Leave Pavlik alone. You are not worthy to tie his laces. It would be good if everyone were like Pavlik.

Above:  Saint Gorazd of Prague

Image in the Public Domain

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MATÊJ PAVLIK (MAY 26, 1879-SEPTEMBER 4, 1942)

Orthodox Bishop of Moravia and Silesia

Orthodox Metropolitan of the Czech Lands and Slovakia

Hierarch of the Orthodox Church in Czechoslovakia

Martyr, 1942

Feast Day (Old Calendar) = August 22

Feast Day (New Calendar) = September 4

St. Gorazd of Prague comes to this, A Great Cloud of Witnesses:  An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via a number of Eastern Orthodox jurisdictions, in communion with and not in communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Our story begins in the ninth century of the Common Era.

St. Methodius (of and “St. Cyril” fame) was one of the great missionaries in Eastern Europe.  He and St. Cyril were the “Apostles to the Slavs” and the “Fathers of Slavonic Literature.”  Sts. Cyril and Methodius invented the Cyrillic Alphabet.  St. Methodius, the Archbishop of Sirmium, had obtained Papal permission to use the Slavonic liturgy in his see, which included Moravia.  This Papal permission to utilize the Slavonic liturgy rankled many German bishops.  Then St. Methodius died on April 6, 885.  His designated successor was one Gorazd.  Pope Stephen V (or VI, depending on how one counts; reigned September 885-September 14, 891), under the influence of German bishops, summoned Gorazd to Rome, banned the Slavonic liturgy, imposed the Latin liturgy, and appointed a different archbishop to succeed St. Methodius.  Therefore, disciples of St. Methodius fled to Bulgaria, joined the Orthodox Church, and maintained the Slavonic liturgy.  

Our story skips a few centuries now.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire favored Roman Catholicism and persecuted Eastern Orthodoxy.  

Above:  Czechoslovakia, Post-World War I-September 1938

Scanned from Hammond’s New Era Atlas of the World (1945)

Matêj Pavlik, born in Hrubavrbka, Moravia, Austria-Hungary, on May 26, 1879, came from a devout Roman Catholic family.  Pavlik graduated from the theological seminary in Olomouc and joined the ranks of priests.  Our saint pursued his interest in Sts. Cyril and Methodius and studied Eastern Orthodoxy.

In the wake of Austro-Hungarian defeat in World War I, that empire came apart.  One result of this imperial dismemberment was the creation of new states, such as Czechoslovakia.  Many Slavs who had been subjects of the Austro-Hungarian Empire took the opportunity to leave the Roman Catholic Church and convert to Eastern Orthodoxy.  Pavlik was one of them; he, as Gorazd, became an Orthodox priest.  Our saint’s new name indicated continuity with the ninth century.  These converts joined the Serbian Orthodox Church.  That denomination consecrated St. Gorazd as the Bishop of Moravia and Silesia at the Cathedral of the Holy Archangel Michael, Belgrade, on September 25, 1921.  Dmitri, the Serbian Orthodox Patriarch, was the chief consecrator.

St. Gorazd, as the Bishop of Moravia and Silesia, did much to rebuild Eastern Orthodoxy in Czechoslovakia.  He tended to his growing flock of converts, supervised the construction of chapels and churches, and oversaw the translation of service books.  Our saint also resisted attempts by many Roman Catholic priests to convince him to renounce Eastern Orthodoxy.  Yet Antonin Cyril Stojan, the Roman Catholic Suffragan Bishop of Olomouc (1921-1923), opposed those efforts.  He ordered priests under his jurisdiction:

Above:  Czechoslovakia, Immediately after the Annexation of the Sudetenland, 1938

Scanned from Hammond’s New Era Atlas of the World (1945)

German occupation and World War II changed circumstances for the people of Czechoslovakia, as well as for St. Gorazd’s flock, in particular.  The Third Reich swallowed up Czechoslovakia in stages.  The rump state of Slovakia became a German puppet state.  St. Gorazd, once under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, came under the jurisdiction of Seraphim, the Metropolitan of Berlin and Germany, part of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.  Our saint recognized the threat the Nazis posed to his countrymen and his flock.

Above:  Czechoslovakia, September 1939

Scanned from Hammond’s New Era Atlas of the World (1945)

Reinhard Heydrich (1904-1942), S.S. Obergruppenführer, Acting Protector of Bohemia and Moravia (1941-1942), was the face of that menace for a time.  He was one of the architects of the “Final Solution”–the Holocaust.  Heydrich, the “Butcher of Prague,” was responsible for the deaths of all twelve million or so victims of the Holocaust, as well as nearly two million Czechs, apart from the Holocaust.  He also violently suppressed Czech culture.

Above:  Sts. Cyril and Methodius Cathedral, Prague

Image Source = Google Earth

On May 27, 1942, soldiers of the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile ambushed Heydrich in Prague and fatally wounded him.  He died a week later.  Those soldiers hid in the crypt of Sts. Cyril and Methodius Cathedral, Prague.  About this time, St. Gorazd departed for Berlin, to participate in the consecration of Johann von Gardner (a.k.a. Philip) as the Bishop of Potsdam.  (Aside:  Gardner resigned in 1945, married, and lived until 1984.)  Before leaving Prague, our saint ordered that the soldiers find refuge somewhere else.  He knew that the threat of Nazi reprisals against the Czech Orthodox Church was real.

On June 18, Nazi officials discovered the hiding place, excommunicated the resistance fighters, and began the predictable reprisals.  St. Gorazd took full responsibility and tried to limit the reprisals.  Our saint, arrested on June 27, 192, suffered tortures before a firing squad executed him at the Kobylisz Shooting Range on September 4, 1942.  He was 63 years old.  St. Gorazd’s self-sacrifice did not limit the reprisals.  Nazis also shot two priests at the Cathedral, murdered the men of the village of Lidice, sent the village women and children to labor camps, suppressed the Czech Orthodox Church, closed all Czech Orthodox congregations, and exiled all Czech Orthodox priests to German labor camps.  About 550 people died in Nazi reprisals.  Metropolitan Seraphim refused to condemn St. Gorazd.

Above:  Czechoslovakia, 1945

Scanned from then Postwar supplement to Hammond’s New Era Atlas of the World (1945)

The Orthodox Church in the Czech Lands and Slovakia revived again after World War II.  The Czech Church became self-governing in 1951 (according to the Patriarchate of Moscow) and in 1998 (according to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople).  The Church has existed in two parts–the Orthodox Church in the Czech Lands and the Orthodox Church in Slovakia–since the division of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, in January 1, 1993.

This is my command, Love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend.

–John 15:12-13, Helen Barrett Montgomery, The Centenary Translation of the New Testament (1924)

St. Gorazd loved his flock so much that he sacrificed himself for it.  That sacrifice was not in vain; that flock survived underground for a few years then emerged numerically diminished yet spiritually intact.  Our saint also took up his cross and followed Christ.  St. Gorazd knew that the servant was not greater than the master (John 15:20).

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Lord Jesus Christ, Good Shepherd, you laid down your life for your flock.

Thank you for the faithful example of Saint Gorazd of Prague,

who loved you and his Orthodox flock more than his life.

May we, who remember his life, be stalwart in Christian discipleship in our circumstances.

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

Ezekiel 34:1-16

Psalm 142

2 Timothy 4:6-8

John 15:12-21

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 22, 2021 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT DEOGRATIAS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF CARTHAGE

THE FEAST OF EMMANUEL MOURNIER, PERSONALIST PHILOSOPHER

THE FEAST OF JAMES DE KOVEN, EPISCOPAL PRIEST

THE FEAST OF THOMAS HUGHES, BRITISH SOCIAL REFORMER AND MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM EDWARD HICKSON, ENGLISH MUSIC EDUCATOR AND SOCIAL REFORMER

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Above:  England in 700

Image in the Public Domain

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SAINT BIRINUS OF DORCHESTER (600-DECEMBER 3, 650)

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

Roman Catholic Feast Day = December 3

Church of England Feast Day = September 4

St. Birinus of Dorchester comes to this, A Great Cloud of Witnesses:  An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via The Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church.    September 4, our saint’s feast day in The Church of England, commemorates the translation of his relics to Winchester, circa 690.

St. Birinus was a Frankish saint born in 600.  He, ordained in Rome, served as the Bishop of Genoa.  Pope Honorius I (reigned October 27, 625-October 12, 638) took great interest in the Roman Catholic (Gregorian) mission to England.  That mission, dating to 597, was facing challenges.  Pope Honorius I reinforced that mission with more missionaries.  He sent St. Birinius to England in 634.

St. Birinus met with much success in England.  Arriving in Wessex, our saint met King Cynegils of Wessex.  The King of Wessex had a diplomatic difficulty.  His “neighbor,” King St. Oswald of Northumbria (reigned 634-641/642), refused to enter into an alliance (sealed by marriage to Kyneburga, Cynegils’s daughter) unless the King of Wessex converted to Christianity.  St. Birinus baptized King Cynegils in the Thames River, with King St. Oswald functioning as the godfather.  King Cynegils gave our saint Dorchester as a see city.  St. Birinus was such a successful evangelist that he became known as the “Apostle of Wessex.”  He also founded many churches and had a devotion to the Eucharist.

St. Birinus, aged about 50 years, died in Dorchester on December 3, 650.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 20, 2021 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SEBASTIAN CASTELLIO, PROPHET OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

THE FEAST OF CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH, HYMN WRITER AND ANGLICAN BISHOP OF LINCOLN

THE FEAST OF ELLEN GATES STARR, U.S. EPISCOPALIAN THEN ROMAN CATHOLIC SOCIAL ACTIVIST AND REFORMER

THE FEAST OF SAINT MARIA JOSEFA SANCHO DE GUERRA, FOUNDRESS OF THE CONGREGATION OF THE SERVANTS OF JESUS

THE FEAST OF SAMUEL RODIGAST, GERMAN LUTHERAN ACADEMIC AND HYMN WRITER

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God of grace and might, we praise you for your servant Saint Birinus of Dorchester,

to whom you gave gifts to make the good news known in Wessex.

Raise up, we pray, in every country, heralds and evangelists of your kingdom,

so that the world may know the immeasurable riches of our Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Isaiah 62:1-7

Psalm 48

Romans 10:11-17

Luke 24:44-53

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

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This is post #2200 of SUNDRY THOUGHTS.

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Above:  My Copy of McKane’s Proverbs:  A New Approach (1970)

Photographer = Kenneth Randolph Taylor

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WILLIAM MCKANE (FEBRUARY 11, 1921-SEPTEMBER 4, 2004)

Scottish Presbyterian Minister and Biblical Scholar

William McKane comes to this, my Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via the Biblical Studies section of my library, which includes his seminal commentary (all 670 pages of it), Proverbs:  A New Approach (1970).

McKane had a passion for excellence in his academic work, on which he labored until one day before his death.  He did not seem destined for that career, though.  Our saint, born in Dundee, Scotland, on February 11, 1921, dropped out of school at the age of 15 years to become a clerk in the firm of H and A Scott, Dundee.  Soon McKane discerned a vocation for ordained ministry, so he attended night school while keeping his day job.  From 1941 to 1945 he served in the Royal Air Force.  Then, in 1946, our saint matriculated at St. Andrews University, St. Andrews.  He, graduating in 1949, became a minister in the Original Secession Church (extant 1822-1956), which merged into The Church of Scotland.  He was, therefore, from 1956, a minister in The Church of Scotland.  McKane, from 1949 to 1953 the pastor at Kilwinning, married Agnes Howie, his wife for the rest of his life, in 1952.  The couple had three sons and two daughters.  He earned his doctorate from Glasgow University in 1956.  The title of the dissertation was “The Old Israelite Community and the Rise of the Monarchy.”

McKane, who had a distinguished academic career, received many honors, none of which I list here, for the sake of brevity.  His career started at Glasgow University, where he was Assistant in Hebrew (1953-1956), Lecturer in Hebrew (1956-1965), and Senior Lecturer in Hebrew (1965-1968).  During those years McKane translated Book 33 of the Revival of the Religious Sciences, by the Medieval Islamic mystic al-Ghazali; Al-Ghazali’s Book of Fear and Hope debuted in 1962.  In the realm of Hebrew Biblical studies our saint published his commentary on I & II Samuel:  Introduction and Commentary (1963), followed by Tracts for the Times:  Ruth, Esther, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs (1965).  Also in 1965, McKane published his first major work, Prophets and Wise Men (1965), in which he distinguished between the empiricism of the sages and the intuition of the prophets.

From 1968 to 1990 McKane was Professor of Hebrew and Oriental Languages at St. Andrews University.  He also doubled as the Dean of the Faculty of Divinity (1973-1977) and the Principal of St. Mary’s College (1982-1986).  With Proverbs:  A New Approach (1970) our saint cemented his international academic reputation by helping to restore the study of Biblical wisdom, previously overshadowed by the “salvation history” approach to the theology of the Hebrew Bible.  Other important works were Studies in the Patriarchal Narratives (1979), A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Jeremiah (two tomes, 1986 and 1996), and Selected Christian Hebraists (1988).  McKane also served as a translator of The Revised English Bible (1989), one of my favorite versions.

McKane retired in 1990; he was 69 years old.  Our saint remained active during his final years.  He published A Late Harvest:  Reflections on the Old Testament (1995), a collection of essays.  Micah:  Introduction and Commentary followed three years later.  McKane’s final project was a commentary on the Book of Job; he had written though Chapter 33 on the day before he died. McKane died in St. Andrews on September 4, 2004.  He was 83 years old.

McKane is a worthy addition to my Ecumenical Calendar.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 3, 2018 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINTS JOANNA, MARY, AND SALOME, WITNESSES TO THE RESURRECTION

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

We thank you for the faithful legacy of [William McKane and all others]

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

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

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

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Psalm 103

Philippians 4:8-9

Mark 12:28-34

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 6, 2013 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT CHRODEGANG OF METZ, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP

THE FEAST OF EDMUND KING, ANGLICAN BISHOP OF LINCOLN

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Above:  Labor Day, by Samuel D. Ehrhart

Published in Puck Magazine, September 1, 1909

Image Source = Library of Congress

Reproduction Number = LC-DIG-ppmsca-26406

Affirming the Dignity of Work in Words and Deeds

SEPTEMBER 4, 2023

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The Book of Common Prayer (1979) contains a collect and assigned readings for Labor Day.

Interdependence is a cardinal virtue in the Law of Moses.  Interdependence is also obvious, or should be.  Somehow, especially in the global West, the idea of rugged individualism persists.  Yet, no matter how hard or well one works, one drives on roads other people built, relies on technology other people invented or maintain, and depends on many other people might guess at first thought.  Anyone who can read this post with comprehension relies on hosts of educators, for example.

As I affirm that I depend on the work of others, just as others depend on my work, I also affirm the dignity of work.  Therefore, I argue for certain propositions:

1. Nobody should have to work in a death trap or a sweatshop;
2. All wages should be living wages;
3. People should work to live, not live to work;
4. Union organizing and collective bargaining should be inviolable rights; and
5. Access to affordable, quality health care is an inalienable right.

Nobody has a moral right to exploit anyone else.  No institution has a moral right to exploit any person.  After all, people should be more important than profits.

Furthermore, all work should benefit societies or communities.  By this standard most jobs pass the test.  We need plumbers and bus drivers, for example, but we also need actors, poets, and novelists.  In a just world teachers, librarians, police officers, and fire fighters would be some of the best paid professionals, but that is not the world in which we live, unfortunately.  It can be, however.  A society is what its members make it.  Sufficient force of public opinion, applied well, changes policies.  The major obstacle to positive social change is resignation to the current reality.

Furthermore, the best kind of work is also indistinguishable from play.  Work ought not only to provide financial support for one but also fulfill intangible needs.  Work, at its best, is something one who performs it enjoys.  Work should improve, not detract from, one’s quality of life.

Work does, of course, assume many forms, at home and out like the home.  One should never forget that a stay-at-home parent is a working parent.  One should never forget that one who leaves the labor force to become a caregiver for a relative is still working, just without wages.  One should acknowledge that those who, for various reasons, cannot join the labor force, are valuable members of society, and that many of them can contribute greatly to society, if others will permit them to do so.  Whenever a society holds back any of its members, it prevents itself from achieving its potential.

May we remember also that, as valuable as work is, rest and leisure are vital also.  Ideally one will balance the three properly.  We know that the brain requires a certain amount of sleep–especially REM sleep–to function properly.  We know that the correct amount of rest is necessary for the body to function properly.  We know that leisure makes for better employees.

Work, at its best, is a gift from God.  It is a gift for divine glory and the meeting of human needs.  Work, at its best, builds up (sometimes literally, sometimes figuratively) individuals, families, communities, societies, nation-states, and the world.  One’s work, at its best, is a vocation from God; it occupies the intersection of one’s greatest joys and the world’s deepest needs.

May you, O reader, find your work fulfilling in every way.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 1, 2018 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA, DISCIPLE OF JESUS

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Almighty God, you have so linked our lives with one another

that all we do affects, for good or ill, all other lives:

So guide us in the work we do, that we may do it not for self alone, but for the common good;

and, as we seek a proper return for our own labor,

make us mindful of the rightful aspirations of other workers,

and arouse our concern for those who are out of work;

through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with

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

Ecclesiasticus/Wisdom of Sirach 38:27-32

Psalm 107:1-9 or 90:1-2, 16-17

1 Corinthians 3:10-14

Matthew 6:19-24

—The Book of Common Prayer (1979), 261, 932

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We invoke thy grace and wisdom, O Lord, upon all men of good will

who employ and control the labor of men.

Amid the numberless irritations and anxieties of their position,

help them to keep a quite and patient temper,

and to rule firmly and wisely, without harshness and anger.

Since they hold power over the bread, the safety, and the hopes of the workers,

may they wield their power justly and with love,

as older brothers and leaders in the great fellowship of labor.

Suffer not the heavenly light of compassion for the weak and the old to be quenched in their hearts.

When they are tempted to sacrifice human health and life for profit,

do thou strengthen their will in the hour of need,

and bring to nought the counsels of the heartless.

May they not sin against thee by using the bodies and souls of men as mere tools to make things.

Raise up among us employers who shall be makers of men as well as of goods.

Give us men of faith who will look beyond the strife of the present,

and catch a vision of a nobler organization of our work,

when all shall still follow the leadership of the ablest,

no longer in fear, but by the glad will of all,

and when all shall stand side by side in a strong and righteous brotherhood of work;

according to thy will in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

–Evangelical and Reformed Church, Book of Worship (1947) 382-383

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Ecclesiasticus/Wisdom of Sirach 38:24-34 or Nehemiah 2:1-18

Psalms 124 and 125 or 147

2 Timothy 2:1-15 or Matthew 7:15-27

–General Council of the Congregational Christian Churches in the United States, A Book of Worship for Free Churches (1948), 409

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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2018/08/01/affirming-the-dignity-of-work-in-words-and-deeds-part-ii/

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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 shift 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.

Above:  The Cover of Small is Beautiful (1973)

Fair Use

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ERNST FRIEDRICH SCHUMACHER (AUGUST 16, 1911-SEPTEMBER 4, 1977)

German-British Economist and Social Critic

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–The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr., at Riverside Church, New York, New York, April 4, 1967

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In the excitement over the unfolding of his scientific and technical powers, modern man has built a system of production that ravishes nature and a type of society that mutilates man.

–E. F. Schumacher, quoted in Robert Ellsberg, All Saints:  Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time (1997), 388

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Ernst Friedrich Schumacher joins the ranks of holy people at this, my Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via Robert Ellsberg, All Saints (1997).  The date for Schumacher in that volume is September 7, but, given Schumacher’s death on September 7, 1977, the feast day of September 4 works better.

Schumacher, once a committed atheist, developed an interest in religion, which influenced his economic opinions.  The power of Roman Catholicism, with mysticism, Thomism, and social teaching encyclicals of Popes Leo XIII and St. John XXIII, eventually grounded Schumacher, who joined Holy Mother Church in 1971.

Schumacher was German yet did much work in England.  The native of Bonn, born on August 16, 1911, moved to England as a Rhodes Scholar in the 1930s.  He remained as an “enemy alien” sent to work on a farm in the north of England during World War II.  After the war Schumacher worked (in Germany) as an economic advisor to the British Control Board then (in England) for two decades as the chief economist and head of planning at the British Coal Board.

These experiences transformed Schumacher into a radical, prophetic figure.  He wrote two seminal books, Small is Beautiful:  Economics as if People Mattered (1973) and A Guide for the Perplexed (1977).  Our saint proclaimed materialism to be an inferior religion, one that defines growth, efficiency, and production as the ultimate standards of value, ignores the spiritual side of people, and sets society on a course for disaster.  One essay in Small is Beautiful was “Buddhist Economics,” which, according to Schumacher, he could have just as easily called “Christian Economics,” except that

no one would have read it.

In that essay, based partially on his experience as an economic advisor to the Burmese government, Schumacher condemned Western economic priorities such as the stimulation of greed and envy, as well as the encouragement of waste and short-term thinking.  Instead he encouraged the Buddha’s idea of “right livelihood,” or the dignity of work, the alleviation of suffering, respect for beauty, the reduction of desires, et cetera.  In A Guide for the Perplexed our saint wrote that society needs “metaphysical reconstruction,” because our technological answers do not help us answer the question,

What am I to do with my life?

He wrote that, if human civilization is to survive, it needs to change its logic of

a violent attitude to God’s handiwork

and replace it with reverence.

Schumacher, who influenced the language of the modern ecological movement, was touring in Switzerland when he died of a heart attack on September 4, 1977.  He was 66 years old.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 20, 2018 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF LEO XIII, BISHOP OF ROME

THE FEAST OF SAINT ANSEGISUS OF FONTANELLE, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT

THE FEAST OF SAINTS FLAVIAN II OF ANTIOCH AND ELIAS OF JERUSALEM, ROMAN CATHOLIC PATRIARCHS

THE FEAST OF SAMUEL HANSON COX, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND ABOLITIONIST; AND HIS SON, ARTHUR CLEVELAND COXE, EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF WESTERN NEW YORK, HYMN WRITER, AND TRANSLATOR OF HYMNS

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Holy and righteous God, you created us in your image.

Grant us grace to contend fearlessly against evil and to make no peace with oppression.

Help us, like your servant E. F. Schumacher,

to work for justice among people and nations, to the glory of your name,

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

–Adapted from Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), 60

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Above:  The Apotheosis of War, by Vasily Vereschchagin

Image in the Public Domain

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PAUL JONES (NOVEMBER 25, 1880-SEPTEMBER 4, 1941)

Episcopal Bishop of Utah and Peace Activist

colleague of 

JOHN NEVIN SAYRE (FEBRUARY 4, 1884-SEPTEMBER 13, 1977)

Episcopal Priest and Peace Activist

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INTRODUCTION

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The Episcopal Church commemorates the life of Bishop Paul Jones on September 4.  On this, my Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, I do the same and add to the feast his colleague and fellow Episcopalian, John Nevin Sayre.

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PAUL JONES (I)

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Jones, born on November 25, 1880, at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, was a cradle Episcopalian and a son of a priest.  After graduating from Yale University he attended the Episcopal Theological School, Cambridge, Massachusetts.  There, in 1906, Jones heard the Bishop Franklin S. Spalding, of the Missionary District of Utah, speak of the challenges of evangelizing in the Mormon-dominated state.  Our saint volunteered to serve in Utah.  And he did, at St. John’s, Logan.  In 1914 Jones became the archdeacon in the missionary district.  Later that year he succeeded Spalding as bishop.  Our saint built up the diocese well during his tenure (1914-1918).

Jones got into deep trouble for speaking out based on his conscience.  He was a pacifist, for he was convinced that Jesus disapproved of settling conflicts violently.  Jones also argued for recognizing the moral validity of conscientious objection to war.  Both church and society, he insisted, should respect the choice not to engage in violence.  All of this was politically dangerous to advocate for in the United States in 1917 and 1918, a time when much of the population contracted war fever.  In the realm of the ridiculous, Dachshunds became Liberty Hounds, German Shepherds became Alsacian Shepherds, and frankfurters became hot dogs, among other examples of renaming dog breeds and food products.  The city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, banned the performance of the music of Ludwig von Beethoven, who had been dead for 90 years.  Besides, given the composer’s political position regarding Emperor Napoleon I (he considered Bonaparte’s self-promotion a betrayal of principles), would Beethoven have supported German imperialism in 1914-1918, had he been alive?  Reason be damned, this was wartime panic and intolerance.  States and the federal government passed laws suspending the freedom of speech and redress of the government.  Certain opponents of U.S. involvement in World War I went to prison for their nonviolent activities, such as giving speeches and distributing leaflets.  (The First Amendment to the United States Constitution be damned also, apparently.)  Jones had to contend with false allegations of being pro-German and anti-American.  He got off relatively lightly, though; the Episcopal House of Bishops forced him to resign from both the Missionary District of Utah and the House of Bishops.  Years later he got to rejoin the House of Bishops yet without a vote therein.

Jones served as the executive secretary of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, devoted to the nonviolent resolution of conflicts, from 1919 to 1929.  A colleague there was John Nevin Sayre.

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JOHN NEVIN SAYRE (I)

With Paul Jones

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Sayre came from a distinguished family.  He, born on February 4, 1884, at South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was a grandson of John Williamson Nevin (1803-1886), the great German Reformed minister and Mercersburg theologian.  Our saint’s aunt was Alice Nevin (1837-1925), who contributed much to the life of the Reformed Church in the United States and to the civil life of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  Sayre’s mother was Martha Finley Nevin (1824-1917), daughter of John Williamson Nevin and sister of Alice.  Our saint’s father was Robert Heysham Sayre (1844-1917), the manager of the Bethlehem Iron Works and the founder of the Sayre Mining and Manufacturing Company.  Sayre’s brother was Francis Bowes Sayre, Sr. (1885-1972), an attorney and diplomat.  Francis Sr. was a professor at Harvard Law School (1917-1923), the Advisor in Foreign Affairs to the King of Siam (1923-1925), the U.S. Ambassador to Siam (1925-1932), the Director of the Harvard Institute of Criminal Law (1932-1933), the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State (1933-1939), the High Commissioner of the Philippines (1939-1942), and the U.S. Representative to the United Nations Leadership Council (1947-1952).  In 1913 he married Jessie Woodrow Wilson (died in 1933), daughter of President (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson (in office 1913-1921).  Through Francis Sr. our saint was able to gain access to prominent people, such as President Wilson, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (in office 1933-1945), General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964), and Emperor Hirohito (reigned 1926-1989).

Our saint was a well-educated man.  He graduated from Princeton University (B.A., 1907) and the Episcopal Theological School, Cambridge, Massachusetts (B.D., 1911).  He also studied at the Union Theological Seminary, New York, New York (1908-1910) and the University of Marburg, Germany (1913-1914).  Sayre also taught at Princeton University (1911-1912) and at Boone University, Wuchang, China (1913).

Sayre became a pacifist in 1914.  He agreed with Jones that warfare was incompatible with the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.  Sayre, Assistant Rector (1915-1916) then Rector (1916-1919) of Christ Church, Suffern, New York, found his congregation to be less than fully supportive of his pacifism.  He resigned and helped to found Brookwood School (1919-1921), where he taught nonviolence for two years.  In 1921, when Brookwood School became Brookwood Labor College, an experimental residential two-year institution for workers, he transferred to the U.S. branch of the Fellowship of Reconciliation.  (He had helped to found that branch six years earlier.)  Sayre edited The World Tomorrow from 1922 to 1924 and served as the organization’s associate secretary from 1924 to 1935, serving under Jones during part of that time.  Sayre traveled the world as he sought to resolve conflicts nonviolently.  In 1927, for example, he, via Francis Sr., gained access to U.S. senators and State Department officials and thereby succeeded in halting the planned U.S. bombing of innocent civilians during a conflict in Nicaragua.

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PAUL JONES (II)

With John Nevin Sayre

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Jones spent his final years as the chaplain of Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio.  He also functioned as a spiritual advisor to students and a member of the faculty, as a well as a traveling speaker.  Other causes for which our saint advocated were economic justice (from a Christian Socialist perspective) and civil rights for African Americans.  In 1939 he and Sayre helped to found the Episcopal Pacifist Fellowship (now the Episcopal Peace Fellowship).  Toward the end of his life Jones helped to resettle European Jews fleeing the Nazis.  He died of multiple myeloma at Yellow Springs on September 4, 1941.  He was 60 years old.

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JOHN NEVIN SAYRE (II)

With Francis Bowes Sayre, Jr.

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Sayre, active in pacifist activism for most of his life, spent most of that life with Kathleen Whitaker, also his partner in activism.  She and her mother, pacifists, had emigrated from England in 1916.  Kathleen became the second Mrs. Sayre in 1922; the marriage ended when Sayre died in 1977.  (Sayre had married his first wife, Helen Augusta Bangs, on June 28, 1910.  She died two years and two days later.)  Other organizations through which the Sayres worked for peace and reconciliation included, of course, the Episcopal Pacifist/Peace Fellowship, the National Peace Conference and the International Fellowship of Witness.  Their pacifism translated, not surprisingly, into opposition to the Vietnam War.

Other favored causes included helping conscientious objectors in Europe and the United States during World War II, sparing the lives and facilitating the release and repatriation of Japanese prisoners of war after that conflict, advocating for civil liberties, and working for civil rights for African Americans.  Sayre died at South Hyack, New York, on September 13, 1977.  He was 93 years old.

A nephew, Francis Bowes Sayre, Jr. (1915-2008), a grandson of Woodrow Wilson, became an Episcopal priest, and from 1951 to 1978, the Dean of Washington National Cathedral.  True to his family heritage, he opposed Jim Crow, McCarthyism, and the Vietnam War.

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CONCLUSION

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As time moved on, so did ecclesiastical institutions.  The Lambeth Conference of 1958 approved the following resolutions:

Resolution 101 The Reconciling of Conflicts Between and Within Nations 

The Church’s Work of Reconciliation The Conference urges all members of the Anglican Communion to further the ministry of reconciliation by: (a) developing deeper understanding and fellowship with churchmen of every land; (b) extending the use of clergy and lay workers in lands other than their own, the exchange of teachers and seminarians, and the participation by lay visitors in the Church life of the countries they visit; (c) the general use of the Anglican Cycle of Prayer to undergird this wider sense of community; (d) participation everywhere in the wider community of all Christian people in the ecumenical opportunities open to them.

Resolution 102 The Reconciling of Conflicts Between and Within Nations – Christian Citizenship

The Conference calls upon all Christian people to recognise their duty of exercising to the full their responsibility as citizens in the national and international policies of their governments.

Resolution 103 The Reconciling of Conflicts Between and Within Nations – Christian Citizenship

The Conference calls upon all Christian people to strive by the exercise of mutual understanding, calm reason, and constant prayer, to reconcile all those who are involved in racial, political, economic, or other conflicts.

Resolution 104 The Reconciling of Conflicts Between and Within Nations – The Rights of Men and Nations

The Conference declares that the Church is not to be identified with any particular political or social system, and calls upon all Christians to encourage their governments to respect the dignity and freedom of people within their own nations and the right of people of other nations to govern themselves.

Resolution 105 The Reconciling of Conflicts Between and Within Nations – Sharing Material Resources

The Conference draws attention to the widespread poverty in many parts of the world; it notes with thankfulness the measures taken to help under-developed countries to become self-supporting, and calls upon Christians in more favoured lands to use their influence to encourage their governments in the task of relieving poverty by a generous sharing of their material and technical resources with those in need.

Resolution 106 The Reconciling of Conflicts Between and Within Nations – Modern Warfare and Christian Responsibility

The Conference reaffirms that war as a method of settling international disputes is incompatible with the teaching and example of our Lord Jesus Christ, and declares that nothing less than the abolition of war itself should be the goal of the nations, their leaders, and all citizens. As an essential step towards achieving this goal the Conference calls upon Christians to press through their governments, as a matter of the utmost urgency, for the abolition by international agreement of nuclear bombs and other weapons of similar indiscriminate destructive power, the use of which is repugnant to the Christian conscience. To this end governments should accept such limitations of their own sovereignty as effective control demands. The Conference further urges the governments of the leading nations of the world to devote their utmost efforts at once to framing a comprehensive international disarmament treaty, which shall also provide for the progressive reduction of armed forces and conventional armaments to the minimum necessary for the maintenance of internal security and the fulfilment of the obligations of states to maintain peace and security in accordance with the United Nations Charter.

Resolution 107 The Reconciling of Conflicts Between and Within Nations – Modern Warfare and Christian Responsibility

The Conference calls Christians to subject to intense prayer and study their attitudes to the issues involved in modern warfare, and urges the Church to continue to consult regularly with scientists and political leaders about the many problems of ethics and conscience which arise from advances in nuclear research.

Resolution 108 The Reconciling of Conflicts Between and Within Nations – The United Nations

The Conference affirms the need for strengthening the United Nations and to this end: (a) urges that serious consideration be given to the revision of its Charter, the more effective use of, and respect for, the existing processes of international justice, and to the creation of adequate means for enforcing its decisions; (b) commends wholeheartedly the work done under the aegis of the United Nations, whereby the skills and resources of member nations are made available for the benefit of the whole of humanity; (c) recommends that all Church people be asked to pray for God’s blessing upon the officers and declared purposes of the United Nations; (d) urges that all Church people be asked to encourage community study regarding the constitution, the plans, and the needs of the United Nations.

Resolution 109 The Reconciling of Conflicts Between and Within Nations – The United Nations

The Conference draws attention to the work of the Committee of the Churches on International Affairs (within the World Council of Churches) and urges Anglicans to support its efforts to bring an informed Christian opinion to bear on international issues.

Resolution 110 The Reconciling of Conflicts Between and Within Nations – Condemnation of Racial Discrimination

The Conference affirms its belief in the natural dignity and value of every man, of whatever colour or race, as created in the image of God. In the light of this belief the Conference affirms that neither race nor colour is in itself a barrier to any aspect of that life in family and community for which God created all men. It therefore condemns discrimination of any kind on the grounds of race or colour alone. The Conference would urge that in multi-racial societies members of all races shall be allowed: (a) a fair and just share in the government of their country; (b) a fair and just share in the control, development, and rewards of the natural resources of their country, including advancement to the highest level of attainment; (c) the right to associate freely in worship, in education, in industry, in recreation, and in all other departments of the common life.

Resolution 111 The Reconciling of Conflicts Between and Within Nations – The Church in an Industrial Age

The Conference urges the provinces of the Anglican Communion to give special study to the task, strategy, and ministry of the Church within industrial society, and by the use of bold and imaginative experiments to strengthen the impact of the Christian faith upon the whole life and pattern of industry.

Source = link

I am not a pacifist.  I have tried to become one, but I have not been able to, pardon the term, reconcile certain uncomfortable realities with idealism.  Sometimes the best choice is a bad one, albeit the least or lesser bad choice.  I write this post on the anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb in 1945.  As much as I deplore the human costs (including to innocent civilians) inherent in that act, I also know that the human costs (including to innocent civilians) would have been far worse had an invasion of the Japanese home islands occurred.  Forcing Japanese surrender also kept Soviet troops out of Japan.  President Harry Truman made the decision he had to make; he chose the lesser of two evils when no good option was available.  I also recognize the fact that reconciling with, not antagonizing, Japan after World War II made the world a better place for Allies and Japanese alike.  I wonder world history would have been different had the victorious Allies been kind to Germany and nicer to Japan at Versailles Palace in 1919.

Although I am not a pacifist, I refuse to condemn those who are.  They remind the rest of us of the importance of seeking peace–not just the absence of conflict, but the reality of reconciliation.  “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” may have been originally a moral step forward, insofar as its purpose was to curtail violence, but reconciliation is superior.  As Delenn, the Minbari Ambassador to Babylon 5, said in Passing Through Gethsemane (1995), one of my favorite episodes of Babylon 5 (1994-1998), “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” leaves many people blind and toothless.  Is it not better for all of us to retain our eyes and teeth and to strive for peace, or at least the absence of conflict?  Some violence is necessary, sadly, but most of it is morally unjustifiable.  Frequently the motivation for violence is revenge or pride, not self-defense.  Even when violence is in self-defense, it might damage the one who commits it.  Wildred Owen (who died a week before the armistice in 1918, wrote a poem in the voice of two soldiers.  One soldiers tells the other:

I am the enemy you killed, my friend.

I knew you in the dark; for so you frowned

Yesterday through me as you jabbed and killed.

Let us sleep now….

Also, given the long tradition of people from various religions (including, unfortunately, Christianity, named after the executed Prince of Peace) engaging in violence at the proverbial drop of a hat, from antiquity to the present day, I derive comfort from the fact many faithful people seek to incite nonviolence in the name of God.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 6, 2016 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF THE TRANSFIGURATION

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Merciful God, you sent your beloved Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near:

Raise up in this and every land witnesses who, after the examples of your servants

Paul Jones and John Nevin Sayre,

will stand firm in proclaiming the Gospel of the Prince of Peace,

our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you

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

Malachi 2:17-3:5

Psalm 76

1 Peter 3:8-14a

John 8:31-32

–Adapted from Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), page 561

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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, Founder 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
• Joseph Gomer 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
• Hannah More, Anglican Poet, Playwright, Religious Writer, and Philanthropist
• 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 Co-Founder 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 Founder 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
• 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 Patriarch, 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”
• Robert Guy McCutchan, U.S. Methodist Hymnal Editor and Hymn Tune Composer

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)

• 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
• Henry Wellington Greatorex, Anglican and Episcopal Organist, Choirmaster, and Hymnodist
• 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; Co-Founder of the Missionary Society of Saint Paul the Apostle (the Paulist Fathers)
• Emily de Rodat, Founder 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, Founder 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
• Émelie Tavernier Gamelin, Founder of the Sisters of Providence
• Jozef Stanek, Polish Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr, 1944

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
• Judith Lomax, Episcopal Mystic and Poet
• 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
• Joseph A. Sittler, U.S. Lutheran Minister, Theologian, and Ecumenist
• 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, Co-Founder of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul; and Charles Fuge Lowder, Founder of the Society of the Holy Cross)

• Edward McGlynn, U.S. Roman Catholic Priest, Social Reformer, and Alleged Heretic
• Eliza Scudder, U.S. Unitarian then Episcopalian Hymn Writer
• Joanna P. Moore, U.S. Baptist Missionary and Educator
• Martyrs of Melanesia, 1864-2003
• Thomas Traherne, Anglican Priest, Poet, and Spiritual Writer

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

• 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)

• 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.