And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

Above:  Saint John of Ávila, by El Greco

Image in the Public Domain

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SAINT JUAN DE ÁVILA (JANUARY 6, 1500-MAY 10, 1569)

Spanish Roman Catholic Priest, Mystic, and Spiritual Writer

The “Apostle of Andalusia”

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–Mark 10:23-25, Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition (2002)

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St. John of Ávila comes to this, A Great Cloud of Witnesses:  An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Day and Holy Days, via the Roman Catholic Church.

Our saint, a son of Alfonso de Ávila and Catalina Xixón, came from a rich and pious family of Almodan-del-Campo, Castille.  The family was of Jewish descent, but ancestors had converted to Roman Catholicism generations prior.  St. John, educated well, was on track to become a lawyer.  He commenced legal studies at Salamanca (1514-1517) before dropping out of school.  After three years (1517-1520) of prayer and penance at home, our saint began philosophical and theological studies at Alcalá (1520-1526).

St. John joined the ranks of the clergy.  He, ordained in 1525, thought that he should join the mission to New Spain–Mexico, today.  He was ready to go in 1527.  Our saint had already given the bulk of his inheritance to the poor.  The Gospel story of the wealthy man attached to his riches (Matthew 19:16-30; Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18:18-30) had resonated with St. John.  That awareness of the spiritual peril of attachment to wealth remained after the Archbishop of Seville had dissuaded our saint from going to New Spain and persuaded him to preach in Andalusia (reclaimed from the Moors) instead.

So, our saint became the “Apostle of Andalusia,” starting in 1529.  He was a popular and effective preacher and evangelist.  Unfortunately, his message about the spiritual danger of attachment to riches made enemies, including some in the Spanish Inquisition.  In 1533, after two years, the Inquisition acquitted St. John, who, more popular than ever, returned to preaching.  St. John had a community of disciples, starting in 1534/1535.  His base of operations was in the region of Córdoba.  After the creation of the University of Baega (1538), St. John became the first Rector of that institution, a model for Jesuit seminaries and other Roman Catholic schools.

St. John exercised great influence, including among some notable and subsequently beatified and/or canonized people.  For example, he advised St. Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582).  Within her network, our saint was instrumental in the conversion of St. Francis Borgia (1510-1572) and St. John of the Cross (1542-1571).  Furthermore, St. John was an associate of St. Ignatius (of) Loyola (1491/1495-1556), the founder of the Society of Jesus, and one of the leading lights of the Counter-Reformation.  St. John never became a Jesuit, but he influenced that nascent order and facilitated its growth in Spain.  He earned the reverence the Jesuits had–and have–for him.

St. John suffered physically from 1551 until his death; he was in constant pain for the last 17 or so years of his life.  Finally, the  69-year-old saint died in Montilla, Castille, Spain, on May 10, 1569.

The Roman Catholic Church has formally recognized St. John of Ávila.  Pope Clement XIII declared him a Venerable in 1759.  Pope Leo XIII made him Blessed John of Ávila in 1894.  Pope St. Paul VI canonized our saint.  In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI declared St. John of Ávila to be a Doctor of the Church, in recognition of the timelessness and spiritual depth of our saint’s writings.

As of the composition of this post, the Roman Catholic Church has only 36 Doctors of the Church.  This an exclusive club among the saints.

St. John of Ávila is less of a household name than St. Teresa of Ávila, St. John of the Cross, and St. Ignatius (of) Loyola.   However, our saint has a timeless legacy.  Like a teacher, whose legacy flows through students, St. John of Ávila has a legacy evident in the legacies of those he mentored and converted.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 24, 2023 COMMON ERA

THE TWENTY-SEVENTH DAY OF LENT

THE FEAST OF SAINT OSCAR ROMERO, ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF SAN SALVADOR; AND THE MARTYRS OF EL SALVADOR, 1980-1992

THE FEAST OF SAINT DIDACUS JOSEPH OF CADIZ, CAPUCHIN FRIAR

THE FEAST OF GEORGE RAWSON, ENGLISH CONGREGATIONALIST HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF GEORGE RUNDLE PRYNNE, ANGLICAN PRIEST, POET, AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF PAUL COUTURIER, APOSTLE OF CHRISTIAN UNITY

THE FEAST OF THOMAS ATTWOOD, “FATHER OF MODERN CHURCH MUSIC”

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O God, by your Holy Spirit you give to some the word of wisdom,

to others the word of faith:

We praise your Name for the gifts of grace

manifested in your servant St. John of Ávila,

and we pray that your Church may never be destitute of such gifts;

through Jesus Christ our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Wisdom of Solomon 7:7-14

Psalm 119:97-104

1 Corinthians 2:6-10, 13-16

John 17:18-23

–Adapted from Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), 720

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Above:  Blessed Lucia of Verona

Image in the Public Domain

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BLESSED LUCIA OF VERONA (CIRCA 1514-MARCH 21, 1574)

Italian Roman Catholic Tertiary and Martyr, 1574

Blessed Lucia of Verona comes to this, A Great Cloud of Witnesses:  An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via the Roman Catholic Church.

Blessed Lucia, born in Verona, Republic of Venice, circa 1514, spent her life performing charitable and pious deeds.  She joined the Third Order of the Servants of Mary in Verona.  Our saint lived in her home as if it were a convent.  Blessed Lucia also visited the sick, provided home health care, and sat with the dying.  She did this until caring for those afflicted with a plague led to her dying of that plague, too, in 1574.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 21, 2022 COMMON ERA

PROPER 16:  THE ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR C

THE FEAST OF SAINT BRUNO ZEMBOL, POLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC FRIAR AND MARTYR, 1942

THE FEAST OF SAINTS CAMERIUS, CISELLUS, AND LUXURIUS OF SARDINIA, MARTYRS, 303

THE FEAST OF SAINT MAXIMILLIAN OF ANTIOCH, MARTYR, CIRCA 353; AND SAINTS BONOSUS AND MAXIMIANUS THE SOLDIER, MARTYRS, 362

THE FEAST OF SAINT VICTOIRE RASOAMANARIVO, MALAGASY ROMAN CATHOLIC LAYWOMAN

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Lord God, your Son came among us to serve and not to be served,

and to give his life for 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 your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Hosea 2:18-23

Psalm 94:1-14

Romans 12:9-21

Luke 6:20-36

—Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), 37

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INTRODUCTION

Above:  Alessandro Valignano

Image in the Public Domain

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ALESSANDRO VALIGNANO (FEBRUARY 15, 1539-JANUARY 20, 1606)

Italian Jesuit Missionary Priest in the Far East

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

I, as a Christian, respect properly-done missionary work.  On the other hand, improperly-done missionary work makes me cringe and proves to be counter-productive.  It turns people off.  The historical record of Christianity is replete with examples of missionaries whose cultural and political imperialism hindered their effectiveness for God.  I recall easily, for example, that, in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), rejecting Christianity became part of the struggle for political independence.  (Christianity was the religion of the Dutch imperial overlords.)

Some of the many holy people I have added to this Ecumenical Calendar have been culturally-sensitive missionaries.  They respected the people to whom they went.  These missionaries’ effectiveness (or lack thereof) depended largely on how much ecclesiastical support they had.  Their cultural sensitivity aided their effectiveness by not alienating the people they were trying to convert.

Now I add another great missionary, a man ahead of his time.

BIOGRAPHY

Alessandro Valignano, born in Chieti, Kingdom of Naples, on February 15, 1539, came from nobility.  Our saint studied at the University of Padua, from which he graduated with a doctorate in law when only 19 years old.  He spent a few years in Rome then studied theology in Padua.  Valignano, who joined the Society of Jesus in 1566, rose to become the Visitor of Missions in the Indies in 1573.  Macao was his base of operations when he was not traveling.

Valignano had much in common with a more famous missionary and a contemporary, Matteo Ricci (1552-1610).  Valignano and Ricci practiced adaptionism, a missionary method that caused much controversy.  As long as nobody violated any matter crucial to Christianity–Roman Catholicism, in particular–adapting to the local culture was necessary and proper.  Adaptionism proved to be controversial; many European purists condemned it.

Valignano became a scholar and a master of Chinese language and culture; he was fluent in both.  This was crucial to the intended success of the Jesuit mission in China, he understood.

Our saint visited Japan (1579-1583, 1590-1592, and 1598-1603).  He brought the message of adaptionism to the Jesuit mission in those islands.  Valignano condemned the racism certain missionaries exhibited.  He also criticized the poor Japanese language skills some Jesuit missionaries had, even after spending years in Japan.  Offending Japanese people was no way to convert any of them, our saint understood.  He imposed strict rules regarding linguistic study for Jesuits in Japan.  Valignano also required that Jesuit missionaries in Japan learn Japanese customs.  Furthermore, he founded seminaries.  Valignano’s reform of the Jesuit mission in Japan coincided with official persecution during the Tokugawa Shogunate.  The government associated Christianity with European imperialism.

Valignano never got to make the mission to China.  Ricci did that.  Ecclesiastical infighting undercut their work.  The Vatican suppressed adaptionism in the 1600s.

Valignano, aged 66 years, died in Macao on January 20, 1606.  At the time, he was planning to visit Ricci in China.

CONCLUSION

The Tokugawa Shogunate martyred hundreds of missionaries and Japanese converts from 1597 to 1639.  Yet Christianity survived underground until the late 1800s, when more missionaries arrived.  Valignano had much to do with the survival of Christianity in Japan.

Eventually, the Vatican realized that Valignano had been wise.

My late grandmother Taylor, a Presbyterian, told me a story about Southern Presbyterian missionaries in a remote part of Peru earlier in the twentieth century.  They were translating the New Testament into the local dialect.  The missionaries encountered a minor difficulty when they got to the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem; nobody in the area had ever seen a donkey.  Remaining consistent with the theme of Jesus riding a beast of burden, the missionaries translated “donkey” as “llama.”

Back in northwestern Georgia, opinion regarding this translation choice was divided.  My grandmother and many others understood and approved of the adaptation to the local culture.  Purists, however, disapproved.  Jesus had to ride a donkey, not a llama.  Period.  End of discussion.

Some people had not learned what Valignano knew well, centuries prior.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

SEPTEMBER 3, 2021 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF JEDEDIAH WEISS, U.S. MORAVIAN CRAFTSMAN, MERCHANT, AND MUSICIAN

THE FEAST OF ARTHUR CARL LICHTENBERGER, PRESIDING BISHOP OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH, AND WITNESS FOR CIVIL RIGHTS

THE FEAST OF F. CRAWFORD BURKITT, ANGLICAN SCHOLAR, THEOLOGIAN, HYMN WRITER, AND HYMN TRANSLATOR

THE FEAST OF JAMES BOLAN LAWRENCE, EPISCOPAL PRIEST AND MISSONARY IN SOUTHWESTERN GEORGIA, U.S.A.

THE FEAST OF SUNDAR SINGH, INDIAN CHRISTIAN EVANGELIST

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

and who raised up your servant Alessandro Valignano to be a light in the world:

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

who called us out of darkness into your marvelous light;

through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with

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

Isaiah 49:1-6

Psalm 98 or 98:1-4

Acts 17:22-31

Matthew 28:16-20

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

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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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Above:  Saint Felix of Cantalice, by Peter Paul Rubens

Image in the Public Domain

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SAINT FELIX OF CANTALICE (MAY 18, 1515-MAY 18, 1587)

Italian Roman Catholic Friar

Also known as Brother Deo Gratias

St. Felix of Cantalice used his spiritual gifts faithfully.

St. Felix, of peasant origin, was illiterate.  He, born in Cantalice, on the Italian peninsula, debuted on May 18, 1515.  Our saint worked as a shepherd and a farmhand at Cotta Ducale, starting from the age of nine years, for more than twenty years.  He, pious, spent much of his spare time in prayer.  St. Felix also listened to a friend read lives of Desert Fathers to him.  This audio study of the lives of Desert Fathers inculcated in our saint a desire to become a hermit.  Yet he knew that he needed the discipline that came from having a superior.

St. Felix became a Capuchin lay brother.  He did this at Anticoli (near Rome) in 1543.  He was in Rome from 1547 until his death, four decades later.  Our saint’s main job was to hear confessions and pronounce forgiveness of sins.  He earned his reputation for holiness.  St. Felix also preached against vice and political corruption.  Theologians sought his counsel.  St. Philip Neri (1515-1595), the “Apostle of Rome” and the founder of the Congregation of the Oratory, also sought St. Felix’s advice.  Neri, who worked with our saint, considered him the greatest living saint.  Children, to whom St. Felix taught simple canticles as tools of learning the catechism, adored him.  He adored them.  Then many adults asked to hear him sing the canticles, too.  St. Felix became known as Brother Deo Gratias, after his standard greeting, “Deo gratias.”  Our saint, humble and self-deprecating, referred to himself as the “Ass of the Capuchins.”

St. Felix, aged 72 years, died in Rome on May 18, 1587.  As for many people were concerned, his beatification in 1625 and canonization in 1712 were mere formalities.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

APRIL 3, 2020 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF LUTHER D. REED, U.S. LUTHERAN MINISTER AND LITURGIST

THE FEAST OF SAINTS BURGENDOFARA AND SADALBERGA, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBESSES, AND THEIR RELATIVES

THE FEAST OF MARC SANGNIER, FOUNDER OF THE SILLON MOVEMENT

THE FEAST OF SAINT MARY OF EGYPT, HERMIT AND PENITENT

THE FEAST OF REGINALD HEBER, ANGLICAN BISHOP OF CALCUTTA, AND HYMN WRITER

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O God, whose blessed Son became poor that we through his poverty might be rich:

Deliver us from an inordinate love of this world, that we,

inspired by the devotion of your servant Saint Felix of Cantalice,

may serve you with singleness of heart,

and attain to the riches of the age to come;

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

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

Song of Songs 8:6-7

Psalm 34

Philippians 3:7-15

Luke 12:33-37 or Luke 9:57-62

–Adapted from Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), 722

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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. John of the Cross

Image in the Public Domain

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SAINT JOHN OF THE CROSS (JUNE 24, 1542-DECEMBER 14, 1591)

Spanish Roman Catholic Mystic and Carmelite Friar

Born Juan de Yepes y Álvarez

Also known as John of Saint Matthias

St. John of the Cross was a mystic, a Carmelite friar, a controversial reformer. and, for eight months, a prisoner of some of his fellow friars.

Juan de Yepes y Álvarez, born in Fontineros, Spain, on June 24, 1542, grew up in a poor family.  His father, Gonzago (d. 1545), was an accountant for wealthy relatives.  Our saint’s mother, Catalina, came from an impoverished family.  One of our saint’s brothers, Luis, died of malnutrition related to poverty.  Another brother, Francisco, survived, though.  Our saint attended a school for poor children in Medina (now Medina-Sidonia) then studied at a Jesuit school (1559-1563).

St. John was a friar for most of his life.  He became a Carmelite friar, John of Saint Matthias, in 1563.  The following year, he made his first profession and began theological studies at the University of Salamanca.  Our saint joined the ranks of priests in 1567.

Monastic rigor appealed to St. John.  He pondered joining the Carthusians, a strict order.  St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) dissuaded him, though.  He became enamored of her reforms among Carmelite nuns.  With her support he introduced similar reforms into the lives of Carmelite friars.  St. John founded his first monastery in 1568, at Duruelo, and became St. John of the Cross.  These strict reforms caused controversy within the Carmelite friar order in 1575-1578.  Ecclesiastical and imperial protection of St. John expired in 1577, so our saint spent December 2, 1577-August 15, 1578 as a prisoner at the Carmelite monastery in Toledo.  After St. John escaped, he spent months recovering from the negative health effects of the poor conditions.  While in captivity, he wrote The Spiritual Canticle.

The Church recognized a new Carmelite order–a discaled one–in 1580.  St. John spent the rest of this life founding monasteries and building up the order.  Nevertheless, controversy followed him into the Discaled Carmelite order of friars.  He died in 1591, after losing his job as prior at Segovia.

St. John was a mystical poet.  His works included the Dark Night of the Soul, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, and Living Flame of Love.

The Church recognized St. John.  Pope Clement X beatified him in 1675.  Pope Benedict XIII canonized our saint in 1726.  Pope Pius XI declared St. John a Doctor of the Church in 1926.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 4, 2019 COMMON ERA

INDEPENDENCE DAY (U.S.A.)

THE FEAST OF SAINTS ADALBERO AND ULRIC OF AUGSBURG, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS

THE FEAST OF SAINT ELIZABETH OF PORTUGAL, QUEEN AND PEACEMAKER

THE FEAST OF SAINT PIER GIORGIO FRASSATI, ITALIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC SERVANT OF THE POOR AND OPPONENT OF FASCISM

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Judge eternal, throned in splendor, you gave Juan de la Cruz

strength of purpose and mystical faith that sustained him even through the dark night of the soul:

Shed your light on all who love you, in unity with Jesus our Savior;

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

Song of Solomon 3:1-4

Psalm 121

Colossians 4:2-6

John 16:12-15, 25-28

—Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), 117

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Let nothing disturb you, nothing dismay you. All things are passing, God never changes. Patient endurance attains all things….God alone suffices.

Above:  St. Teresa of Avila, by Peter Paul Rubens

Image in the Public Domain

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SAINT TERESA OF AVILA (MARCH 28, 1515-OCTOBER 4, 1582)

Spanish Roman Catholic Nun, Mystic, and Reformer

Born Teresa de Cepeda

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–St. Teresa of Avila, quoted in Robert Ellsberg, All Saints:  Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time (New York:  The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1997), 448

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St. Teresa of Avila had many reasons to become dismayed, had she decided to permit them to dismay and disturb her.

Teresa de Cepeda, born in Avila, Spain, on March 28, 1515, came from a wealthy, well-educated family.  Her father was a merchant.  Her mother died when our saint was 14 years old.  St. Teresa became a Carmelite novice at the age of 21 years.  Her father objected, but she persisted.

Carmelite spiritual practice in that convent was quite lax; it was more like a boarding house than a nunnery.  Our saint, in her early twenties, was an invalid for several years.  During that time she read deeply in spiritual classics and became enamored of mental prayer, which she described as

friendly conversation with Him who we know loves us.

However, St. Teresa, having recovered her health, spent the next fifteen years neglecting her spiritual life.

St. Teresa, having renewed her spiritual life in 1555, had St. Francis Borgia (1510-1572) as a spiritual director.  In 1562, with the support of her bishop and the Pope, opened St. Joseph’s Abbey, the first of her new, rigorous convents.  More followed, starting in 1567; she founded 17 convents in all.  A friend, St. John of the Cross (1542-1591), whom she met in 1567, founded rigorous Carmelite monasteries.

St. Teresa had to contend with opposition from ecclesiastical officialdom–bishops and the Spanish Inquisition–as well as from within her order.  Inquisitors were suspicious of her reported visions; mysticism alarmed the theological enforcers.  More opposition came from within our saint’s Discaled Carmelite order.  For a number of years St. Teresa was in internal exile, forbidden to found new convents.  That internal exile ended, though.

For years St. Teresa traveled through Spain on official business.  During one such journey, from Avila to Burges, she suffered her fatal cerebral hemorrhage and heart attack.  She, aged 67 years, died at the Alba de Tormes Convent on October 4, 1582.

St. Teresa’s writings have continued to enrich seekers of God.  The Way of Perfection, The Interior Castle, the Life, Spiritual Relations, Exclamations of the Soul to God, and Conceptions on the Love of God have joined the ranks of spiritual classics.

The Church has honored St. Teresa.  Pope Gregory XV canonized her in 1622.  Pope Paul VI declared our saint the first female Doctor of the Church in 1970.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 2, 2018 COMMON ERA

THE FIRST DAY OF ADVENT:  THE FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT, YEAR C

THE FEAST OF CHANNING MOORE WILLIAMS, EPISCOPAL MISSIONARY BISHOP IN CHINA AND JAPAN

THE FEAST OF ALICE FREEMAN PALMER, U.S. EDUCATOR AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF SAINT BRIOC, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT; AND SAINT TUDWAL, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT AND BISHOP

THE FEAST OF SAINT OSMUND OF SALISBURY, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP

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O God, by your Holy Spirit you moved Teresa of Avila to manifest to your Church the way of perfection:

Grant us, we pray, to be nourished by her excellent teaching,

and enkindle within us a keen and unquenchable longing for true holiness;

through Jesus Christ, the joy of loving hearts, who with you and the Holy Spirit

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

Song of Songs 4:12-16

Psalm 42:1-7

Romans 8:22-27

Matthew 5:13-16

—Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), 639

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This is post #1650 of SUNDRY THOUGHTS.

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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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