Above:  The Philippines and Japan at the end of the Seventeenth Century

Image in the Public Domain

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SAINT LORENZO RUIZ (NOVEMBER 28, 1594-SEPTEMBER 29, 1637)

Chinese-Filipino Roman Catholic Missionary and Martyr in Japan, 1637

Alternative feast day = September 29

+++++

SAINT ANTONIO GONZÁLEZ (1593-SEPTEMBER 24, 1637)

Spanish Roman Catholic Missionary Priest and Martyr and Japan, 1637

His feast transferred from September 24

+++++

SAINT GUILLERMO COURTET (CIRCA 1590-SEPTEMBER 29, 1637)

French Roman Catholic Missionary Priest and Martyr in Japan, 1637

His feast transferred from September 29

+++++

SAINT MIGUEL GONZÁLEZ DE AOZARAZA DE LEIBAR (FEBRUARY 1598-SEPTEMBER 29, 1637)

Spanish Roman Catholic Missionary Priest and Martyr in Japan, 1637

His feast transferred from September 29

+++++

SAINT VICENTE SHIWOZUKA DE LA CRUZ (CIRCA 1576-SEPTEMBER 29, 1637)

Japanese Roman Catholic Missionary Priest and Martyr in Japan, 1637

His feast transferred from September 29

+++++

SAINT LAZARO (OR LAZARUS) OF KYOTO (DIED SEPTEMBER 29, 1637)

Japanese Roman Catholic Layman and Martyr in Japan, 1637

His feast transferred from September 29

St. Lorenzo Ruiz comes to this, A Great Cloud of Witnesses:  An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via the Roman Catholic.  You, O reader, may notice that I have transferred feasts from September 24 and September 29 to September 28.  This Ecumenical Calendar is one of my hobbies, so I get to do whatever I want here.  Also, I reserve September 29 for St. Michael and All Angels, given my policy (with very few exceptions) of reserving some days for just one post, if that post is about a Biblical character or Biblical characters.

St. Lorenzo Ruiz, born in Manila, the Philippines, on November 28, 1594, came from a Roman Catholic family.  His father was Chinese.  Our saint’s mother was Filipino.  Ruiz, bilingual in Chinese and Tagalog, served as an altar boy in the family’s parish church.  The Dominican friars taught him Spanish.  Our saint, a member of the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary, married one Rosario.  The couple had two sons and one daughter.

Then, in 1636, our saint’s life took a detour.  Ruiz, falsely accused of murdering a Spaniard, fled the country.  He escaped on a ship carrying four Dominican priests and a layman.  They were:

1. St. Antonio González, born in Léon, Spain, in 1593, became a Dominican priest and missionary. 
2. St. Guillermo Courtet, born in Sérignan, Languedoc, France, circa 1590, became a Dominican priest and missionary.
3. St. Miguel González de Aozaraza de Leibar, born in Oñate, Guipúzcoa, Spain, in February 1598, became a Dominican priest and missionary.
4. St. Vicente Shiwozuka de la Cruz, born in Nagasaki circa 1576, became a Dominican and missionary.
5. St. Lazaro (or Lazarus) of Kyoto, born in Kyoto, was a layman and a leper.

The six saints sailed for Okinawa.

The Tokugawa Shogunate, which pursued an isolationist foreign policy, persecuted Christians.  After someone at Okinawa betrayed the six saints, they spent more than a year in prison and endured tortures.  St. Antonio González died first at Nagasaki, on September 24, 1637.  St. Vincente Shiwozuka de la Cruz briefly wavered in his faith yet recovered it.  Likewise, Ruiz briefly became ready to renounce his faith in exchange for release while hanging upside-down over a pit in Nagasaki for two days.  Yet he recovered his faith in time to die as the first Filipino martyr on September 28.  Sts. Guillermo Courtet, Miguel González de Aozaraza de Leibar, Vicente Shiwozuka de la Cruz, and Lazaro (Lazarus) of Kyoto received the crown of martyrdom on September 29.

Holy Mother Church recognized these saints formally.  Pope John Paul II declared them Venerables in 1980, Beati in 1981, and full saints in 1987.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

APRIL 3, 2021 COMMON ERA

HOLY SATURDAY

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

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

Almighty and everlasting God, who kindled the

flame of your love in the heart of your holy martyrs

Saint Lorenzo Ruiz,

Saint Antonio González,

Saint Guillermo Courtet,

Saint Miguel González de Aozaraza de Leibar, 

Saint Vicente Shiwozuka de la Cruz, and

Saint Lazaro (or Lazarus) of Kyoto:

Grant to us, your humble servants, a like faith and power of love,

that we who rejoice in their triumph may profit by their examples;

through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with

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

Jeremiah 15:15-21

Psalm 124 or 31:1-5

1 Peter 4:12-19

Mark 8:34-38

–Adapted from Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), 715

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

When I feed the poor, they call me saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a Communist.

Above:  Father Edward McGlynn

Image in the Public Domain

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

EDWARD MCGLYNN (SEPTEMBER 27, 1837-JANUARY 7, 1900)

U.S. Roman Catholic Priest, Social Reformer, and Alleged Heretic

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

—Helder Camara (1909-1999), Roman Catholic Archbishop of Olinda and Recife (1964-1985)

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

Charity is a noble virtue, but to make the whole world an almshouse is carrying it to the absurd.  The noblest charity is to do justice–not only to procedure, at the sacrifice of self, in an unselfish spirit, some improvement in the condition of mankind, but to compel tyrants to do justice to the victims they have wronged.

The supreme moral law, the law of gravitation in the moral order, is justice.  Justice is the one think necessary to hold society together, to give each individual man the proper opportunity of exercising his God-given liberty.  Justice must be like Him in whose bosom it finds its eternal resting place, universal–it must prevail throughout the universe of God.

–Edward McGlynn, quoted in G. Scott Cady and Christopher L. Webber. A Year with American Saints (2006), 581

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

He believed in the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man,….

–from an obituary of Edward McGlynn, quoted in A Year with American Saints (2006), 581

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

INTRODUCTION

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

Father Edward McGlynn paid close attention to the Lord’s Prayer.  The line,

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,

dictated his radical social ethics and political positions.

The Kingdom of God is radical, of course.  It confronts those who build and maintain exploitative and otherwise unjust systems, and shows them what they should be doing instead.  The Kingdom of God tells them, to quote Daniel 5:27:

You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting.

McGlynn comes to this, A Great Cloud of Witnesses:  An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via A Year with American Saints (2006).

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

BIOGRAPHY

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

Our saint, born in New York, New York, on September 27, 1837, came from Irish stock.  His parents were Peter (d. 1847) and Sarah McGlynn, who had left Donegal, Ireland, in 1824.  The McGlynn family had ten children.  Fortunately, Peter, a contractor, could afford to take care of his family properly.  Our saint studied first in New York City then in Rome (for nine years, in the Eternal City).  McGlynn, having received his doctorate in theology and philosophy, joined the ranks of priests (at the Church of St. John Lateran) on March 24, 1860.

McGlynn returned to New York City and began his ministry.  First he served as the assistant priest at St. Joseph’s Church.  Subsequent assignments through 1865 were:

1. St. Brigid’s Church (as acting pastor),
2. St. James’s Church (as pastor),
3. St. Ann’s Church (as pastor), and
4. St. Joseph’s Military Hospital (as chaplain).

Father Jeremiah Williams Cummings (1814-1866), McGlynn’s childhood priest, and the pastor of the Church of St. Stephen the Martyr since 1848, requested that John Hughes, the Archbishop of New York, assign our saint the assistant priest at St. Stephen’s Church.  McGlynn’s tenure as the assistant priest was brief; Cummings died on January 1866.  Then our saint succeeded him.  McGlynn served as the pastor of one of the largest Roman Catholic parishes in New York City until 1887.

At a time when the Roman Catholic hierarchy in the United States of America was obsessed with resisting the cultural assimilation of Roman Catholic immigrants, McGlynn had other priorities.  He supported public schools and defied orders to build a parochial school at St. Stephen’s Church.  He also befriended some Protestant clergymen.  Our saint caused plenty of scandal and outrage by doing all of the above.  Then he really got into trouble; he addressed economic inequality.

McGlynn looked into the heart of the problem and pondered structural changes to structural problems.  He dispensed many charitable handouts, of course.  Then he thought about why so many handouts were necessary.  He read Progress and Poverty (1879), by Henry George (1839-1897), and became a radical, like George.  George argued that all residents of a community should share equally in the economic value derived from the land.  He also favored municipal (public) utilities, free public transit, free trade, the secret ballot, greenbacks (as opposed to metal money), a universal pension, women’s suffrage, civil service reform, free bankruptcy protection, and the abolition of debtor’s prisons.  Much of George’s agenda has become policy in the United States of America, but parts of it have remained as radical in 2021 as they were in the late 1800s.

McGlynn got into hot water for aligning himself with George and George’s agenda, especially collective land ownership.  Our saint even participated in George’s failed campaign for Mayor of New York City in 1886.  Archbishops of New York John McCloskey (-1885) and Michael Corrigan (1885f) saw red, so to speak.  McCloskey ordered McGlynn to refrain from defending the alleged Socialistic opinions in public.  Corrigan forbade our saint from speaking at a campaign rally for George on October 1, 1886.  McGlynn refused. Corrigan published a pastoral letter defending property rights and condemning theories to the contrary.  McGlynn publicly criticized the document.  At the end of November 1886, Corrigan suspended our saint again.

Corrigan, citing alleged insubordination, removed McGlynn from St. Stephen’s Church in January 1887.  Our saint, summoned to Rome, on pain of excommunication, cited ill health and refused to make the trip.  His excommunication took effect on July 4, 1887.

Meanwhile, McGlynn and George had founded the Anti-Poverty Society in March 1887.  Our saint had become the first president of that organization.  He moved in with his widowed sister in Brooklyn.  McGlynn, having recovered his health, toured the West in his official capacity.  He also made clear that he rejected Papal Infallibility, which had emerged from the First Vatican Council (1869-1870).

Fortunately for McGlynn, his status in the church improved.  The lifting of his excommunication took effect on December 23, 1892, followed by his reinstatement to ministry the next day.  And, in 1893, Pope Leo XIII (reigned 1878-1903) gave McGlynn a sympathetic hearing in Rome.

McGlynn, pastor of St. Mary’s Church, Newburgh, New York (1895-1900), died at the rectory on January 7, 1900.  He, 62 years old, had died of Bright’s Disease.

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

CONCLUSION

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

On April 4, 1967, at The Riverside Church, New York, New York, the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. (1939-1968), delivered one of his most famous speeches; he unambiguously opposed the Vietnam War.  In that address, King also made other points, such as:

I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values.  We must rapidly begin the shirt from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society.  When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

At the risk of sounding like a very Low Church Protestant, can I get an “amen”?

King’s statement was radical in 1967.  It was radical in the late 1800s, too.

And it remains radical.  That fact speaks negatively, in moral terms, of societies, cultures, and nation-states.  That fact confirms that we–as societies, cultures, and nation-states–have, in the words of Daniel 5:27,

been weighed in the balances, and found wanting.

Uh-oh.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 26, 2021 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT MARGARET CLITHEROW, ENGLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR, 1586

THE FEAST OF FLANNERY O’CONNOR, U.S. ROMAN CATHOLIC WRITER

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

THE FEAST OF JAMES RENDEL HARRIS, ANGLO-AMERICAN CONGREGATIONALIST THEN QUAKER BIBLICAL SCHOLAR AND ORIENTALIST; ROBERT LUBBOCK BENSLY, ENGLISH BIBLICAL TRANSLATOR AND ORIENTALIST; AGNES SMITH LEWIS AND MARGARET DUNLOP SMITH GIBSON, ENGLISH BIBLICAL SCHOLARS AND LINGUISTS; SAMUEL SAVAGE LEWIS, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND LIBRARIAN OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE; AND JAMES YOUNG GIBSON, SCOTTISH UNITED PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND LITERARY TRANSLATOR

THE FEAST OF SAINT LUDGER, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF MUNSTER

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

Almighty God, whose prophets taught us righteousness in the care of your poor:

By the guidance of your Holy Spirit, grant that we may

do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly in your sight;

through Jesus Christ, our Judge and Redeemer, who lives and reigns

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

Isaiah 55:11-56:1

Psalm 2:1-2, 10-12

Acts 14:14-17, 21-23

Mark 4:21-29

—Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), 736

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Above:  The Cornerstone of St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Image in the Public Domain

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JEHU JONES, JR. (SEPTEMBER 4, 1786-SEPTEMBER 28, 1852)

African-American Lutheran Minister

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) commemorate the lives of William Passavant (1821-1894; feast day in The Episcopal Church = January 3), Justus Falckner, and Jehu Jones (1786-1852). pioneering Lutheran ministers in North America, on November 24, the anniversary of the ordination of Falckner in 1703. On my Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, however, each man receives his own feast day.

Jehu Jones, Jr., born a slave at Charleston, South Carolina, on September 4, 1786, was a child of slaves.  His mother was Abigail Jones and his father was Jehu Jones, Sr. (1769-1833), a tailor.  Jehu Sr. purchased his freedom and that of his family in 1798.  He joined the ranks of the mulatto elite of Charleston, invested well in real estate, and became the successful proprietor of an inn for White people.  In 1807 he purchased his first slave.  Our saint, trained as a tailor, took over that part of the family business in 1816, allowing his father to focus on the inn.  The family belonged to St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, but Jehu Jr. joined St. John’s Lutheran Church in 1820.  Jones, with the encouragement of his pastor, John Bachman (1790-1874), traveled to New York City in 1832 to receive ordination as a minister and a missionary to Liberia.

Bachman, pastor of St. John’s Church for more than half a century, was a major figure in Southern Lutheranism.  He was, unfortunately, paternalistic and racist toward African Americans, although he was more progressive in those matters than many of his fellow White people, especially Southerners.  He, for example, used science to argue that White people and African Americans belonged to the same species; this was apparently a point of dispute at the time.  Nevertheless, Bachman defended race-based chattel slavery and argued that African Americans were intellectually inferior to White people.  Bachman’s greatest legacy was in the field of liturgical renewal.  In 1870 he prompted the development of the Common Service (1888).

Jones, who abhorred slavery, never got to Liberia.  His ordination occurred on October 24, 1832.  The difficulties began when he returned to South Carolina in 1833.  In the wake of Nat Turner’s rebellion (1831) the state made already-strict racial laws stricter.  One of these statutes outlawed the return of free African Americans to South Carolina.  Authorities arrested our saint, who spent several months in jail.  In 1833 Jehu Sr. died.  The inn passed to a daughter-in-law (a sister-in-law of our saint).  Jehu Jr., freed from jail, received his inheritance and left the state forever.  He went to New York City, where he attempted unsuccessfully to raise funds for the mission to Liberia.

Jones became a domestic missionary instead.  In 1833 he settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and ministered to African Americans.  The following year our saint founded St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, which consisted originally of about 20 poor people.  The congregation was therefore financially dependent upon others, who pledged to pay, among other things, the mortgage for the building, dedicated in 1836.  Unfortunately, some of those who promised to back the church financially failed to keep their pledges, so the bank foreclosed in 1839.  False allegations of financial mismanagement followed Jones, who defended himself in writing, for the rest of his life.

Jones, who was active in politics, advocated for civil rights and improved living conditions for African Americans.  He also founded congregations in Gettysburg and Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, near the Pennsylvania-Maryland border.

Our saint’s life after 1839 was full of challenges.  He spent 1839-1842 in Toronto, Upper Canada.  In 1842 Jones returned to the United States, where he worked as a missionary and a cobbler.  The combination of racism and unfounded charges of financial mismanagement relative to the foreclosure of 1839 foiled his attempt to found a church in New York City in 1849.  Jones continued to minister to the small and impoverished congregation of St. Paul’s, Philadelphia, for years.  He died, aged 66 years, at Centreville, New Jersey, on September 28, 1852.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 6, 2016 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF THE TRANSFIGURATION

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Heavenly Father, shepherd of your people, we thank you for your servant Jehu Jones,

who was faithful in the care and nurture of your flock.

We pray that, following their examples and the teaching of their holy lives,

we may by your grace attain our full maturity in Christ,

through the same Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

Ezekiel 34:11-16 or Acts 20:17-35

Psalm 84

1 Peter 5:1-4 or Ephesians 3:14-21

John 21:15-17 or Matthew 24:42-47

–Adapted from Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 60

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Above:  River Avon from Clifton Downs, Bristol, England, Between 1890 and 1900

Image Source = Library of Congress

Reproduction Number =  LC-DIG-ppmsc-08053

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JOSEPH HOSKINS (1745-SEPTEMBER 28, 1788)

English Congregationalist Minister and Hymn Writer

Information about the life of the Reverend Joseph Hoskins is scarce.  Actually, I am confident of only two facts:

1. For ten years he served as the pastor of Castle Green Chapel, Bristol, England; and
2. He wrote 384 hymns during the last three years of his life.

A posthumous collection, Hymns on Select Texts, rolled off the presses in 1789.

Among those hymns was “Let Thoughtless Thousands Choose the Road,” the text of which follows:

Let thoughtless thousands choose the road

That leads the soul away from God;

This happiness, dear Lord, be mine,

To live and die entirely Thine.

+++++

On Christ, by faith, I fain would live,

From him, my life, my all, receive,

To Him devote my fleeting hours,

Serve Him alone with all my pow’rs.

+++++

Christ is my everlasting All;

To Him I look, on Him I call;

He will my ev’ry want supply

In time and thro’ eternity.

+++++

Soon will the Lord, my Life, appear;

Soon shall I end my trials here,

Leave sin and sorrow, death and pain.

To live is Christ, to die is gain.

+++++

Soon will the saints in glory meet,

Soon walk through each golden street,

And sing on every blissful plain:

To live is Christ, to die is gain.

Most of our saint’s hymns have fallen into disuse, especially in North America.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

APRIL 18, 2015 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF DONALD S. ARMENTROUT, U.S. LUTHERAN MINISTER AND SCHOLAR

THE FEAST OF CALVIN WEISS LAUFER, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND HYMNODIST

THE FEAST OF ROGER WILLIAMS, FOUNDER OF RHODE ISLAND

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM PENNEFATHER, ANGLICAN PRIEST, HUMANITARIAN, AND HYMN WRITER; AND HIS WIFE, CATHERINE KING PENNEFATHER, HUMANITARIAN AND HYMN WRITER

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

Dear God of beauty,

you have granted literary ability and spiritual sensitivity to

Joseph Hoskins and others, who have composed hymn texts.

May we, as you guide us,

find worthy hymn texts to be icons,

through which we see you.

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

Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 44:1-3a, 5-15

Psalm 147

Revelation 5:11-14

Luke 2:8-20

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

APRIL 20, 2013 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINTS AMATOR OF AUXERRE AND GERMANUS OF AUXERRE, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS; SAINT MAMERTINUS OF AUXERRE, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT; AND SAINT MARCIAN OF AUXERRE, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK

THE FEAST OF JOHANNES BUGENHAGEN, GERMAN LUTHERAN PASTOR

THE FEAST OF SAINT MARCELLINUS OF EMBRUN, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP

THE FEAST OF OLAVUS AND LAURENTIUS PETRI, RENEWERS OF THE CHURCH

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Image Source = http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/p/a/l/palgrave_ft.htm

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FRANCIS TURNER PALGRAVE (SEPTEMBER 28, 1824-OCTOBER 24, 1897)

Anglican Poet, Art Critic, and Hymn Writer

Francis Turner Palgrave (1824-1897) was son Sir Francis Palgrave (1788-1861), a historian of great note.  Our saint, a poet, art critic, and hymn writer, came from greatness, which he extended.  Both father and son seem especially impressive after one types their names into the search bar at archive.org, something I encourage you, O reader, to do.

Our saint, born at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England, attended university at Oxford.  For five years he served as Vice President of Kneller Hall.  He also worked as Examiner and Assistant Secretary in the education department of the Privy Council.  Palgrave, appointed Professor of Poetry at Oxford in 1885, had a variety of publications, including:

1. Idylls and Songs (1854);
2. The Golden Treasury of English Lyrics (1864, as Editor);
3. Essays on Art (1866);
4. Hymns (1867);
5. Lyrical Poems (1871); and
6. The Treasury of Sacred Song (1889).

Palgrave also wrote at least seventeen hymns whose names I have seen on hymnody websites.  He tried

to write hymns which should have more distinct matter for thought and feeling than many in our collections offer….

–quoted in Handbook to The Hymnal (1935), pages 59-60

I have added some of these thought-provoking texts to my GATHERED PRAYERS weblog.  Here is another one of Palgrave’s hymns (this one from 1867), courtesy of The Pilgrim Hymnal (1904), National Council of Congregational Churches of the United States:

O thou not made with hands,

Not throned above the skies,

Nor walled with shining walls,

Nor framed with stones of price,

More bright than gold or gem,

God’s own Jerusalem.

+++++

Where’er the gentle heart

Finds courage from above,

Where’er the heart forsook

Warms with the breath of love,

Where faith bids fear depart,

City of God, thou art.

+++++

Thou art where’er the proud

In humbleness melts down,

Where self itself yields up,

Where martyrs win their crown,

Where faithful souls possess

Themselves in perfect peace.

+++++

Where in life’s common ways

With cheerful feet we go,

When in His steps we tread

Who trod the way of woe,

Where He is in the heart,

City of God, thou art.

+++++

Not throned above the skies,

Nor golden-walled afar,

But where Christ’s two or three

In his name gathered are,

Be in the midst of them,

God’s own Jerusalem.

Our saint died at Kensington, London, England, in 1897.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

FEBRUARY 11, 2014 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT ONESIMUS, BISHOP OF BYZANTIUM

THE FEAST OF SAINT CAEDMON, POET

THE FEAST OF CHARLES FREER ANDREWS, ANGLICAN PRIEST

THE FEAST OF RENE DESCARTES, PHILOSOPHER

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

Dear God of beauty,

you have granted literary ability and spiritual sensitivity to

Francis Turner Palgrave and others, who have composed hymn texts.

May we, as you guide us,

find worthy hymn texts to be icons,

through which we see you.

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

Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 44:1-3a, 5-15

Psalm 147

Revelation 5:11-14

Luke 2:8-20

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

APRIL 20, 2013 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINTS AMATOR OF AUXERRE AND GERMANUS OF AUXERRE, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS; SAINT MAMERTINUS OF AUXERRE, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT; AND SAINT MARCIAN OF AUXERRE, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK

THE FEAST OF JOHANNES BUGENHAGEN, GERMAN LUTHERAN PASTOR

THE FEAST OF SAINT MARCELLINUS OF EMBRUN, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP

THE FEAST OF OLAVUS AND LAURENTIUS PETRI, RENEWERS OF THE CHURCH

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Forget-Me-Nots

Image Source = Wilder Kaiser

1 (Dionysius Exiguus, Roman Catholic Monk and Reformer of the Calendar)

• David Pendleton Oakerhater, Cheyenne Warrior, Chief, and Holy Man, and Episcopal Deacon and Missionary in Oklahoma

• Fiacre, Roman Catholic Hermit

• François Mauriac, French Roman Catholic Novelist, Christian Humanist, and Social Critic

2 (Martyrs of New Guinea, 1942 and 1943)

• David Charles, Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Minister and Hymn Writer

• Dianna Ortiz, U.S. Roman Catholic Nun and Anti-Torture Activist

• William of Roskilde, English-Danish Roman Catholic Bishop

3 (Jedediah Weiss, U.S. Moravian Craftsman, Merchant, and Musician)

• Arthur Carl Lichtenberger, Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church and Witness for Civil Rights

• F. Crawford Burkitt, Anglican Scholar, Theologian, Hymn Writer, and Hymn Translator

• James Bolan Lawrence, Episcopal Priest and Missionary in Southwestern Georgia, U.S.A.

• Sundar Singh, Indian Christian Evangelist

4 (Paul Jones, Episcopal Bishop of Utah, and Peace Activist; and his colleague, John Nevin Sayre, Episcopal Priest and Peace Activist)

• Birinus of Dorchester, Roman Catholic Bishop of Dorchester, and the “Apostle of Wessex”

• E. F. Schumacher, German-British Economist and Social Critic

• Gorazd of Prague, Orthodox Bishop of Moravia and Silesia, Metropolitan of the Czech Lands and Slovakia, Hierarch of the Orthodox Church in Czechoslovakia, and Martyr, 1942

• William McKane, Scottish Presbyterian Minister and Biblical Scholar

5 (Carl Johannes Sodergren, U.S. Lutheran Minister and Theologian; and his colleague, Claus August Wendell, Swedish-American Lutheran Minister and Theologian)

• Athol Hill, Australian Baptist Biblical Scholar and Social Prophet

• Teresa of Calcutta, Foundress of the Congregation of the Missionaries of Charity

• William F. Albright and G. Ernest Wright, U.S. Biblical Scholars and Archaeologists

• William Morton Reynolds, U.S. Lutheran Minister, Episcopal Priest, Educator, and Hymn Translator

6 (Charles Fox, Anglican Missionary in Melanesia)

• Aaron Robarts Wolfe, U.S. Presbyterian Minister and Hymn Writer

• Allen Crite, Artist

• Hannah More, Anglican Poet, Playwright, Religious Writer, and Philanthropist

• Joseph and Mary Gomer, U.S. United Brethren Missionaries in Sierra Leone

7 (Beyers Naudé, South African Dutch Reformed Minister and Anti-Apartheid Activist)

• Elie Naud, Huguenot Witness to the Faith

• Jane Laurie Borthwick and Sarah Borthwick Findlater, Scottish Presbyterian Translators of Hymns

• John Duckett and Ralph Corby, Roman Catholic Priests and Martyrs in England, 1644

• Kassiani the Hymnographer, Byzantine Abbess, Poet, Composer, Hymn Writer, and Defender of Icons

8 (Nikolai Grundtvig, Danish Lutheran Minister, Bishop, Historian, Philosopher, Poet, Educator, and Hymn Writer)

• Gottfried Wilhelm Sacer, German Lutheran Attorney and Hymn Writer; and Frances Elizabeth Cox, English Hymn Writer and Translator

• Shepherd Knapp, U.S. Congregationalist Minister and Hymn Writer

• Søren Kierkegaard, Danish Philosopher and Theologian, and Father of Existentialism

• Wladyslaw Bladzinski, Polish Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr, 1944

9 (Martyrs of Memphis, Tennessee, 1878)

• Francis Borgia, “Second Founder of the Society of Jesus;” Peter Faber, Apostle of Germany, and Cofounder of the Society of Jesus; Alphonsus Rodriguez, Spanish Jesuit Lay Brother; and Peter Claver, “Apostle to the Negroes”

• Lucy Jane Rider Meyer, Novelist, Hymn Writer, Medical Doctor, and Foundress of the Deaconess Movement in the Methodist Episcopal Church

• Sarah Mapps Douglass, U.S. African-American Quaker Abolitionist, Writer, Painter, and Lecturer

• William Chatterton Dix, English Hymn Writer and Hymn Translator

10 (Alexander Crummell, U.S. African-American Episcopal Priest, Missionary, and Moral Philosopher)

• Lynn Harold Hough, U.S. Methodist Minister, Theologian, and Biblical Scholar

• Mordecai Johnson, Educator

• Nemesian of Sigum and His Companions, Roman Catholic Bishops and Martyrs, 257

• Salvius of Albi, Roman Catholic Bishop

11 (Paphnutius the Great, Roman Catholic Bishop of Upper Thebaid)

• Anne Houlditch Shepherd, Anglican Novelist and Hymn Writer

• Jean-Gabriel Perboyre, French Roman Catholic Priest, Missionary, and Martyr in China, 1840

• John Stainer and Walter Galpin Alcock, Anglican Church Organists and Composers

• Patiens of Lyons, Roman Catholic Archbishop

12 (Kaspar Bienemann, German Lutheran Minister and Hymn Writer)

• Ernest Edwin Ryder, U.S. Lutheran Minister, Hymn Writer, Hymn Translator, and Hymnal Editor

• Franciscus Ch’oe Kyong-Hwan, Korean Roman Catholic Catechist and Martyr, 1839; Lawrence Mary Joseph Imbert, Pierre Philibert Maubant, and Jacques Honoré Chastán, French Roman Catholic Priests, Missionaries to Korea, and Martyrs, 1839; Paul Chong Hasang, Korean Roman Catholic Seminarian and Martyr, 1839; and Cecilia Yu Sosa and Jung Hye, Korean Roman Catholic Martyrs, 1839

• Robert Guy McCutchan, U.S. Methodist Hymnal Editor and Hymn Tune Composer

• William Josiah Irons, Anglican Priest, Hymn Writer, and Hymn Translator; and his daughter, Genevieve Mary Irons, Roman Catholic Hymn Writer

13 (Peter of Chelcic, Bohemian Hussite Reformer; and Gregory the Patriach, Founder of the Moravian Church)

• Frederick J. Murphy, U.S. Roman Catholic Biblical Scholar

• Godfrey Thring, Anglican Priest and Hymn Writer

• Jane Crewdson, English Quaker Poet and Hymn Writer

• Narayan Seshadri of Jalna, Indian Presbyterian Evangelist and “Apostle to the Mangs”

14 (HOLY CROSS)

15 (Martyrs of Birmingham, Alabama, September 15, 1963)

• Charles Edward Oakley, Anglican Priest and Hymn Writer

• George Henry Trabert, U.S. Lutheran Minister, Missionary, and Hymn Translator and Author

• James Chisholm, Episcopal Priest

• Philibert and Aicardus of Jumieges, Roman Catholic Abbots

16 (Cyprian of Carthage, Bishop and Martyr, 258; and Cornelius, Lucius I, and Stephen I, Bishops of Rome)

• James Francis Carney, U.S.-Honduran Roman Catholic Priest, Missionary, Revolutionary, and Martyr, 1983

• Martin Behm, German Lutheran Minister and Hymn Writer

17 (Jutta of Disibodenberg, Roman Catholic Abbess; and her student, Hildegard of Bingen, Roman Catholic Abbess and Composer)

• Henry Wellington Greatorex, Anglican and Episcopal Organist, Choirmaster, and Hymnodist

• Zygmunt Szcesny Felinski, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Warsaw, Titutlar Bishop of Tarsus, and Founder of Recovery for the Poor and the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of the Family of Mary

• Zygmunt Sajna, Polish Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr, 1940

18 (Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary-General of the United Nations)

• Amos Niven Wilder, U.S. Congregationalist Minister, Poet, Literary Critic, and Biblical Scholar

• Edward Bouverie Pusey, Anglican Priest

• Henry Lascelles Jenner, Anglican Bishop of Dunedin, New Zealand

• John Campbell Shairp, Scottish Poet and Educator

19 (Gerard Moultrie, Anglican Priest, Hymn Writer, and Translator of Hymns)

• Clarence Alphonsus Walworth, U.S. Roman Catholic Priest, Poet, Hymn Translator, and Hymn Writer; Cofounder of the Missionary Society of Saint Paul the Apostle (the Paulist Fathers)

• Emily de Rodat, Foundress of the Congregation of the Holy Family of Villefranche

• Walter Chalmers Smith, Scottish Presbyterian Minister and Hymn Writer

• William Dalrymple Maclagan, Archbishop of York and Hymn Writer

20 (Henri Nouwen, Dutch Roman Catholic Priest and Spiritual Writer)

• Elizabeth Kenny, Australian Nurse and Medical Pioneer

• John Coleridge Patteson, Anglican Bishop of Melanesia, and His Companions, Martyrs, 1871

• Marie Therese of Saint Joseph, Foundress of the Congregation of the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus

• Nelson Wesley Trout, First African-American U.S. Lutheran Bishop

21 (MATTHEW THE EVANGELIST, APOSTLE AND MARTYR)

22 (Philander Chase, Episcopal Bishop of Ohio, and of Illinois; and Presiding Bishop)

• C. H. Dodd, Welsh Congregationalist Minister, Theologian, and Biblical Scholar

• Charlotte Elliott, Julia Anne Elliott, and Emily Elliott, Anglican Hymn Writers

• Justus Falckner, Lutheran Pastor and Hymn Writer

• Stephen G. Cary, U.S. Quaker Humanitarian and Antiwar Activist

23 (Francisco de Paula Victor, Brazilian Roman Catholic Priest)

• Churchill Julius, Anglican Bishop of Christchurch, and Primate and Archbishop of New Zealand (September 23)

• Émelie Tavernier Gamelin, Foundress of the Sisters of Providence

• Jozef Stanek, Polish Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr, 1944

• Judith Lomax, Episcopal Mystic and Poet

24 (Anna Ellison Butler Alexander, African-American Episcopal Deaconess in Georgia, and Educator)

• Henry Hart Milman, Anglican Dean, Translator, Historian, Theologian, and Hymn Writer

• Juvenal of Alaska, Russian Orthodox Martyr in Alaska, and First Orthodox Martyr in the Americas, 1796

• Peter the Aleut, Russian Orthodox Martyr in San Francisco, 1815

• Silouan of Mount Athos, Eastern Orthodox Monk and Poet

25 (Sarah Louise “Sadie” Delany, African-American Educator; her sister, Annie Elizabeth “Bessie” Delany, African-American Dentist; and their brother, Hubert Thomas Delany, African-American Attorney, Judge, and Civil Rights Activist)

• Bernhard W. Anderson, U.S. United Methodist Minister and Biblical Scholar

• Euphrosyne and her father, Paphnutius of Alexandria, Monks

• Herman of Reichenau, Roman Catholic Monk, Liturgist, Poet, and Scholar

• Sergius of Radonezh, Abbot of the Monastery of the Holy Trinity, Sergiyev Posad, Russia

26 (Paul VI, Bishop of Rome)

• Frederick William Faber, English Roman Catholic Hymn Writer

• John Bright, U.S. Presbyterian Minister and Biblical Scholar

• John Byrom, Anglican then Quaker Poet and Hymn Writer

• Lancelot Andrewes, Anglican Bishop of Chichester then of Ely then of Winchester

27 (Francis de Sales, Roman Catholic Bishop of Geneva; Vincent de Paul, “The Apostle of Charity;’ Louise de Marillac, Cofounder of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul; and Charles Fuge Lowder, Founder of the Society of the Holy Cross)

• Eliza Scudder, U.S. Unitarian then Episcopalian Hymn Writer

• Joseph A. Sittler, U.S. Lutheran Minister, Theologian, and Ecumenist

• Martyrs of Melanesia, 1864-2003

• Thomas Traherne, Anglican Priest, Poet, and Spiritual Writer

28 (Jehu Jones, Jr., African-American Lutheran Minister)

• Edward McGlynn, U.S. Roman Catholic Priest, Social Reformer, and Alleged Heretic

• Francis Turner Palgrave, Anglican Poet, Art Critic, and Hymn Writer

• Joseph Hoskins, English Congregationalist Minister and Hymn Writer

• Lorenzo Ruiz and His Companions, Roman Catholic Missionaries and Martyrs in Japan, 1637

29 (MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS)

30 (Honorius, Archbishop of Canterbury)

• Joanna P. Moore, U.S. Baptist Missionary and Educator

• Mary Ramabai, Prophetic Witness and Evangelist in India

• Richard Challoner, English Roman Catholic Scholar, Religious Writer, Translator, Controversialist, Priest, and Titular Bishop of Doberus

Floating

• Labor Day

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