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:  Flag of Scotland

Image in the Public Domain

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PATRICK HAMILTON (1504-FEBRUARY 29, 1528)

First Scottish Protestant Martyr, 1528

As anyone who pays close attention to this, A Great Cloud of Witnesses:  An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, should know, martyrs constitute one of the major categories of saints of whom I write.  At my Ecumenical Calendar, almost all martyrs are Christian; the exception applies to certain Biblical characters.  Therefore, most martyrs may be one of the following:  Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Old Catholic, Protestant, or Anglican.  One subcategory of martyrs is “First ____ Martyr.”  To that subcategory I add Patrick Hamilton, who at the age of 24 years or so, became the first Scottish Protestant Martyr.

Hamilton grew up a Roman Catholic.  He, born in Lankashire, Scotland, in 1504, was a son of Sir Patrick Hamilton and Catherine Stewart (or Stuart), a granddaughter of King James II of Scotland (reigned 1437-1460).  Our saint, the titular Abbot of Fearn Abbey, Ross-shire, used that source of income to finance his studies in Europe.  He studied at the Sorbonne, Paris, where he earned his M.A. in 1520.  While in Paris, Hamilton read some of the writings of Martin Luther.  Our saint also visited Desiderius Erasmus in Leuven.

Above:  Ruins of St. Andrew’s Cathedral, St Andrews, Scotland, 1842

Image in the Public Domain

Hamilton, having returned to Scotland, joined the faculty of the University of St Andrews in 1524.  He stayed out of trouble for a few years.  Our saint even composed a musical setting of the Mass and conducted the premiere performance at St. Andrew’s Cathedral.  Preaching, however, got Hamilton into trouble; he first had to contend with allegations of heresy in 1527.  Hamilton spent part of that year in Marburg, Germany.  There he studied at the university and met William Tyndale, who became a martyr in 1536.

Late in 1527, however, Hamilton returned to Scotland.  He went to the home of his brother in Kincavel, preached often, and married.  The name of his wife has not survived in historical records.  Our saint’s marriage was brief.  He accepted the invitation of David Beaton, the Abbot of Arbroath, to meet at St Andrews.  Hamilton preached and argued for a month prior to his trial before a council of bishops and other clergymen.  He, convicted of heresy on February 29, 1528, burned at the stake that day.

Perhaps those who condemned Hamilton to die thought they were dealing a fatal blow to the perceived existential threat of Protestantism in Scotland.  If so, they were wrong; Hamilton’s martyrdom accelerated the pace of the Scottish Reformation.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

OCTOBER 10, 2019 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF 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

THE FEAST OF CHRISTIAN LUDWIG BRAU, NORWEGIAN MORAVIAN TEACHER AND POET

THE FEAST OF EDWARD WHITE BENSON, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY

THE FEAST OF LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND HYMNODIST

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

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

Inspire us with the memory of Patrick Hamilton,

whose faithfulness led to the way of the cross,

and give us courage to bear full witness with

our lives to your Son’s victory over sin and death,

for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.  Amen.

Ezekiel 20:40-42

Psalm 5

Revelation 6:9-11

Mark 8:34-38

–Adapted from Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), 59

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Love your neighbors as you love yourself, unless ….

Above:  Holy Roman Empire, 1559

Scanned from Hammond’s World Atlas–Classics Edition (1957), H-20

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JAKOB HUTTER (1500-FEBRUARY 25, 1536)

Founder of the Hutterites

Anabaptist Martyr, 1536

husband of

KATHARINA PURST HUTTER (CIRCA 1508-1538)

Anabaptist Martyr, 1538

The Golden Rule is part of the ethical system of almost every religion in the world.  Nevertheless, religious history reveals many examples of leaders and adherents have made to the Golden Rule.  That rule does not say,

Jakob Hutter founded the Hutterites, a communal sect of Anabaptists.  He, from Moos, near St. Lorenz, near Bruneck, in the Puster Valley of Tyrol entered the world in 1500.  Our saint, barely educated, learned hatmaking in Prague.  Hutter, having learned his trade, traveled widely for professional reasons.  Along the way, he encountered Anabaptists.  No historical record of when and where our saint converted has survived; it was probably by 1527, however.

Ferdinand I (later the Holy Roman Emperor) launched the persecution of Anabaptists and other Protestant sects in Austria in 1527.  When the persecution of Anabaptists in the Tyrol commenced in 1529, Hutter, a minister, sought greener pastures for his flock.  He found those pastures in Moravia.  They fled there in 1533.

Moravia was not an Anabaptist paradise, though.  The movement included mutually hostile factions, which Hutter united.  Nevertheless, Ferdinand I, citing a violent Anabaptist sect’s takeover of Münster, Westphalia, persecuted the Anabaptists in Moravia.  He arranged for their expulsion in late 1535.

Hutter returned to Tyrol with his wife, Katharina Purst Hutter.  He had baptized her in 1532 and married her in May 1535.  Authorities arrested the Hutters on November 29, 1535.  Shortly thereafter, authorities separated the couple and sent Jakob to Innsbruck.  There he endured tortures and refused to renounce his faith.

Jakob burned at the stake on February 25, 1536.

Katharina likewise remained firm in her faith.  She, having had mastered survival on the lam, escaped from prison in 1536 and remained free for about two years.  Authorities rearrested our saint in 1538.  They martyred her (perhaps by drowning) immediately, in Schöneck (now in Italy).

The Hutterite movement continues, however.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

OCTOBER 2, 2019 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF RALPH W. SOCKMAN, UNITED METHODIST MINISTER

THE FEAST OF CARL DOVING, NORWEGIAN-AMERICAN LUTHERAN MINISTER AND HYMN TRANSLATOR

THE FEAST OF JAMES ALLEN, ENGLISH INGHAMITE THEN GLASITE/SANDEMANIAN HYMN WRITER; AND HIS GREAT-NEPHEW, OSWALD ALLEN, ENGLISH GLASITE/SANDEMANIAN HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF PETRUS HERBERT, GERMAN MORAVIAN BISHOP AND HYMNODIST

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Almighty God, who gave to your servants Jakob and Katharina Hutter

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

and courage to die for this faith;

Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope 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), 713

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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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