotland.  Milne, defiant to the end, died at the stake before the end of the month.  He was the last Scottish Protestant martyr prior to 1560.

Milne’s widow, still alive in 1573, began that year to receive an income from benefices.

I write to highlight the piety and the unjust executions of George Wishart and Walter Milne, not to condemn the Roman Catholic Church.  One may know that Holy Mother Church has acknowledged and repented of these and many other sins; I accept the apology.  One may also know that, within Christianity alone, the Roman Catholic Church has no monopoly on martyring Christians.  My adopted tradition, the Anglican Communion, has the blood of Roman Catholic martyrs on its hands, for example.  Furthermore, the blood of many Anabaptist martyrs stains the hands of more than one Protestant tradition.  Here, at my Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, one may read of Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant, and Anglican martyrs.

I also write to condemn the practice of executing heretics, whether actual or alleged.  Depending on the circumstances, the accused may or may not be heretics, but executing the accused makes one a heretic.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 12, 2020 COMMON ERA

THE FIRST SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY, YEAR A:  THE BAPTISM OF OUR LORD

THE FEAST OF SAINT BENEDICT BISCOP, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT OF WEARMOUTH

THE FEAST OF SAINT AELRED OF HEXHAM, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT OF RIEVAULX

THE FEAST OF SAINT ANTHONY MARY PUCCI, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST

THE FEAST OF HENRY ALFORD, ANGLICAN PRIEST, BIBLICAL SCHOLAR, LITERARY TRANSLATOR, HYMN WRITER, HYMN TRANSLATOR, AND BIBLE TRANSLATOR

THE FEAST OF SAINT MARGUERITE BOURGEOYS, FOUNDRESS OF THE SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME

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

who have given their lives for the message of your love.

Inspire us with the memory of those martyrs for the Gospel

[like George Wishart and Walter Milne]

whose faithfulness led them in the way of the cross,

and give us courage to bear full witness with our lives

to your Son’s victory over sin and death; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Ezekiel 20:40-42

Psalm 5

Revelation 6:9-11

Mark 8:34-38

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

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Above:  St. Angela Merici

Image in the Public Domain

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SAINT ANGELA MERICI (MARCH 21, 1474-JANUARY 27, 1540)

Foundress of the Company of Saint Ursula

Former feast days = May 31 and June 1

St. Angela Merici, a mystic, met needs of people, for their benefit and the glory of God.  She, born in Desenzamo, Lombardy, on March 21, 1474, grew up in a devout family.  St. Angela and her sisters became orphans when St. Angela was 10 years old.  The sudden death of her sister sent our saint into a spiritual crisis.  St. Angela channeled much of her spiritual energy into making pilgrimages.  According to standard hagiographies of St. Angela, she, en route to the Holy Land in 1524, went blind in Crete.  After completing her pilgrimage and returning to Crete a few months later, she regained her sight.

St. Angela also channeled much of her spiritual energy into good works.  In her early twenties, our saint discerned her vocation to educate young girls in the faith.  She began this work in Desenzamo, where she opened her first school.  Later, St. Angela opened a second school in Brescia.  There were the origins of the Company of Saint Ursula, founded in 1535.  St. Angela served as the first superior of the order.

St. Angela died in Brescia on January 27, 1540.

The Church recognized our saint.  Pope Clement XIII beatified St. Angela in 1768.  Pope Pius VII canonized her in 1807.

The Ursuline Sisters provide a range of social services, from education to care of the elderly to shelters for homeless people.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

SEPTEMBER 1, 2019 COMMON ERA

PROPER 17:  THE TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR C

THE FEAST OF SAINT DIONYSIUS EXIGUUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK AND REFORMER OF THE CALENDAR

THE FEAST OF DAVID PENDLETON OAKERHATER, CHEYENNE WARRIOR, CHIEF, AND HOLY MAN, AND EPISCOPAL DEACON AND MISSIONARY IN OKLAHOMA

THE FEAST OF SAINT FIACRE, ROMAN CATHOLIC HERMIT

THE FEAST OF FRANÇOIS MAURIAC, FRENCH ROMAN CATHOLIC NOVELIST, CHRISTIAN HUMANIST, AND SOCIAL CRITIC

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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), 60

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If we wish to put an end to the Lutheran errors and troubles, we need not muster orations, or subtle arguments: let us rely on the probity of our lives and a humble spirit, desiring nothing but the good of Christ and our neighbors.

Above:  Cardinal Contarini

Image in the Public Domain

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GASPAR CONTARINI (OCTOBER 16, 1483-AUGUST 24, 1542)

Italian Roman Catholic Cardinal and Agent of Reconciliation

Also known as Gasparo Contarini

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–Gaspar Contarini, quoted in Robert Ellsberg, All Saints:  Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time (New York:  The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1997), 450

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Cardinal Gaspar(o) Contarini comes to this, my Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via Robert Ellsberg’s book.

Contarini, born in Venice on October 16, 1483, sought to be a reconciler during a time of extremes.  He, from nobility, studied philosophy at the University of Padua.  Our saint became a diplomat in the service of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (King Charles I of Spain), and served as Ambassador to the Papal States.  Prior to and during the Protestant Reformation Contarini opposed ecclesiastical corruption and advocated for reform.  In 1510, for example, our saint published his criticism of worldly bishops.  When the Protestant Reformation had started, Contarini reviewed Protestant teachings and found in them much both to praise and criticize.

Contarini was not afraid to speak truth to power.  In 1529, in person, he urged Pope Clement VII (in office November 19, 1523-September 25, 1534) to focus on ecclesiastical reconciliation, not on temporal power.  Clement VII, born Guilio de Medici, did not accept the counsel.  He, a hardliner, as well as a cousin of the late Pope Leo X (in office 1513-1521), was a Supreme Pontiff of his time, unfortunately.

The next Pope was Paul III (in office October 13, 1534-November 10, 1549), born Alessandro Farnese.  His sister was Guilia, mistress of Pope Alexander VI (in office 1492-1503), born Rodrigo Borgia.  Pope Paul III appointed Contarini, a layman, to the College of Cardinals and assigned him to lead a reform commission.  The commission’s report condemned abuses, including simony and the sale of indulgences.

Contarini’s final effort at ecclesiastical reconciliation was the Regensburg conference (1541), between Protestants and the Roman Catholic Church.  He helped to develop agreement on many points, including justification by faith.  This attempt at finding common ground was so controversial on both sides that it failed.  Paul III replaced Contarini with Cardinal Carlo Carafa, a hardliner who established an inquisition instead.

Contarini died of a fever on August 24, 1542.  He was 58 years old.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

for they will be called children of God.

–Matthew 5:9, The New American Bible (2011)

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 5, 2018 COMMON ERA

THE FOURTH DAY OF ADVENT, YEAR C

THE FEAST OF SAINT CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, FATHER OF CHRISTIAN SCHOLARSHIP

THE FEAST OF SAINT CYRAN, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT

THE FEAST OF SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER, ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONARY TO THE FAR EAST

THE FEAST OF NELSON MANDELA, PRESIDENT OF SOUTH AFRICA, AND RENEWER OF SOCIETY

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Almighty God, we praise you for your servant Gaspar(o) Contarini,

through whom you have called the church to its tasks and renewed its life.

Raise up in our own day teachers and prophets inspired by your Spirit,

whose voices will give strength to your church and proclaim the reality of your reign,

through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns

with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

Jeremiah 1:4-10

Psalm 46

1 Corinthians 3:11-23

Mark 10:35-45

–Adapted from Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), 60

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Above:  William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale

Images in the Public Domain

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WILLIAM TYNDALE (1497-OCTOBER 6, 1536)

English Reformer, Bible Translator, and Martyr

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MILES COVERDALE (1488-JANUARY 20, 1569)

English Reformer, Bible Translator, and Bishop of Exeter

Also known as Myles Coverdale

October 6 is, on many Anglican calendars, the Feast of William Tyndale.  It is also Tyndale’s feast in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC).  October 7 is an alternative feast day for Tyndale, as in the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.

At the General Convention of 2009, when The Episcopal Church approved Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), supplemental to Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2006 (2007), it added Coverdale to Tyndale’s feast.  The combined feast transferred into A Great Cloud of Witnesses:  A Calendar of Commemorations (2016), successor to Holy Women, Holy Men.  Neither Tyndale nor Coverdale have transferred to Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2018, however.

A Great Cloud of Witnesses (2016) remains an approved resource, of course.

Miles Coverdale, born in Yorkshire circa 1488, collaborated with William Tyndale, born in Gloucestershire in 1497.  Tyndale, influenced indirectly by the late John Wycliffe (circa 1320-1384), while growing up, studied at Oxford (B.A., 1512; M.A., 1515) then at Cambridge.  Other influential figures in his life included Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536), who had published the first published Greek New Testament in 1516, as well as Martin Luther (1483-1546), who had published his German translation of the Bible in 1522.  Tyndale, in 1522-1523 the tutor in the household of Sir John Walsh in Gloucestershire, became an alleged heretic by debating visiting clergymen.  He became convinced of the necessity of an English translation of the Bible.

Coverdale had been an Augustinian friar.  His mentor and prior had been Robert Barnes (circa 1495-1540).  At Cambridge Coverdale had begun to adopt Lutheran opinions.  He almost certainly met Tyndale at the White Horse tavern, where many Protestants gathered for discussion.

Tyndale, having left the Walsh household, to protect them, arrived in Wittenberg on May 27, 1524.  He spent the rest of his life in Europe.  By 1525 he was in Cologne.  There he planned to publish the new translation of the New Testament.  However, he and his secretary had to flee when Johannes Cochlaeus, archfoe of Luther, acted to prevent the publication of the English-language New Testament in that city.  Tyndale published his New Testament in Worms in 1526, though.  English ecclesiastical authorities, including St. Thomas More (1487-1535), ordered the burning of copies.

Meanwhile, Coverdale continued his Biblical studies at Cambridge.  He also became a radical.  His mentor, Robert Barnes, tried for heresy in 1526, recanted under pressure.  Coverdale left the abbey in 1528.  He, dressed as a secular priest, preached against images, confession, and the Mass.  He was in Hamburg the following year.  There, at Tyndale’s invitation, Coverdale was helping to translate the Torah.  Both men subsequently moved to Antwerp.  Tyndale published the new translation of the Torah in 1530 (Julian Calendar)/1531 (Gregorian Calendar).  Before he died Tyndale had translated the Old Testament through Nehemiah, as well as Jonah.  Some of his translation choices were controversial and purposefully contrary to current orthodoxy.  He preferred “congregation” to “church” and “love” to “charity,” for example.

Tyndale wrote original texts, too.  Answer to Sir Thomas More’s Dialogue (1530) was a polemic.  The Parable of the Wicked Mammon (1528) argued for justification by faith.  The Obedience of a Christian Man (1528) influenced the English Reformation.  More, a staunch Roman Catholic who, like Tyndale, opposed the annulment of the marriage of King Henry VIII to Queen Catherine of Aragon, identified Tyndale as one of the leaders of the Reformation.

Meanwhile Coverdale was translating and writing, also.  He translated the Book of Psalms from Latin to English in 1534 then translated more of the Old Testament.  The following year Coverdale published the complete English Bible, dedicated to Henry VIII.  Coverdale worked from five translations, including Tyndale’s.  He was a fine stylist of the English language; his Psalter graced editions of The Book of Common Prayer from the first one (1549) into the twentieth century.  The Coverdale and Tyndale translations constituted at least half of the Thomas Matthew Bible (1537) and therefore influenced the Great Bible (1539), the Bishop’s Bible (1568), the Authorized Version (1611), and its successors, including the American Standard Version (1901) and the branching lines of translations derived from it, starting with the Revised Standard Version (New Testament, 1946; Old Testament, 1952; Apocrypha, 1957; RSV II, 1971).

Tyndale, betrayed in Antwerp by Henry Phillips in May 1535, spent the final phase of his life as a prisoner at the castle of Vilvoorde, near Brussels.  There he died by strangling on October 6, 1536.  Authorities burned his corpse.

Coverdale was in peril, also.  He, moving back and forth between England and the continent, compiled the concordance (1535) to Tyndale’s New Testament and edited the Great Bible (1539), placed in every church in the realm.  In 1539 he fled Paris, to escape the French Inquisition.  Then, in 1540, Henry VIII began to preside over a crackdown.  Barnes died via burning at the stake that year.  Coverdale and his wife, Elizabeth Macheson (Sutherland) spent 1540-1543 in Strasbourg.  There he translated tracts and earned his D.D. degree from Tübingen University.  The Coverdales spent 1543-1548 in Bergzabern, 40 miles away from Strasbourg.  There Coverdale served as the headmaster of the town school and the assistant minister of the town church.  Meanwhile, in 1546, English authorities were burning his writings.

1548-1559 were years of changing political fortunes for Coverdale.  The Coverdales spent 1548-1553 in England.  Henry VIII had died and Edward VI had succeeded his father.  Coverdale, a royal chaplain, helped to suppress a rebellion before becoming the Bishop of Exeter (1551-1553).  Then Edward VI died and his sister, Mary I, succeeded him.  The Coverdales spent 1553-1559 in exile in Europe.  They eventually settled in Switzerland, where Coverdale helped to translate the Geneva Bible (1560).

Coverdale spent his final years back in England.  In 1558 Mary I had died and her sister, Elizabeth I, had succeeded her.  The course of the English Reformation changed; Elizabeth I presided over the birth of Anglicanism per se.  Coverdale, who had become a leading Puritan, declined to become the Bishop of Exeter again.  He had evolved theologically to the point that he could no longer approve of the ritual.  Coverdale, a much sought-after preacher, stayed busy, if not prosperous.  Elizabeth, his first wife, died in 1565.  He married Katharine the following year.

Coverdale, aged 80 or 81 years, died on January 20, 1569.

Tyndale and Coverdale were pioneers in the development of the English Bible.  Many generations of English-speaking Christians have been in their debt.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

OCTOBER 9, 2018 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT DENIS, BISHOP OF PARIS, AND HIS COMPANIONS, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYRS

THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN LEONARDI, FOUNDER OF THE CLERKS REGULAR OF THE MOTHER OF GOD OF LUCCA; AND SAINT JOSEPH CALASANCTIUS, FOUNDER OF THE CLERKS REGULAR OF RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS

THE FEAST OF ROBERT GROSSETESTE, ENGLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC SCHOLAR, PHILOSOPHER, AND BISHOP OF LINCOLN

THE FEAST OF WILFRED THOMASON GRENFELL, MEDICAL MISSIONARY TO NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR

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Almighty God, you planted in the heart of your servants William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale

a consuming passion to bring the Scriptures to people in their native tongue,

and endowed them with the gift of powerful and graceful expression

and with strength to persevere against all obstacles:

Reveal to us your saving Word, as we read and study the Scriptures,

and hear them calling us to repentance and life;

through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you

and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Proverbs 8:10-17

Psalm 119:89-96

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

John 12:44-50

—Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), 625

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the slave of the Negroes forever.

Above:  Logo of the Society of Jesus

Image in the Public Domain

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SAINT FRANCIS BORGIA (OCTOBER 28, 1510-SEPTEMBER 30, 1572)

“Second Founder of the Society of Jesus”

Also known as Francisco de Borja y Aragon

His feast transferred from September 30, October 3, and October 10

worked with

SAINT PETER FABER (APRIL 13, 1506-AUGUST 1, 1546)

Apostle of Germany, and Cofounder of the Society of Jesus

His feast transferred from August 1

taught

SAINT ALPHONSUS RODRIGUEZ (JULY 25, 1532-OCTOBER 31, 1617)

Spanish Jesuit Lay Brother

His feast transferred from October 31

counseled

SAINT PETER CLAVER (1580/1581-SEPTEMBER 8, 1654)

“Apostle to the Negroes”

His feast day = September 9

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One of my goals in renovating my Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days is to emphasize relationships and influences.  That goal is germane to this post.

I began by taking notes about St. Peter Claver.  During that process I noticed the link to St. Alphonsus Rodriguez.  While I took notes on him, I saw the name of St. Peter Faber.  I took notes about him and noticed the link to St. Francis Borgia, so I added Borgia to the post too.

Above:  St. Francis Borgia, S.J.

Image in the Public Domain

St. Francis Borgia, born in Gandia, Valencia, Aragon, on October 28, 1510, was a nobleman.  He, related to Aragonese royalty, was a great-grandson of the infamous Rodrigo Borgia, who, in 1492, bribed his way into the Papacy and became Alexander VI.  Our saint, raised in the court of King Charles I of Spain/Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, married Eleanor de Castro (d. 1546) in 1529.  The couple had eight children.  From 1539 to 1543 Borgia was the Viceroy of Catalonia.  Then, in 1543, he became the Duke of Gandia.

Borgia made his greatest contributors as a Jesuit.  He, a friend of St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), joined the Society of Jesus in 1548.  Three years later our saint became a priest.  His responsibilities increased as time passed.  Borgia had oversight of missions in the East Indies and the West Indies before become the superior in Spain in 1560.  Five years later Borgia became the Superior General of the order.  In a few years he revitalized the order and established missions in Peru, Florida, and elsewhere in the Spanish Empire in the Americas.  Our saint, convinced that Jesuits were working too much and praying too little, introduced the hour-long meditation.

Borgia died in Ferrara (now in Italy) on September 30, 1572, about a month prior to what would have been his sixty-second birthday.  Pope Gregory XV beatified him in 1624.  Pope Clement X canonized him in 1670.

Above:  St. Peter Faber

Image in the Public Domain

Borgia worked with St. Peter Faber, born in Villaret, Savoy, on April 13, 1506.  Faber, from a farm family, worked as a shepherd when he was young.  Our saint was devout from childhood; he even catechized other children when he was one.

Faber, educated at Saint-Barbe College, Paris, became a priest in 1534, the same year he and his friend, St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), founded the Society of Jesus.  Faber, also a friend of St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552), was an active participant–a preacher and theologian–in the Counter-Reformation.  He enabled St. Peter Canisius (1521-1597), leader of the Counter-Reformation in Germany, to fulfill that function.

Faber, aged 40 years, died in Rome on August 1, 1546.  Toward the end he was too ill to attend the Council of Trent (1545-1563) and to become the Patriarch of Ethiopia.  Pope Leo XIII beatified Faber in 1872.  Pope Francis canonized our saint in 2013.

Faber prepared the 10-year-old St. Alphonsus Rodriguez for First Communion.

Above:  St. Alphonsus Rodriguez

Image in the Public Domain

St. Alphonsus Rodriguez, once a businessman, became a Jesuit lay brother and an influential spiritual advisor.  He, born in Segovia, Spain, on July 25, 1532, was the third of eleven children of prosperous wool merchant Diego Rodriguez, who died when our saint was 15 years old.  That death ended the education of young Alphonsus by the Jesuits, for a time.  Our saint, back home, took over the family business.  Rodriguez married Maria Suarez when he was 26 years old.  The couple had three children, two of whom predeceased their mother.  Rodriguez buried his wife then his mother in his thirties.  Next he sold the business and moved in with his sisters, who helped to raise the young son and taught our saint prayerful meditation.

Rodriguez had a vocation to religious life.  After the death of his third (of three) child, he inquired about becoming a novice.  Our saint did not meet the educational requirement to become a novice.  Attempts to acquire that education ended in failure.  He could, however, become a lay brother and study with children.  After six months the order sent Rodriguez to the College of Montesión, Palma, Majorca/Mallorca.  There our saint was the porter for 46 years; he delivered packages, gave alms to the poor, and assisted travelers in search of lodging.  Rodriguez made his final vows in 1586/1587, when he was 54 years old.

Above:  St. Peter Claver

Image in the Public Domain

St. Peter Claver, born into a farming family in Verdu, Catalonia, Spain, in 1580/1581, grew up and became a great missionary.  His parents sent him to Barcelona, to study under Jesuits.  The Jesuit influence rubbed of on Claver, who became a novice at Tarragona.  The order sent him to Palma, Majorca/Mallorca, where he was unsure about what his future should be.  St. Adolphus Rodriguez convinced the novice to ask to become a missionary to the New World.  Claver arrived in Cartagena (now in Colombia) in 1610.

Meanwhile, Rodriguez continued to live at Palma until he died, aged 87 years, on October 31, 1617.  He was 87 years old.  Pope Urban VIII declared Rodriguez a Venerable in 1626.  Pope Leo XII beatified him in 1825.

Claver spent the rest of his life in Cartagena, where he was the “Apostle to the Negroes.”  He was initially the assistant to Father Alphonsus de Sandoval, S.J., who ministered to recently arrived African slaves, still in slave pens, prior to auction.  Sandoval was a dedicated minister to slaves; Claver was more so.  He, ordained to the priesthood in 1815, catechized and baptized more than 300,000 African slaves through 1650.  Against strong opposition from powerful people and much indifference from his superiors in Cartagena, Claver labored faithfully.  He could not end slavery, but he did what he could; he advocated for improved conditions on plantations, and succeeded.  Mostly he was present with and sympathetic to slaves.  Claver described himself as

Claver, ill and unable to leave his room during the last four years of his life, endured the company of just one servant, who beat him frequently.  Our saint died in Cartagena on September 8, 1654.  Surprisingly, the Church gave him a grand funeral.

Pope Pius IX beatified Claver in 1851.

Pope Leo XIII canonized Claver and Rodriguez together in 1888.

Sts. Francis Borgia, Peter Faber, and Alphonsus Rodriguez enabled the productive ministry of St. Peter Claver.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 9, 2018 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT EDITH STEIN, ROMAN CATHOLIC NUN AND PHILOSOPHER

THE FEAST OF SAINT HERMAN OF ALASKA, RUSSIAN ORTHODOX MONK AND MISSIONARY TO THE ALEUT

THE FEAST OF JOHN DRYDEN, ENGLISH PURITAN THEN ANGLICAN THEN ROMAN CATHOLIC POET, PLAYWRIGHT, AND TRANSLATOR

THE FEAST OF MARY SUMNER, FOUNDRESS OF THE MOTHERS’ UNION

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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

Saint Francis Borgia, Saint Peter Faber, Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez, and Saint Peter Claver,

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), 724

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INTRODUCTION

Above:  Part of the Isenheim Altarpiece, by Matthias Grünewald

Image in the Public Domain

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ALBRECHT DÜRER (MAY 21, 1471-APRIL 6, 1528)

German Painter, Engraver, and Woodcut Illustrator

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MATTHIAS GRÜNEWALD (CIRCA 1460-1528)

German Painter

Born Mathis Gothardt Nithardt

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LUCAS CRANACH THE ELDER (OCTOBER 4, 1472-OCTOBER 16, 1553)

German Painter and Woodcut Illustrator

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RENAISSANCE ARTISTS

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Feast day in The Episcopal Church (since 2009) = August 5

Feast day in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (since 2006) = April 6

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A tendency evident in the calendars of saints, expanding in Anglican and Lutheran denominations during the last few decades, has been composite feasts commemorating several people who did similar work–composing music, resisting chattel slavery, advocating for the rights of women, et cetera.  Frequently these are composite feasts of people who were contemporaries of each other.  To some extent I follow the same practice here, at my Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, but sometimes I break up composite feasts when adding those individuals to this calendar.  If I were to break up this composite feast, I would keep Dürer and Grünewald on the same feast (because the former taught the latter) and assign Cranach a feast day in October, as well as consider adding at least one son to Cranach’s feast.  As it is, the Episcopal-Lutheran composite feast works fine.

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ALBRECHT DÜRER

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Above:  Self-Portrait of Albrecht Dürer, 1500

Image in the Public Domain

Albrecht Dürer (the Younger) was the greatest German artist in his fields during his time.  He, born in Nuremberg, was a son of Albrecht Dürer the Elder (1427-1502), who was a goldsmith, and Barbara Holper.  Our saint studied first under his father.  Then, from 1486 to 1490, he studied (at Nuremberg) under Michael Wolgemut, a painter and woodcut illustrator.

Dürer spent much of his life traveling in Europe.  In the 1490s he went to Alsace, where he arrived shortly after the death of Martin Schongauer, the most prominent German graphic artist at the time.  So our saint studied Schogauer’s works.  Dürer also traveled to Basel that year; there he taught Matthias Grünewald.

Dürer, who married Agnes Frey (d. December 28, 1539) on July 7, 1494, was a Roman Catholic who harbored Lutheran sympathies toward the end of his life.  He created many sacred works, including altarpiece, for both Catholic and Lutheran churches.  His famous Praying Hands was part of a plan for a portion of an altarpiece (subsequently destroyed in wartime), completed in 1509.  Dürer also created scientific drawings and engravings, and wrote theoretical treatises on topics such as fortification and proportions.

Above:  Praying Hands

Image in the Public Domain

Dürer, from 1512 to 1519 an employee of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, reunited briefly with Grünewald at Aachen, for the coronation of Charles V, in 1521.  The two masters, who had different styles, exchanged art.

Dürer died at Nuremberg on April 6, 1528.  He was 46 years old.

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MATTHIAS GRÜNEWALD

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The real name of this artist was Mathis Gothardt Nithardt.  Matthias Grünewald was the name by which Joachim von Sandrart referred to him in Teutschen Academie (1675).

Few details of the life of Nithardt/Grünewald have survived.  He, born in Warzburg circa 1460, was in Strasburg in 1479.  He studied under Dürer in Basel in 1490, was back in Wurzberg in 1501, and worked as court painter to the Archbishop of Mainz from 1509 to 1526, until the Archbishop fired him.  Nithardt/Grünewald died in Halle in 1528.  The reasons for Nithardt/Grünewald’s termination have remained vague to historians, but many have proposed the artist’s Lutheran sympathies.  Nithardt/Grünewald had to be diplomatic regarding organized religion as the Protestant Reformation got underway.

Nithardt/Grünewald created much sacred art, most of which, unfortunately, has not survived to the present day.  He painted the crucifixion of Jesus frequently and created many altarpieces.  His masterpiece was the altarpiece for the church at the Monastery of St. Anthony, Isenheim.

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LUCAS CRANACH THE ELDER

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Above:  Lucas Cranach the Elder (1550), by Lucas Cranach the Younger

Image in the Public Domain

Lucas Cranach the Elder, unlike Dürer and Nithardt/Grünewald, converted to Lutheranism.  Our saint, born in Kronach, Franconia, on October 4, 1472, was a son of Hans Cranach, a painter.  Hans taught his son painting.  Lucas, in Vienna in 1503, arrived in Wittenberg (as the court painter to the Electors of Saxony) two years later.  Cranach, husband of Barbara Brengbier (d. 1540), created both Catholic and Protestant art, as well as depictions from pagan mythology.  He, a friend and confidante of Martin Luther, enjoyed the protection of Frederick the Wise, as did the Luther family.  Cranach also created woodcut illustrations for an edition of Luther’s German Bible.  He died at Wittenberg on October 16, 1553.  He was 81 years old.

Cranach’s most famous child was Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515-1586), also a painter.

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CONCLUSION

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These three great artists channeled their faith into their art.  They used their God-given talents to glorify God.  Fortunately, one can still enjoy pieces they created.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JUNE 13, 2018 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF MILTON SMITH LITTLEFIELD, JR., U.S. PRESBYTERIAN AND CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER, HYMN WRITER, AND HYMNAL EDITOR

THE FEAST OF SIGISMUND VON BIRKEN, GERMAN LUTHERAN HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, U.S. POET, JOURNALIST, AND HYMN WRITER

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We give thanks to you, O Lord, for the vision and skill of

Albrecht Dürer, Matthias Grünewald, and Lucas Cranach the Elder,

whose artistic depictions helped the peoples of their age understand

the full suffering and glory of your incarnate Son;

and we pray that their work may strengthen our faith in

Jesus Christ and the mystery of the Holy Trinity;

for you live and reign, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Exodus 35:21-29

Psalm 96:7-13

Romans 8:1-11

John 19:31-37

—Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), 507

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Above:  St. Ignatius of Loyola, by Peter Paul Rubens

Image in the Public Domain

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SAINT IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA (1491-JULY 31, 1556)

Founder of the Society of Jesus

Born Iñigo López de Loyola

Iñigo López de Loyola, born in 1491, was the youngest of thirteen children of Beltran Yañez de Onêz y Loyola and Marina Saenz Licona y Balda.  The site of the birth of the Basque saint was the Castle of Loyola, Azpeitia, Giupuscoa, Kingdom of Castille.   His parents named him after St. Enecus/Innicus, the Abbot of Oño.  St. Ignatius, raised in a culture of chivalry, became a soldier.  At the siege of Pameluna a cannonball broke our saint’s right leg and injured the left one.  Surgery was primitive in Europe in 1521, and St. Ignatius’s tended recovery at the Castle of Loyola gave him much time and opportunity to read the life of Christ and the lives of various saints.

St. Ignatius’s reading led him to repent.  Chivalry and martial valor fell far short of the standards of Christ, he concluded.  Our saint, recovered and repentant, made a pilgrimage to Montserrat in time for the Feast of the Annunciation, 1522.  Then he spent a year in prayer and penance in solitude in a cave outside Manresa, near Barcelona.  From this period came the framework for The Spiritual Exercises, a guide for a 31-day-long retreat and a series of guided meditations for the purpose of discerning vocations.  Next St. Ignatius, intent on settling in the Holy Land, made a pilgrimage there in 1523, but had to return to Barcelona.

The next few years contained ups and downs for St. Ignatius.  He studied at the University of Barcelona from 1524 to 1526 then at the University of Alcala from 1526 to 1527.  At Alcala the Inquisition incarcerated the suspected heretic.  St. Ignatius also had trouble with the Inquisition at Salamanca (1527-1528).  Our saint completed academic work through a Master’s degree at the University of Paris (1528-1535), but was too ill to pursue a doctorate.  At Paris St. Ignatius became the nucleus of a community of ten men, who became the nucleus of the Society of Jesus on August 15, 1534.  St. Ignatius and these ten men became priests in 1537.  Pope Paul III approved the order on September 27, 1540.

The Society of Jesus began as a part of the Counter-Reformation.  St. Ignatius sought to reform the Church from within via sacraments and evangelism.  He, the first General of the order from 1541, commenced global missions immediately.  When St. Ignatius died in 1556, there were 100 Jesuits in 12 provinces.  Failing health forced St. Ignatius to retire in 1551, but he remained in charge until he died.  He founded the Roman College in 1551 and the German College, Rome, the following year.  St. Ignatius died in Rome on July 31, 1556.  He was about 65 years old.

The legacy of St. Ignatius has been both direct and indirect.  Two of the saints he influenced were St. Peter Canisius and St. Francis Xavier, with their own great legacies.

Pope Paul V beatified St. Ignatius in 1609.  Pope Gregory XV canonized our saint in 1622.

St. Ignatius sought to find God in all things and to glorify God through all his deeds.  That was a noble quest.

It should be the quest of all people.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JUNE 12, 2018 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF EDWIN PAXTON HOOD, ENGLISH CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER, PHILANTHROPIST, AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF CHRISTIAN DAVID JAESCHKE, GERMAN MORAVIAN ORGANIST AND COMPOSER; AND HIS GRANDSON, HENRI MARC VOLDEMAR VOULLAIRE, MORAVIAN COMPOSER AND MINISTER

THE FEAST OF ENMEGAHBOWN, EPISCOPAL PRIEST AND MISSIONARY TO THE OJIBWA NATION

THE FEAST OF JOSEPH DACRE CARLYLE, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER

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Almighty God, from whom all good things come:

You called Ignatius of Loyola to the service of your Divine Majesty and to find you in all things.

Inspired by his example and strengthened by his companionship,

may we labor without counting the cost and seek no reward other than knowing that we do your will;

through Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, now and forever.  Amen.

Proverbs 22:1-6

Psalm 34:1-8

1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1

Luke 9:57-62

—Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), 497

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This is post #1550 of SUNDRY THOUGHTS.

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A TRIPLE BIOGRAPHY OF THREE GREAT MEN

Above:  The Flag of England

Image in the Public Domain

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DESIDERIUS ERASMUS ROTERDAMUS (OCTOBER 1466-JULY 12, 1536)

Dutch Roman Catholic Priest, Biblical and Classical Scholar, and Controversialist

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SAINT JOHN FISHER (1469-JUNE 22, 1535)

English Roman Catholic Classical Scholar, Bishop of Rochester, Cardinal, and Martyr

Alternative feast day = July 6 (The Church of England)

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SAINT THOMAS MORE (FEBRUARY 7, 1487-JULY 6, 1535)

English Roman Catholic Classical Scholar, Jurist, Theologian, Controversialist, and Martyr

Alternative feast day = December 1 (as one of the Martyrs of Oxford University)

Alternative feast day = July 6 (The Church of England)

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On the Roman Catholic calendar the feasts of Sts. John Fisher and Thomas More fall on June 22.  They also share a feast day (July 6) in The Church of England.  To their commemoration at this, my Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, I add their friend and colleague, Desiderius Erasmus.

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THE EARLY LIFE OF DESIDERIUS ERASMUS

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Above:  Portrait of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam with Renaissance Pilaster, by Hans Holbein the Younger

Image in the Public Domain

Desiderius Erasmus, a great scholar and historically influential man, was a native of Rotterdam, The Netherlands.  He, born in 1466, was a son of a priest and the brother of Peter.  After Gerard, the father, died, guardians directed the educations of Desiderius and Peter.  After Peter became a monk at a monastery near Delft our saint joined the Augustinian order.  Erasmus, ordained to the priesthood on April 25, 1492, left the monastery in 1494 and pursued his scholarly work in the world.

Erasmus was a Christian Humanist in the style of the Northern Renaissance.  As such he objected to the dogmatic theology he encountered at the University of Paris.  In Paris our saint became a teacher and began writing.  Apparently Erasmus had a distinctive speaking style, for William Tyndale (1494-1536) described our saint as one

whose tongue maketh of little gnats great elephants, and laudeth up above the skies, whosoever giveth him a little exhibition.

Erasmus, whose English patrons included St. John Fisher and disciples included St. Thomas More (whom he met in 1497), visited England periodically, starting in 1499-1500.  Erasmus thought, despite the cumulative time he spent in England, that the weather and beer there were bad, and that More was the only genius in the realm.

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THE EARLY LIFE OF SAINT THOMAS MORE

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Above:  Sir Thomas More, by Hans Holbein the Younger

Image in the Public Domain

St. Thomas More was a jurist and a classical scholar.  He, born in London on February 7, 1487, was a son of Sir John More, a judge.  Our saint, educated at St. Anthony’s School, Threadneedle Street, London, then in the household of Archbishop of Canterbury John Morton, continued his studies at Oxford University before studying law at New Inn (1494-1496) then Lincoln’s Inn (1496f).  More was a reader at Furnival’s Inn then butler at Lincoln’s Inn (as his father had been) in 1507.  Our saint was also reader at Lincoln’s Inn in 1511 and 1515.

Meanwhile More was studying theology and Latin and Greek literature.  He met Erasmus, his longtime friend, in 1497.  More also translated classical works into English and composed English poetry.

More was a devout man.  For about four years he had lived at the London Charterhouse.  Although he never took monastic vows, he learned certain lifelong austere habits.  More did make wedding vows, however.  In 1505 he married Jane Colt (d. 1511).  The couple had four children.  His second wife was Alice Middleton, a widow.  Her daughter became part of the blended family.  More was a pioneer in the education of women in England, for his daughters were well-educated people.

More was a longtime Member of Parliament and a negotiator.  He, the Undersheriff of London (1510-1518), was also an officer in various companies.  In various capacities he settled disputes in England and France through 1529.

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THE EARLY LIFE OF SAINT JOHN FISHER

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Above:  John Fisher, by Hans Holbein the Younger

Image in the Public Domain

St. John Fisher was a scholar and a priest.  He, born in Beverley, Yorkshire, England, in 1469, graduated from Cambridge University in 1487 and 1491.  He, ordained a priest in 1491, served as a parish priest in Northallerton from 1491 to 1494.  Fisher, a tutor to the young Henry VIII (born in 1491; reigned from 1509 to 1547), was, from 1497, the confessor to Lady Margaret Beaufort (1443-1509), mother of King Henry VII (reigned 1485-1509).  At Fisher’s urging she founded readerships in divinity at Oxford and Cambridge (1503) then at Christ’s College, Cambridge (1505).  Fisher, the Vice-Chancellor (1501-1504) then Chancellor (1504-1534) of Cambridge University and Bishop of Rochester (1504-1534), for all intents and purposes founded St. John’s College, Cambridge, for which he hired Erasmus as Lecturer in Greek in 1511.  As a bishop Fisher was also devoted to his diocese–unusually so, by the standards of the period.

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ERASMUS THE BIBLICAL SCHOLAR

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Erasmus was a classical scholar and a man of letters. His volumes (1516-1536) on various Church Fathers were masterpieces of scholarship.  Or saint spent much time on St. Jerome (347-419) and his works in particular.  In 1504 Erasmus commenced his work on the Greek New Testament.  The influential volume, published in 1516, was epoch-making.  Our saint, who prioritized Patristic sources and the best Greek texts available to him, was more reliable than St. Jerome’s Latin Vulgate.  Erasmus dedicated the work to Pope Leo X.  The Holy Father accepted the dedication, but some powerful factions in the Church opposed the scholarly work.  Martin Luther, however, admired it.

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SAINT THOMAS MORE, 1514-1532

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St. Thomas More, a devout man and a gentle father, was also an influential writer, a statesman, and a controversialist.  The author of Utopia (1515-1516) produced many other works, including The History of Richard III (1514), which influenced William Shakespeare’s treatment of the monarch.  More held a series of positions in the 1520s.  He was, for example, the Speaker of the House of Commons and a Justice of the Peace from 1523.  The following year he became a High Steward of Oxford University.  In 1525 he became a High Steward of Cambridge University and the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.  Then, from 1529 to 1532, he served as the Lord Chancellor.

The position of Lord Chancellor, although of high rank, was still one of a royal servant.  The position increased More’s wealth.  He gave more to charity.  The duties of the job also required More to present the royal position to the House of Lords, even when this left him with an uneasy conscience, as in the “King’s great matter” involving Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn.  Our saint, citing health concerns, resigned in 1532.

More was a devout Roman Catholic who considered Protestantism heretical.  In 1525 and 1526 he wrote German Lutheran theologian Johannes Bugenhagen (1485-1558) in defense of papal authority.  More abhorred both Protestantism and violence.  As much as More argued with and prayed for the conversion of his Lutheran son-in-law, William Roper, Roper recalled never seeing his father-in-law “in a fume.”

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SAINT JOHN FISHER, 1511-1533

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St. John Fisher, a devout Roman Catholic, honored God in various ways.  A devout and simple life was a moral imperative, he preached, to the consternation of some powerful men.  Fisher also honored God with his intellect.  The great man, who undertook the study of Greek at the age of 50 years, encouraged the study of Hebrew at Cambridge University.  Like More, Fisher considered Protestantism heretical, and argued vigorously against it and for Roman Catholicism.

Fisher also opposed the interference of the state in ecclesiastical affairs.  He, a consistent defender of Queen Catherine of Aragon, starting in 1527, opposed the annulment of that marriage as well as the granting to Henry VIII the title of Supreme Head of the Church and Clergy of England.

Fisher’s conscience was about to lead him to his martyrdom.

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THE MARTYRDOM OF SAINTS JOHN FISHER AND THOMAS MORE

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More and Fisher opposed the Act of Supremacy (1534).  Thus, on April 13, 1534, when summoned, both men refused to swear an oath accepting the marriage of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn, recognizing the succession of their issue, and repudiating papal authority.  Their refusal was officially treasonous.  From April 17, 1534, to the end of their lives they were prisoners in the Tower of London.  The circumstances of their incarceration were inhumane.

Pope Paul III created Fisher a Cardinal on May 20, 1535.  The infuriated Henry VIII, referring to a Cardinal’s red hat, said,

Mother of God!  He shall wear it on his shoulders, for I will leave him never ahead to set it on.

Fisher, tried and sentenced to death on June 17, 1535, died via beheading at Tower Hill, London, five days later.

More wrote in prison.  He began and completed A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulacyon (1534), in which he also argued against the idea that any head of state can dictate religious belief.  More also began a treatise on the Passion of Jesus, but his jailers did not permit him to famish it.  Our saint, tried on July 1, 1535, died via beheading at Tower Hill five days later.

The Roman Catholic Church has recognized these saints.  Pope Leo XIII beatified them in 1886.  Pope Pius XI canonized them in 1935.

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ERASMUS AND THE CHURCH

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Erasmus was a devout Roman Catholic from his cradle to his grave.  Nevertheless, he had both admirers and detractors in Protestant and Roman Catholic circles.  Furthermore, Erasmus was openly critical of some aspects of an powerful people in Holy Mother Church.  For example, he wrote anonymously then denied having written Julius Exclusus (1514), a satire about the late Pope Julius II (in office 1503-1513) attempting to gain entry into Heaven.  Julius II deserved strong criticism, for he was, in the words of scholar J. N. D. Kelly,

a forceful ruler, ruthless and violent.

—The Oxford Dictionary of Popes (1986), page 255

Erasmus criticized certain Popes, but not the Papacy.  He condemned abuses in the Church, but not the Church itself.  He avoided committing schism, although some especially defensive Catholics accused him of being worse than Martin Luther, who did commit schism, albeit only after the Church forced the matter.  In fact, Luther and Erasmus, who never met, carried on a literary debate.  Furthermore, Erasmus was critical of more than one Protestant Reformer.

Erasmus, more at home at Basel, Switzerland, than anywhere else, lived there in 1514-1517, 1521-1529, and 1536.  At the end of his life Erasmus really became a Cardinal, but he died at Basel on July 12, 1536, instead.  His heir, Boniface Amerbach, wrote of the great man’s passing:

As was his life, so was the death of this most upright of men.  Most holy was his living, most holy was his dying.

The last words of Erasmus, in Dutch, were:

Dear God.

After his death the Church added his writings to the Index of Forbidden Books.

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CONCLUSION

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These three saints of God were scholars, friends, and colleagues.  They left the world better than they found it and entrusted it with their intellects and piety.  Two of these men died rather than betray their consciences and, they believed, God.  Erasmus also remained faithful to God, as he understood God.  All of these men did this nonviolently.

As I have prepared this post, I have arrived at another conclusion:  I like Erasmus most of all.  The punchiness of his personality has appealed to part of my personality.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 28, 2018 COMMON ERA

THE FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY, YEAR B

THE FEAST OF SAINT ALBERT THE GREAT AND HIS PUPIL, SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS, ROMAN CATHOLIC THEOLOGIANS

THE FEAST OF CHARLES KINGSLEY, ANGLICAN PRIEST, NOVELIST, AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF JOSEPH BARNBY, ANGLICAN CHURCH MUSICIAN AND COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF RICHARD FREDERICK LITTLEDALE, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND TRANSLATOR OF HYMNS

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O God, you have endowed us with memory, reason, and skill.

We thank you for the faithful legacy of Desiderius Erasmus, Saint John Fisher, and Saint Thomas More,

and all others who have dedicated their lives to you and to the intellectual pursuits.

May we, like them, respect your gift of intelligence fully and to your glory.

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

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Psalm 103

Philippians 4:8-9

Mark 12:28-34

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 6, 2013 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT CHRODEGANG OF METZ, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP

THE FEAST OF EDMUND KING, ANGLICAN BISHOP OF LINCOLN

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Above:  The Flag of England

Image in the Public Domain

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BLESSED JOHN FOREST (1471-MAY 22, 1538)

English Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr

Alternative feast day = December 1 (as one of the Martyrs of Oxford University)

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BLESSED THOMAS ABEL (CIRCA 1497-JULY 30, 1540)

English Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr

His feast transferred from July 30

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These two saints died because they refused to recognize the supremacy of the Crown over the English Church.

Blessed John Forest, born in Oxford, England, in 1471, was a member of the Friars Minor of the Regular Observance, or the Observants.  He joined that Franciscan order at Greenwich when he was 20 years old.  Forest went on to study theology at Oxford University then to become the confessor of Queen Catherine of Aragon.  In 1525 our saint began to serve as the Observant Provincial in England.  Six years later King Henry VIII suppressed the order.  In 1532-1534 Forest preached against Henry VIII and the government.  This activity led to government surveillance then to his arrest in 1534.  Incarceration in Newgate Prison followed.  In prison Forest corresponded with Catherine of Aragon and Blessed Thomas Abel, a prisoner in the Tower of London.

Abel, born in England circa 1497, also became a chaplain to Queen Catherine of Aragon.  First, however, he earned his Doctor of Divinity degree at Oxford University and served as a priest.  In 1532 he publicly opposed the annulment of the marriage between King Henry VIII and Queen Catherine of Aragon.  This led to a brief period of incarceration in the Tower of London.  Abel’s alleged involvement in the Holy Maid of Kent Affair led to a second period of imprisonment, starting the following year.  Sister Elizabeth Barton, a Benedictine nun at Kent, apparently taught in favor of the Mass in particular and the Roman Catholic Church in general whenever she saw an image of St. Mary of Nazareth.  That was sufficient to lead to Barton’s execution in 1534.  Abel got off relatively lightly; he spent 1533-1539 in the Tower of London.  The warden released him in 1539.  Our saint’s freedom was brief, however.  Authorities rearrested him and turned the warden into an inmate.

Forest, sentenced to death for refusing to recognize the supremacy of King Henry VIII over the English Church on April 8, 1538, died by hanging and burning at Smithfield on July 22 of that year.  He was 66 or 67 years old.

Abel, guilty of the same offense, died by handing, drawing, and quartering at Smithfield on July 30, 1540.  He was about 43 years old.

Pope Leo XIII declared moth men Blessed on December 29, 1886.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

NOVEMBER 21, 2017 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF THOMAS TALLIS AND HIS STUDENT AND COLLEAGUE, WILLIAM BYRD, ENGLISH COMPOSERS AND ORGANISTS; AND JOHN MERBECKE, ENGLISH COMPOSER, ORGANIST, AND COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF DITLEF GEORGSON RISTAD, NORWEGIAN-AMERICAN LUTHERAN MINISTER, HYMN TRANSLATOR, LITURGIST, AND EDUCATOR

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Almighty God, who gave your servants Blesseds John Forest and Thomas Abel

boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of their world,

and courage to die for this faith:

Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the faith that is in us,

and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ;

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

2 Esdras 2:42-48

Psalm 126 or 121

1 Peter 3:14-18, 22

Matthew 10:16-22

–Adapted from Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), page 713

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