Above: The Flag of England
Image in the Public Domain
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ERIK REGINALD ROUTLEY (OCTOBER 31, 1917-OCTOBER 8, 1982)
English Congregationalist Hymnodist
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…”pop” is normally utterly uncritical of musical statements which are pretentious, unbalanced, and foolish. It exaggerates, sometimes cretinously. It permits, and encourages, fantasies of grandeur. It associates only too easily with extravagance and infantilism.
–Erik Routley, Twentieth Century Church Music (London: Herbert Jenkins, 1964), 206
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That accurate statement gets to the point.
Erik Routley comes to this, my Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via hymnody.
Routley, born in Sussex, England, on October 31, 1917, became a master hymnodist. His parents were John Routley and Eleanor Routley. Our saint graduated from Magdalen College, Oxford (B.A., 1940 M.A., 1943), with an emphasis in classics. Routley, ordained a minister in the Congregational Union of England and Wales in 1943, married Margaret Scott the following year. They had three children, born in 1947, 1949, and 1953. Routley graduated from Oxford with his B.D. in 1946; his thesis became The Church and Music. Six years later he earned his doctorate at Oxford; his dissertation became the basis of The Music of Christian Hymnody (1957). Meanwhile, Routley was a parish minister in Wednesbury and Dantford (1943-1948) and at Edinburgh (1959-1974). During the interim he served as Lecturer in Church History, Librarian, Chaplain, and Director of Music at Mansfield College, Oxford. Our saint also edited The Bulletin of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland from 1948 to 1974. If that were not enough, he founded the Guild of Congregational Organists in 1951 and served as President from 1951 to 1959 and from 1970 to 1972. Our saint became a Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music in 1965, too. Furthermore, Routley chaired the Doctrine and Worship Committee of the newly-merged United Reformed Church, starting in 1972.
Routley, who spoke at U.S. seminaries from 1962 to 1975, moved to the United States in 1975. He became Professor of Church Music at Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey. He also traveled across the country, lecturing, preaching, and leading workshops and hymn festivals. Our saint, a master of hymnody, composed 34 hymns and wrote 37 books. He understood the link between hymnody and theology, recognized changes to old harmonies, and knew the lyrics of hymns well.
Routley was not shy about expressing his opinions regarding hymnody. In 1964, for example, he excoriated the music at Billy Graham crusades:
In secular life the natural pressure of the new “pop” drives out old “pop”. The fittest survives–and what is the fittest of this week’s “pop” to survive into the next generation nobody can possibly tell by examination. But a church has a disastrous squirrel-like propensity for hoarding. Everything that has been put to sacred use must be preserved: to throw it away seems to be sacrilege. So music whose proper office is to be here today and gone tomorrow (and this is not to call it bad music) is hoarded and subjected to constant use for which its strength is simply unequal.
This is why “pop” there is a legitimate exaggeration, even caricature, of colour and emotion. It is vulgar. Of course it is vulgar! It is as vulgar as the exaggerated colours of an advertisement for detergent. It is designed to make an immediate impact and then go its way. To repeat it, go on wallowing in it, is like putting up that advertisement for detergent in your drawing room and keeping it there thirty years.
—Twentieth Century Church Music, 201
Routley, aged 66 years, died in Nashville, Tennessee, on October 8, 1982. His great unfinished project was Rejoice in the Lord: A Hymn Companion to the Scriptures (1985), the next official hymnal of the Reformed Church in America.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 9, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT DENIS, BISHOP OF PARIS, AND HIS COMPANIONS, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYRS
THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN LEONARDI, FOUNDER OF THE CLERKS REGULAR OF THE MOTHER OF GOD OF LUCCA; AND SAINT JOSEPH CALASANCTIUS, FOUNDER OF THE CLERKS REGULAR OF RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS
THE FEAST OF ROBERT GROSSETESTE, ENGLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC SCHOLAR, PHILOSOPHER, AND BISHOP OF LINCOLN
THE FEAST OF WILFRED THOMASON GRENFELL, MEDICAL MISSIONARY TO NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR
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Holy God, whose majesty surpasses all human definitions and capacity to grasp,
thank you for those (especially Erik Routley)
who have nurtured and encouraged the reverent worship of you.
May their work inspire us to worship you in knowledge, truth, and beauty.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
1 Chronicles 25:1-8
Psalm 145
Revelation 15:1-4
John 4:19-26
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
NOVEMBER 27, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT JAMES INTERCISUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR
THE FEAST OF HENRY SLOANE COFFIN, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN THEOLOGIAN
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Above: William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale
Images in the Public Domain
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WILLIAM TYNDALE (1497-OCTOBER 6, 1536)
English Reformer, Bible Translator, and Martyr
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MILES COVERDALE (1488-JANUARY 20, 1569)
English Reformer, Bible Translator, and Bishop of Exeter
Also known as Myles Coverdale
October 6 is, on many Anglican calendars, the Feast of William Tyndale. It is also Tyndale’s feast in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC). October 7 is an alternative feast day for Tyndale, as in the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.
At the General Convention of 2009, when The Episcopal Church approved Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints (2010), supplemental to Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2006 (2007), it added Coverdale to Tyndale’s feast. The combined feast transferred into A Great Cloud of Witnesses: A Calendar of Commemorations (2016), successor to Holy Women, Holy Men. Neither Tyndale nor Coverdale have transferred to Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2018, however.
A Great Cloud of Witnesses (2016) remains an approved resource, of course.
Miles Coverdale, born in Yorkshire circa 1488, collaborated with William Tyndale, born in Gloucestershire in 1497. Tyndale, influenced indirectly by the late John Wycliffe (circa 1320-1384), while growing up, studied at Oxford (B.A., 1512; M.A., 1515) then at Cambridge. Other influential figures in his life included Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536), who had published the first published Greek New Testament in 1516, as well as Martin Luther (1483-1546), who had published his German translation of the Bible in 1522. Tyndale, in 1522-1523 the tutor in the household of Sir John Walsh in Gloucestershire, became an alleged heretic by debating visiting clergymen. He became convinced of the necessity of an English translation of the Bible.
Coverdale had been an Augustinian friar. His mentor and prior had been Robert Barnes (circa 1495-1540). At Cambridge Coverdale had begun to adopt Lutheran opinions. He almost certainly met Tyndale at the White Horse tavern, where many Protestants gathered for discussion.
Tyndale, having left the Walsh household, to protect them, arrived in Wittenberg on May 27, 1524. He spent the rest of his life in Europe. By 1525 he was in Cologne. There he planned to publish the new translation of the New Testament. However, he and his secretary had to flee when Johannes Cochlaeus, archfoe of Luther, acted to prevent the publication of the English-language New Testament in that city. Tyndale published his New Testament in Worms in 1526, though. English ecclesiastical authorities, including St. Thomas More (1487-1535), ordered the burning of copies.
Meanwhile, Coverdale continued his Biblical studies at Cambridge. He also became a radical. His mentor, Robert Barnes, tried for heresy in 1526, recanted under pressure. Coverdale left the abbey in 1528. He, dressed as a secular priest, preached against images, confession, and the Mass. He was in Hamburg the following year. There, at Tyndale’s invitation, Coverdale was helping to translate the Torah. Both men subsequently moved to Antwerp. Tyndale published the new translation of the Torah in 1530 (Julian Calendar)/1531 (Gregorian Calendar). Before he died Tyndale had translated the Old Testament through Nehemiah, as well as Jonah. Some of his translation choices were controversial and purposefully contrary to current orthodoxy. He preferred “congregation” to “church” and “love” to “charity,” for example.
Tyndale wrote original texts, too. Answer to Sir Thomas More’s Dialogue (1530) was a polemic. The Parable of the Wicked Mammon (1528) argued for justification by faith. The Obedience of a Christian Man (1528) influenced the English Reformation. More, a staunch Roman Catholic who, like Tyndale, opposed the annulment of the marriage of King Henry VIII to Queen Catherine of Aragon, identified Tyndale as one of the leaders of the Reformation.
Meanwhile Coverdale was translating and writing, also. He translated the Book of Psalms from Latin to English in 1534 then translated more of the Old Testament. The following year Coverdale published the complete English Bible, dedicated to Henry VIII. Coverdale worked from five translations, including Tyndale’s. He was a fine stylist of the English language; his Psalter graced editions of The Book of Common Prayer from the first one (1549) into the twentieth century. The Coverdale and Tyndale translations constituted at least half of the Thomas Matthew Bible (1537) and therefore influenced the Great Bible (1539), the Bishop’s Bible (1568), the Authorized Version (1611), and its successors, including the American Standard Version (1901) and the branching lines of translations derived from it, starting with the Revised Standard Version (New Testament, 1946; Old Testament, 1952; Apocrypha, 1957; RSV II, 1971).
Tyndale, betrayed in Antwerp by Henry Phillips in May 1535, spent the final phase of his life as a prisoner at the castle of Vilvoorde, near Brussels. There he died by strangling on October 6, 1536. Authorities burned his corpse.
Coverdale was in peril, also. He, moving back and forth between England and the continent, compiled the concordance (1535) to Tyndale’s New Testament and edited the Great Bible (1539), placed in every church in the realm. In 1539 he fled Paris, to escape the French Inquisition. Then, in 1540, Henry VIII began to preside over a crackdown. Barnes died via burning at the stake that year. Coverdale and his wife, Elizabeth Macheson (Sutherland) spent 1540-1543 in Strasbourg. There he translated tracts and earned his D.D. degree from Tübingen University. The Coverdales spent 1543-1548 in Bergzabern, 40 miles away from Strasbourg. There Coverdale served as the headmaster of the town school and the assistant minister of the town church. Meanwhile, in 1546, English authorities were burning his writings.
1548-1559 were years of changing political fortunes for Coverdale. The Coverdales spent 1548-1553 in England. Henry VIII had died and Edward VI had succeeded his father. Coverdale, a royal chaplain, helped to suppress a rebellion before becoming the Bishop of Exeter (1551-1553). Then Edward VI died and his sister, Mary I, succeeded him. The Coverdales spent 1553-1559 in exile in Europe. They eventually settled in Switzerland, where Coverdale helped to translate the Geneva Bible (1560).
Coverdale spent his final years back in England. In 1558 Mary I had died and her sister, Elizabeth I, had succeeded her. The course of the English Reformation changed; Elizabeth I presided over the birth of Anglicanism per se. Coverdale, who had become a leading Puritan, declined to become the Bishop of Exeter again. He had evolved theologically to the point that he could no longer approve of the ritual. Coverdale, a much sought-after preacher, stayed busy, if not prosperous. Elizabeth, his first wife, died in 1565. He married Katharine the following year.
Coverdale, aged 80 or 81 years, died on January 20, 1569.
Tyndale and Coverdale were pioneers in the development of the English Bible. Many generations of English-speaking Christians have been in their debt.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 9, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT DENIS, BISHOP OF PARIS, AND HIS COMPANIONS, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYRS
THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN LEONARDI, FOUNDER OF THE CLERKS REGULAR OF THE MOTHER OF GOD OF LUCCA; AND SAINT JOSEPH CALASANCTIUS, FOUNDER OF THE CLERKS REGULAR OF RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS
THE FEAST OF ROBERT GROSSETESTE, ENGLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC SCHOLAR, PHILOSOPHER, AND BISHOP OF LINCOLN
THE FEAST OF WILFRED THOMASON GRENFELL, MEDICAL MISSIONARY TO NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR
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Almighty God, you planted in the heart of your servants William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale
a consuming passion to bring the Scriptures to people in their native tongue,
and endowed them with the gift of powerful and graceful expression
and with strength to persevere against all obstacles:
Reveal to us your saving Word, as we read and study the Scriptures,
and hear them calling us to repentance and life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Proverbs 8:10-17
Psalm 119:89-96
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
John 12:44-50
—Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints (2010), 625
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Above: Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos
Image in the Public Domain
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BLESSED FRANCIS XAVIER SEELOS (JANUARY 11, 1819-OCTOBER 4, 1867)
German-American Roman Catholic Priest
Alternative feast days = October 4 and October 12
Franz Xaver Seelos, born in Füssen, Bavaria, on January 11, 1819, devoted his adult life to the service of God. His mother was Frances Schwarzenbach. Our saint’s father was Mang Seelos, a parish sacristan and a textile merchant. Seelos, named after St. Francis Xavier (1505-1552), received the sacrament of baptism on the day of his birth. Our saint, confirmed on September 3, 1828, received his First Communion on April 2, 1830. He, having discerned his priestly vocation while a boy, graduated from the Institute of St. Stephen, Augsburg, in 1839. He continued his education at the University of Munich, where he studied theology and philosophy. In 1842 Seelos graduated from the University of Munich and matriculated at St. Jerome Seminary, Dillengen an der Danau.
1842 was a year of turning points in the life of our saint. He joined the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (the Redemptorists) on November 22. St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori had founded the order in 1732. Seelos felt drawn to the order, due to its work with the abandoned, the poor, and immigrants. He left the seminary on December 9, 1842, with the intention of ministering to German immigrants in the United States of America.
Seelos spent 1843-1867 in the United States. He, having sailed on March 17, 1843, arrived in the New York City on April 29. Seelos, ordained to the priesthood in Baltimore, Maryland, on December 22, 1844, ministered to German immigrants faithfully. For nine years he served in St. Philomena Church, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. For six of those years he was the assistant to and spiritual student of St. John Nepomucene Neumann (1811-1860). For three of those years Seelos was the local Redemptorist novice master. At. St. Philomena Church our saint was a popular confessor in three languages (French, German, and English) and from many people from various backgrounds.
Our saint’s final thirteen years were full of faithful service, too. Seelos served in Baltimore (1854-1857), Cumberland (1857-1862), and Annapolis (1862-1863), all in Maryland. Along the way, in 1860, he avoided becoming the Bishop of Pittsburgh. In 1863, Seelos, as the Superior of the Redemptorist seminary, persuaded President Abraham Lincoln to exempt seminarians from the military draft. Later that year our saint lost his job, for alleged leniency. Seelos spent 1863-1866 as an itinerant priest in states in the North, from New England to the Midwest. In 1866-1867 our saint served in a German immigrant parish in New Orleans, Louisiana. On October 4, 1867, he, aged 46 years, died of yellow fever. Seelos had contracted the disease while ministering to people afflicted with it.
Pope John Paul II declared Seelos a Venerable then beatified him in 2000.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 9, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT DENIS, BISHOP OF PARIS, AND HIS COMPANIONS, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYRS
THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN LEONARDI, FOUNDER OF THE CLERKS REGULAR OF THE MOTHER OF GOD OF LUCCA; AND SAINT JOSEPH CALASANCTIUS, FOUNDER OF THE CLERKS REGULAR OF RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS
THE FEAST OF ROBERT GROSSETESTE, ENGLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC SCHOLAR, PHILOSOPHER, AND BISHOP OF LINCOLN
THE FEAST OF WILFRED THOMASON GRENFELL, MEDICAL MISSIONARY TO NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR
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O God, our heavenly Father, who raised up your faithful servant Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos,
to be a pastor in your Church and to feed your flock:
Give abundantly to all pastors the gifts of your Holy Spirit,
that they may minister in your household as true servants of Christ and stewards of your divine mysteries;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Acts 20:17-35
Psalm 84 or 84:7-11
Ephesians 3:14-21
Matthew 24:42-47
–Adapted from Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints (2010), 719
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Above: Harry Emerson Fosdick
Image in the Public Domain
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HARRY EMERSON FOSDICK (MAY 24, 1878-OCTOBER 5, 1969)
U.S. Northern Baptist Minister and Opponent of Fundamentalism
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…we cannot harmonize Christ himself with modern culture. What Christ does to modern culture is to challenge it.
–Harry Emerson Fosdick, “The Church Must Go Beyond Modernism” (1935); quoted in Dewitte Holland, ed., Sermons in American History: Selected Issues in the American Pulpit, 1630-1967 (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1971), 377
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Harry Emerson Fosdick was one of the most influential ministers in the United States of America during the twentieth century. He, controversial in life, has remained so postmortem.
Fundamentalism is inherently ahistorical. This is not an idea original to me. Consider, O reader, Karen Armstrong:
…fundamentalism is ahistorical: it believes that Abraham, Moses and the later prophets all experienced their God in exactly the same way as people do today.
—A History of God: The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam (1994), xx
One might also consider G. E. Mendenhall, author of The Tenth Generation (1973):
Biblical fundamentalism, whether Jewish or Christian, cannot learn from the past because in so many respects the defense of presently accepted ideas about religion is thought to be the only purpose of biblical narrative. It must, therefore, support ideas of comparatively recent origin–ones that usually have nothing to do with the original meaning or intention of biblical narrative because the context is so radically different.
–Quoted in W. Gunther Plaut, The Torah: A Modern Commentary, Vol. IV, Numbers (New York: Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1979), xiv-xv
Fosdick, born in Buffalo, New York, on May 24, 1878, came from a devout family with a tradition of valuing education. His father was Frank Sheldon Fosdick. Our saint’s mother was Amy Inez Weaver. His brother, Raymond B. Fosdick, grew up to become an esteemed attorney, as well as a friend and associate of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (1874-1960). Our saint, baptized at the age of seven years, thought about becoming a missionary before deciding on domestic ministry. He, having graduated from high school in 1896, matriculated at Colgate University. He graduated with his A.B. degree four years later, and was the class poet. Fosdick, ordained a Baptist minister in 1903, graduated from Union Theological Seminary the following year. He married Florence Allen Whitney (d. 1964) on August 16, 1904. The couple had two daughters.
Fosdick served in a few congregations and taught at Union Theological Seminary. He, from 1904 to 1915 the pastor of First Baptist Church, Montclair, New Jersey, began his 38-year-long stint of teaching practical theology at Union Theological Seminary in 1908. He was an instructor (1908-1915), a professor (1915-1917, 1919-1934), and a part-time faculty member (1934-1946). In 1917-1919 our saint worked as a chaplain with the Y.M.C.A. in France. After World War I he returned to New York City, to begin duties as assistant minister (1919-1925) of First Presbyterian Church.
Fosdick became a central figure in the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy in the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., a denomination to which he did not belong. In 1922 he preached a seminal sermon, “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?” He condemned the intolerance of fundamentalism and criticized minor theological disputes (such as arguments about the Virgin Birth) as distractions
when the world is perishing for the lack of the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy, and faith.
–Quoted in Holland, ed., Sermons in American History, 347
John D. Rockefeller, Jr., liked the sermon so much that he paid for the printing and mailing of the text to every Protestant minister in the United States. Clarence Macartney (1879-1957), conservative pastor of Arch Street Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, replied via a sermon that year. He asked, “Shall Unbelief Win?” and accused Fosdick of heresy and intolerance. After much controversy, Fosdick had to resign in 1925.
Above: Park Avenue Baptist Church, New York, New York
Photographer = Irving Underhill
Image Source = Library of Congress
Rockefeller, Jr., offered Fosdick another position, though. Our saint accepted the pastorate of Park Avenue Baptist Church on four conditions, which he established:
- That baptism by immersion cease to be a requirement for membership;
- That the congregation become interdenominational, accepting Christians of all creeds;
- That the congregation move to a less swanky neighborhood; and
- That the initial salary cap for Fosdick be $5000 ($69,900, adjusted for inflation, to 2017 currency).
Above: Riverside Church and Grant’s Tomb, New York, New York
Image in the Public Domain
Rockefeller, Jr., financed the construction of the Gothic edifice of the renamed Riverside Church, located near Columbia University and Grant’s Tomb. The congregation’s first Sunday in the new building, dedicated in 1931, was October 5, 1930. Fosdick wrote the hymn, “God of Grace and God of Glory,” for the occasion. For 15 years 1931-1946) Fosdick was the most influential Protestant minister in the United States. For 20 years (1926-1946) he preached on national radio. He retired from Riverside Church in 1946.
Fosdick was a prolific author of books and articles. Some of these were volumes of sermons. Many other books were psychological-theological in nature. Examples of these included Twelve Tests of Character (1923) and On Being a Real Person (1943).
Fosdick, who preferred modernism to fundamentalism, was critical of modernism, too. In 1935 he preached a sermon, “The Church Must Go Beyond Modernism.” Modernism, he said, was a necessary advance. However, our saint stated, the church needed to move beyond it, for modernism was imperfect. It was simultaneously preoccupied with intellectualism and too sentimental, according to Fosdick. He also argued that modernism had
largely eliminated from its faith the God of moral judgment.
–Quoted in Holland, ed., Sermons in American History, 373
Our saint also asserted that modernism had accommodated too much to the world that it (modernism) had placed people at the center and relegated God to an advisory capacity. Modernism, Fosdick argued, had also surrendered the moral high ground. Our saint was arguing for Neo-orthodoxy.
Fosdick stood up for a range of controversial positions. His adopted pacifism, evident in his hymn, “The Prince of Peace His Banner Spreads” (1930), was more popular at certain times than others. Our saint also advocated for the civil rights of African Americans when doing so was often unpopular. The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. (1939-1968) thought of Fosdick as a prophetic figure. Fosdick, eschewing anti-Semitism, also sympathized with displaced Palestinians. He, not a Zionist, opposed the creation of the State of Israel.
Fosdick wrote four hymns, all of which have remained germane:
- “God of Grace and God of Glory” (1930),
- “The Prince of Peace His Banner Spreads” (1930),
- “O God, in Restless Living” (1931), and
- “O God, Who to a Loyal Home” (1956).
Fosdick, aged 91 years, died in Bronxville, New York, on October 5, 1969.
Perhaps the précis of Fodick’s life was the following excerpt from “God of Grace and God of Glory”:
Save us from weak resignation
To the evils we deplore;….
Amen.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 4, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI, FOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF FRIARS MINOR
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM SCARLETT, EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF MISSOURI, AND ADVOCATE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE
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O God, by your Holy Spirit you give to some the word of wisdom,
to others the word of knowledge,
and to others the word of faith:
We praise your Name for the gifts of grace manifested in your servant Harry Emerson Fosdick,
and we ray that your Church may never be destitute of such gifts;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit
lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Wisdom of Solomon 7:7-14
Psalm 119:97-104
1 Corinthians 2:6-10, 13-16
John 17:18-23
–Adapted from Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints (2010), 720
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Above: The Flag of The Episcopal Church
Photographer = Kenneth Randolph Taylor
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WILLIAM SCARLETT (OCTOBER 3, 1883-MARCH 28, 1973)
Episcopal Bishop of Missouri, and Advocate for Social Justice
Bishop William Scartlett comes to this, A Great Cloud of Witnesses: An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via The Interpreter’s Bible.
Scarlett, born in Columbus, Ohio, on October 3, 1883, grew up to become a courageous, progressive Christian leader on the vanguard of various moral causes. He was what certain cynical reactionaries of 2018 would have called a “social justice warrior.” So were Hebrew prophets. Our saint, influenced at an early age by Washington Gladden (1836-1918) and Walter Rauschenbush (1861-1918), proponents of the Social Gospel, graduated from Harvard University with his A.B. degree in 1905. Scarlett, unsure about whether to study for ministry or medicine, worked on a ranch in Nebraska for a year. He matriculated at the Episcopal Theological School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1906, and graduated three years later. Our saint, spent the rest of his life in ordained ministry marked by a dedication to social justice dictated by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Scarlett cared deeply by outreach to the poor, the rights of industrial workers, civil rights, and other issues germane to human relations. He was, in order:
- Assistant Rector, St. George’s Episcopal Church, New York, New York (1909-1911);
- Dean, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Phoenix, Arizona (1911-1922);
- Dean, Christ Church Cathedral, St. Louis, Missouri (1922-1930);
- Bishop Coadjutor of Missouri (1930-1933); and
- Bishop of Missouri (1933-1952).
Friend Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971) described our saint as
the conscience of the community.
Scarlett was on the avant-garde of The Episcopal Church with regard to social ethics. He advocated for the liberalization of the denomination’s stance on remarriage after divorce. In 1946 our saint edited Christianity Takes a Stand, in which various authors took a stand against societal sins such as racial segregation and the federal government’s recent internment of West Coast Japanese Americans. Although the House of Deputies, at the General Convention of 1946, consented without debate to sponsor the publication of the book, the majority of Episcopalians were not ready to espouse those positions yet.
Scarlett, a Low Church Episcopalian and self-described Liberal Evangelical who wore a tie in lieu of a clerical collar, was a natural ecumenist. He cooperated with members of other Christian denominations as easily as he did with Jews. At Christ Church Cathedral, St. Louis, our saint scandalized many Anglo-Catholics by encouraging interdenominational Eucharists. He also scrapped plans for a new Episcopal hospital in the city when he learned of a similar Presbyterian plan. The result was cooperation, not competition, in the form of St. Luke’s Episcopal-Presbyterian Hospital. He also favored the merger of The Episcopal Church and the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. in the 1940s. The proposal did not survive the late 1940s. It would probably have been impractical anyway.
(Aside: I mean no disrespect to any Presbyterians, but the denominational cultures and certain theological-liturgical factors are too different for merger to be practical. I suppose that many Presbyterians agree with that assessment. Cooperation of many issues is feasible and desirable, however.)
Scarlett retired in late 1952. His successor as Bishop of Missouri was Arthur Carl Lichtenberger (1900-1968), later the Presiding Bishop of the denomination.
In retirement Scarlett wrote the exposition on the Book of Jonah for The Interpreter’s Bible. He wrote, in part:
If God has a controversy with his people, it is because there has been in our world too little concern for our brother, too little recognition that his fate is bound up in ours, and ours in his, even to the least, too much forgetting that word of old, “We are members of one another” (Eph. 4:25) and if one member suffers, “all the members suffer with it” (I Cor. 12:26). A plain fact of the nineteen-thirties is that Hitler climbed to power on the backs of the unemployed in Germany, and it was this frustration, this sense of uselessness, in millions of lives that made his way easy.
—The Interpreter’s Bible, Volume VI (1956), 877
That is a chilling text in 2018.
The resurgence of fascism and of authoritarianism in general has been current reality in the world, from the Philippines to Europe to Brazil to Turkey to Europe for a few years now. Many of the enablers of fascist and other authoritarian leaders have been professing Christians. The call to “Make America Great Again” has echoed pre-World War II movements to make Italy and Germany great again. The rhetoric of “America First,” originated before World War II in an openly anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi movement to keep the United States out of that war, has returned, still with racist overtones. Calls for U.S. society and government to practice the Golden Rule have become subversive as many professing Christians have chosen to ignore the demands of that great commandment and embraced xenophobia and nativism, largely out of fear.
I encourage you, O reader, to read Scarlett’s exposition on the Book of Jonah and to oppose–resist–the deplorable resurgence of fascism and of authoritarianism in general.
Scarlett, aged 89 years, died in Castine, Maine, on March 28, 1973. His wife, Leah Oliver Van Riper (b. 1889), had predeceased him in 1965.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 3, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF GEORGE KENNEDY ALLEN BELL, ANGLICAN BISHOP OF CHICHESTER
THE FEAST OF ALBERTO RAMENTO, PRIME BISHOP OF THE PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENT CHURCH
THE FEAST OF SAINT GERARD OF BROGNE, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT
THE FEAST OF JOHN RALEIGH MOTT, U.S. METHODIST LAY EVANGELIST, AND ECUMENICAL PIONEER
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Holy and righteous God, you created us in your image.
Help us grace to contend fearlessly against evil and to make no peace with oppression.
Help us, like your servant William Scarlett, 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: St. Francis Beneath a Tree, Praying, by Rembrandt van Rijn
Image Source = Library of Congress
Reproduction Number = LC-USZ62-102921
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GIOVANNI FRANCESCO PIETRO DI BENRADONE (1181/1182-OCTOBER 3, 1226)
Founder of the Order of Friars Minor
Beatified in 1228
I have done my part. May Christ teach you to do yours.
–St. Francis of Assisi, as he lay dying
St. Francis of Assisi is one of the most popular saints. Statues of him populate many gardens and other public places. St. Francis seems harmless, friendly, and inoffensive in the imaginations of many people. Yet the testimony of his life is revolutionary.
I have decided not to write a biography of St. Francis. I have reasoned that (1) those are easy to find, and (2) most of them are superior to any biography I might compose. (Here is one.) I have decided, however, to reflect on some lessons from his life for modern people and societies.
St. Francis renounced the idol of materialism. In so doing, he found liberation to follow God, whom he found liberation to follow, and whom he recognized in the poor and in nature.
Economies depend on materialism. They do so because (1) some people created economies this way, and (2) other people have retained these systems. The industry of advertising tells people that they cannot live without that which they can live–and have lived. Advertising often convinces people that material goods will solve their spiritual problems. It also converts the Seven Deadly Sins into virtues. Materialism is one of the most popular idols.
I think about this matter perhaps most often at the end of each year. The commercialization of Christmas is the real “War on Christmas.” Ironically, it is a campaign many U.S. Protestants favored in the 1800s, rather than celebrate a Roman Catholic feast day. I seek few Christmas gifts, just as I give few. I do most of my Christmas shopping at thrift stores, too. I know that many jobs depend directly and indirectly on the orgy of materialism at the end of the year, and I manage to avoid most of that madness, but I also know that, if most people were to behave as I do, the consequences for many working people would be dire. This is an example of what economists call the paradox of thrift.
Poverty, which St. Francis chose for himself, comes with a stigma in much of the world. Many of the hardest working people are poor, contrary to much rhetoric. In much of the world many of the poor are impoverished because the economic-political system is one rigged against them. This is a truth as old as antiquity, as well as one against which certain Biblical prophets railed. Whenever policy is to keep much of the population in poverty, government retards the progress and well-being of a society, to the common detriment.
We are part of nature, of which we have a divine mandate to be good stewards. Science tells us that species have evolved in nature, and that they continue to do so. Yet many of us seem not to have evolved spiritually in relation to nature, for evidence of disrespect for the created order is ubiquitous. From littering to pollution to global warming to the driving of species to extinction, humanity’s record of damaging the planet and ecosystems is long and shameful. It also harms us, for we are part of nature, too.
The legacy of St. Francis of Assisi should stand in the minds of more people as a call to moral, social, economic, and political revolution, for the glory of God and the common good.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 2, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF RALPH W. SOCKMAN, U.S. UNITED METHODIST MINISTER
THE FEAST OF CARL DOVING, NORWEGIAN-AMERICAN LUTHERAN MINISTER AND HYMN TRANSLATOR
THE FEAST OF JAMES ALLEN, ENGLISH INGHAMITE THEN GLASITE/SANDEMANIAN HYMN WRITER; AND HIS GREAT-NEPHEW, OSWALD ALLEN, ENGLISH GLASITE/SANDEMANIAN HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF PETRUS HERBERT, GERMAN MORAVIAN BISHOP AND HYMNODIST
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Most high, omnipotent, good Lord, grant your people grace to renounce gladly the vanities of this world;
that, following the way of blessed Francis, we may for love of you,
delight in your whole creation with perfectness of joy;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit;
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Jeremiah 22:13-16
Psalm 148:7-14
Galatians 6:14-18
Matthew 11:25-30
—Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints (2010), 623
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O God, you ever delight to reveal yourself to the childlike and lowly of heart;
grant that, following the example of the blessed Francis,
we may count the wisdom of this world as foolishness and know only Jesus Christ and him crucified,
who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
—Common Worship: Daily Prayer (2005), 505
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Gracious and merciful God, you kindled in the heart of Francis such a flame of love that he became wholly yours;
increase in us a whole-hearted trust in you and a humble love of all your creatures,
that we may know the joy the gospel brings; through Jesus Christ our Redeemer. Amen.
or
Holy Jesus, give us something of Francis’ simplicity,
something of his recklessness,
something of his obedience;
give us the courage to understand what you say and do it. Amen.
Song of the Three Young Men 52-65
Psalm 119:145-152 or Psalm 148
Galatians 6:14-18
Matthew 11:25-30
–The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia
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God of creation, we thank you for all that you have made and called good:
Grant that we may rightly serve and conserve the earth, and live at peace with all your creatures;
through Jesus Christ, the firstborn of all creation,
in whom you are reconciling the whole world to yourself. Amen.
Job 14:7-9
Psalm 104:24-31
Romans 1:20-23
Mark 16:14-15
—Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints (2010), 732
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Bountiful Creator, you open your hand to satisfy the needs of every living creature:
Make us always thankful for your loving providence,
and grant that we, remembering the account we must one day give,
may be faithful stewards of your abundance, for the benefit of the whole creation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom all things were made,
and who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.
1 Kings 4:29-30, 33-34
Psalm 145:1-7, 22
Acts 17:24-31
John 1:1-5, 9-14
—Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints (2010), 731
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Above: John Raleigh Mott
Image Source = Library of Congress
Reproduction Number = LC-DIG-ggbain-22746
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JOHN RALEIGH MOTT (MAY 25, 1865-JANUARY 31, 1955)
U.S. Methodist Lay Evangelist, and Ecumenical Pioneer
It is a startling and solemnizing fact that even as late as the twentieth century, the Great Command of Jesus Christ to carry the Gospel to all mankind is still so largely unfulfilled….The church is confronted today, as in no preceding generation, to make Christ known.
–John Raleigh Mott, at the International Missionary Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1910
John Raleigh Mott comes to this, my Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via The Episcopal Church, which has set his feast day as October 3.
The Episcopal Church added Mot to the then-new Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints (published in 2010) at the General Convention of 2009. His feast transferred to the successor volume, A Great Cloud of Witnesses: A Calendar of Commemorations (2016). The General Convention of 2018 approved the addition of Mott’s feast to the Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2018, the first revision of Lesser Feasts and Fasts since 2006.
Mott, born in Livingston Manor, New York, on May 25, 1865, devoted most of his adult life to missions. Our saint, the third of four children, was the only son of Elmira Dodge and John Mott. The family moved to Pottsville, Iowa, in September 1865. There our saint’s father, a lumber merchant, served as mayor. At the age of 16 years Mott matriculated at Upper Iowa University, Fayette, Iowa. He transferred from the Methodist preparatory school and college to Cornell University in 1885. In the summer of 1886 Mott represented the Cornell chapter of the Young Men’s Christian Association (Y.M.C.A.) at the first international conference of the Y.M.C.A. Our saint, chapter president in 1886-1888, graduated in 1888, having majored in philosophy and history. In 1891 he married Leila Ada White of Worster, Ohio. The couple had four children–two daughters and two sons.
Meanwhile, Mott had commenced his career with the Y.M.C.A. In September 1888 he began to serve as the National Secretary of the Intercollegiate Y.M.C.A. of the U.S.A. and Canada; he held that post for 27 years. Concurrent portfolios included the following:
- General Secretary of the World Student Christian Federation (1895f);
- Assistant General Secretary, Y.M.C.A. (1901f);
- Presiding officer, International Missionary Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland (1910);
- General Secretary of the International Committee, Y.M.C.A. (1915-1928); and
- President of the World Committee, Y.M.C.A. (1926-1937).
Mott was an ecumenical pioneer. The International Missionary Conference, held at Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1910, began the modern ecumenical movement, in which Mott remained active. He also attended the Faith and Order Conference (Lausanne, Switzerland, 1927), served as the Vice President of the Second World Conference on Faith and Order (Edinburgh, Scotland, 1937), and was the Chairman of the Life and Work Conference (Oxford, England, 1937). In 1948 our saint became the honorary lifelong Honorary President (1948f) of the new World Council of Churches.
Mott also engaged in civil services. After he declined President Woodrow Wilson’s offer to become the Ambassador to China, our saint joined the Mexican Commission in 1916 and the Special Diplomatic Mission to Russia the following year. During World War I Mott served as the General Secretary of the National War Work Council. After the war our saint received the Distinguished Service Medal.
Mott, author of 16 books about missions, traveled widely on missions tours. He received honors in foreign nations as well as the United States, and earned the trust of many people, including St Tikhon of Moscow (1865-1925), the Patriarch of Moscow.
Late in life, Mott received more honors. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946. He eventually became an honorary canon of Washington National Cathedral, also.
Mott, aged 89 years, died at home, in Orlando, Florida, on January 31, 1955.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 2, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF RALPH W. SOCKMAN, U.S. UNITED METHODIST MINISTER
THE FEAST OF CARL DOVING, NORWEGIAN-AMERICAN LUTHERAN MINISTER AND HYMN TRANSLATOR
THE FEAST OF JAMES ALLEN, ENGLISH INGHAMITE THEN GLASITE/SANDEMANIAN HYMN WRITER; AND HIS GREAT-NEPHEW, OSWALD ALLEN, ENGLISH GLASITE/SANDEMANIAN HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF PETRUS HERBERT, GERMAN MORAVIAN BISHOP AND HYMNODIST
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O God, the shepherd of all, we give you thanks for the lifelong commitment of your servant
John Raleigh Mott to the Christian nurture of students in many parts of the world;
and we pray that, after his example, we may strive for the weaving together of all peoples
in friendship, fellowship and cooperation, and while life lasts be evangelists for Jesus Christ,
in whom alone is our peace; and who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Isaiah 60:1-5
Psalm 71:17-24
1 John 2:12-14
Luke 7:11-17
—Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints (2010), 621
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Give us grace, O merciful God, to seek and serve you in all nations and peoples,
following the example of your servant John Raleigh Mott,
that all the peoples of the earth, who divided and enslaved by sin,
might be led into that glorious liberty that you desire for all your children;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit
be all honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.
Isaiah 60:1-5
Psalm 71:17-24
Luke 7:11-17
—Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2018
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Above: Christ Church, New York, New York, 1940
Image Source = Library of Congress
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RALPH WASHINGTON SOCKMAN (OCTOBER 1, 1889-AUGUST 29, 1970)
U.S. United Methodist Minister
I like to think we run a church that is intellectually responsible and spiritually redemptive. In the center of town half of my congregation are visitors. I take a principle and revolve it so that both the personal and social aspects flash.
–Ralph W. Sockman
Ralph W. Sockman comes to this, my Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via The Interpreter’s Bible, for which he wrote the exposition on 1 Kings for Volume III (1954).
Sockman, born into a farming family of Mount Vernon, Ohio, on October 1, 1889, rose to become a prominent preacher and a household name. Educated initially in a one-room school, our saint graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University (B.A., 1911) then Columbia University (M.A., 1913). In New York City he joined Madison Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, on 60th Street. In 1916 Sockman graduated from Union Theological Seminary, became a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church (extant 1784-1939), and married Zellah Endly. He also began to serve in Madison Avenue Church as assistant minister. Sockman, senior minister (1917f), earned his doctorate from Columbia University in 1917. He also received Doctor of Divinity degrees from Ohio Wesleyan University, New York University, and Wesleyan University in 1923, 1932, and 1934, respectively.
Sockman served as senior pastor of two congregations during his career. When he began to serve at Madison Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, the structure was crumbling and the congregation was dwindling. Our saint did much to build up attendance. In 1933 Madison Avenue Church amalgamated with 61st Street Methodist Episcopal Church. Sockman became the senior minister of the merged Christ Church and presided over the construction of the Romanesque-Byzantine edifice, complete with mosaics. The architect was Ralph Adams Cram. When Sockman retired at the end of 1961, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and former President Dwight David Eisenhower sent messages to mark the occasion.
Sockman was a famous preacher and author. He wrote more than 30 books and a nationally syndicated column, Lift for Living. From 1928 to 1962 he preached on NBC radio’s National Radio Pulpit program. Our saint’s sermons were practical without being overly emotional he populated them with rich intellectual content.
Sockman was active on other levels. He was an associate professor at Union Theological Seminary (1950-1957), the President of the Board of World Peace of the Methodist Episcopal Church then of The Methodist Church (1928-1960), the Director of the Hall of Fame of Great Americans (1948-1970), and the Harry Emerson Fosdick Visiting Professor at Union Theological Seminary (1963-1964).
Sockman, who had rejected offers to become a Methodist bishop, died at home, in New York City, on August 29, 1970, after a brief illness. He was 80 years old.
THE FEAST OF ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER, LORD SHAFTESBURY, BRITISH HUMANITARIAN AND SOCIAL REFORMER
THE FEAST OF MARIE-JOSEPH AUBERT, FOUNDRESS OF THE DAUGHTERS OF OUR LADY OF COMPASSION
THE FEAST OF SAINT ROMANUS THE MELODIST, DEACON AND HYMNODIST
THE FEAST OF SAINT THÉRÈSE OF LISIEUX, ROMAN CATHOLIC NUN AND MYSTIC
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Heavenly Father, Shepherd of your people, we thank you for your servant Ralph W. Sockman,
who was faithful in the care and nurture of your flock;
and we pray that, following his example and the teaching of his holy life,
we may by your grace grow into the stature of the fullness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Ezekiel 34:11-16
Psalm 23
1 Peter 5:1-4
John 21:15-17
–Adapted from Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints (2010), 718
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Above: St. Thérèse of Lisieux
Image in the Public Domain
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SAINT THÉRÈSE OF LISIEUX (JANUARY 2, 1873-SEPTEMBER 30, 1897)
Roman Catholic Nun and Mystic
Also known as Françoise-Marie Thérèse Martin, Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, and the Little Flower of the Child Jesus
Alternative feast day = September 30
St. Thérèse of Lisieux, born Françoise-Marie Thérèse Martin at Alençon, Normandy, France, on January 2, 1873, came from a devout family. Her parents were saints–literally. Louis Martin (1823-1894), a watchmaker, and his wife, Marie-Azélie Guérin Martin (1831-1877), had nine children, five of whom lived to adulthood. The Roman Catholic Church declared them Venerables in 1994, beatified them in 2008, canonized them in 2015, and set July 12, their wedding day, as their feast day.
St. Thérèse led a brief and pious life. Her mother, known informally as Zelie, died when St. Thérèse was just four years old. The widower father raised his five daughters. St. Thérèse, the youngest of the children, was the baby of the family; her father and sisters were very attentive to her, to the point of spoiling her.
St. Thérèse had a conversion experience at the age of 14 years and became Carmelite novice at the age of 15 years. On Christmas Eve 1886 the 14-year-old saint, who had played a nun as a girl, had a vision of the infant Jesus. Her vocation, she realized, was to pray for priests. Our saint, seeking to give her whole life to God, gained the necessary special permission to enter the Carmelite convent (the same one where two of her sisters were nuns) in Lisieux. She became Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face.
In the convent St. Thérèse obeyed the order’s rule to the letter, felt intimacy with God, and suffered failing health and spiritual difficulties with outward good cheer. Our saint was, by nature and conditioning, neurotic. St. Thérèse’s determination to be love and
to make Love loved
compelled her as she offered to God her devotion and suffering in the hope that God would credit them to souls in greater name than she. The author of The Story of a Soul understood herself to be a
little flower of Jesus
who glorified God in her metaphysical garden.
St. Thérèse, aged 24 years, died of tuberculosis at the convent on September 30, 1897. She had, for a time, felt abandoned by God as she struggled with despairs. She had lost all certainty. At the end, however, faith remained. Her last words were,
Oh, I love Him!…My God,…I love you.
The Church recognized St. Thérèse. Pope Benedict XV declared her a Venerable in 1921. Pope Pius XI beatified her in 1923 and canonized her in 1925. Pope John Paul II declared St. Thérèse a Doctor of the Church in 1997.
At the end of her life St. Thérèse had faith, not certainty.
Faith, when it is what it should be, is never about objective, historical-scientific certainty, in the style of Enlightenment Modernism. Much knowledge of that variety exists and is valid; intellectually honest people should embrace it. Enlightenment Modernism does have limits, though. At that point faith takes over; a different form of certainty is present.
THE FEAST OF ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER, LORD SHAFTESBURY, BRITISH HUMANITARIAN AND SOCIAL REFORMER
THE FEAST OF MARIE-JOSEPH AUBERT, FOUNDRESS OF THE DAUGHTERS OF OUR LADY OF COMPASSION
THE FEAST OF SAINT ROMANUS THE MELODIST, DEACON AND HYMNODIST
THE FEAST OF SAINT THÉRÈSE OF LISIEUX, ROMAN CATHOLIC NUN AND MYSTIC
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Gracious Father, who called your servant Thérèse to a life of fervent prayer,
give to us the spirit of prayer and zeal for the ministry of the Gospel,
that the love of Christ may be known throughout the world;
through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Judith 8:1-8
Psalm 119:1-8
Luke 21:1-4
—Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2018
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Above: Mother Marie-Joseph Aubert
Image in the Public Domain
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MARIE-JOSEPH AUBERT (JUNE 19, 1835-OCTOBER 1, 1926)
Foundress of the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion
Also known as Marie Henriette Suzanne Aubert and Meri
Mother Marie-Joseph Aubert comes to this, A Great Cloud of Witnesses: An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. There is also a cause for her canonization in the Roman Catholic Church. The irony of that is wonderful, given how often Aubert was at odds with the hierarchy of her Church, especially in New Zealand.
(Marie Henriette) Suzanne Aubert, born in Saint-Symphorien-de-Lay, Loire, near Lyons, France, on June 19, 1835, was devout from an early age. Her father was Louis Aubert, a bailiff. Our saint’s mother was Henriette Catherine Clarice Périer. Suzanne, disabled for a long time due to a childhood accident, recovered. The experience contributed to her decision to spend her life helping the disabled, the deformed, and the seriously ill. So did contact with Marists in Lyons. St. Jean Baptiste Vianney (1746-1859) mentored Suzanne spiritually from her teens into her early twenties. She became a nurse and served during the Crimean War. Our saint also studied piano under the tutelage of Franz Liszt (1811-1886). In September 1860 the 25-year-old saint, resisting family opposition to her intention to become a nun, joined the missionary expedition of Bishop François Pompallier to New Zealand.
Our saint spent most of the rest of her life in New Zealand.
She taught Maori girls in Auckland from 1860 to 1869. During this period Suzanne Aubert became Sister Marie-Joseph of the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy, in June 1861. The French-Irish order divided in 1862; the French nuns formed the Congregation of the Holy Family. Bishop Pompallier left New Zealand in 1868 and resigned in March 1869. His financial troubles caused the school to close and the Congregation of the Holy Family to disband. Bishop T. W. Cooke, the next bishop to whom Aubert answered, ordered her to return to France. Our saint disobeyed, replying,
I have come here for the Maoris, I shall die in their midst. I will do what I like.
Aubert moved to Napier in February 1871; there she served in a lay capacity in the Marist Order’s Hawke’s Bay Mission, at the invitation of Father Euloge Reignier. At that time our saint was a sister of the Third Order Regular of Mary. At the Hawke’s Bay Mission she worked as a nurse, a catechist, and a teacher. She, fluent in Maori, prepared and published a Maori-language catechism and prayer-book in 1879 and a Maori grammar in 1885. She, known to the Maori as “Meri,” studied Maori herbal remedies and used them to supplement Western medicines. Our saint also proved vital to the revival of the Marist mission in the Diocese of Wellington. The mission, devastated by war during the 1860s, was short on priests. Aubert’s persistence in lobbying Archbishop Francis Redwood and the leaders of the Marist Order led to the presence of more priests, including Father Christophe Soulas.
Aubert, Soulas, and three Sisters of Saint Joseph of Nazareth arrived at the Jerusalem Mission on the Wanganui River on July 8, 1883. Personality and philosophical differences became evident quickly, leading to the departure of the Sisters of Saint Joseph the following year. Soulas and Aubert, allies, eventually received permission to found a new diocesan order, the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion (1892). Aubert served as the first Superior of the order. The members of the order initially focused on education and health care for Maori. The nuns operated schools, dispensed medicine, and cared for disabled people and the chronically ill. Aubert raised funds for the order by marketing herbal remedies.
At the Jerusalem Mission, starting in 1891, Aubert’s work also involved taking in abandoned and neglected children. In the space of a decade she accepted responsibility for 70 children. In the context of politics in New Zealand, European-style founding institutions were controversial. Aubert, partially dependent on yet distrustful of civil authorities, refused to open the books for government inspectors. Also, the geographically isolated mission was not the best place for the foundling institution.
Thus, it came to pass that, in January 1899, Aubert and three sisters did arrive in Wellington. While the Jerusalem Mission continued our saint opened a new front in her work–helping urban poor people–invalids, the hungry, the unemployed, the incurably ill, et cetera. The soup kitchen was controversial because, according to the colonial Department of Labour, it allegedly discouraged people from seeking employment. Aubert’s rebuttal was that she was meeting a need. The affordable daycare was popular with mothers. Our Lady’s Home of Compassion, Wellington, opened in 1907, accepted the unwanted, handicapped, and seriously ill children, as well as chronically and terminally ill women.
Aubert founded St. Vincent’s Home of Compassion in Auckland in 1910. This institution attracted the ire of the government and of certain Protestants alike. Why was the order so secretive, protecting the privacy of children? Yet Aubert and her defenders replied that the policy was necessary, to reduce the likelihood of infanticide.
Aubert also had enemies in the Roman Catholic hierarchy in New Zealand. Certainly diplomacy was not her defining characteristic. Neither was obedience. (Nor should they have been.) Aubert had, for example, ignored Archbishop Redwood’s order that she help only Roman Catholics. As she told donors, her work was
salvation of souls, not the sanctification of Catholics.
Furthermore, Henry Cleary, the Bishop of Auckland, thought that our saint should have restricted her work to efforts to help women. He arranged for the closing of St. Vincent’s Home of Compassion in 1916.
Aubert spent 1913-1919 in Europe. She went there to seek papal approval for her order, but stayed until after the end of World War I. Our saint, who worked as a nurse during the Great War, obtained the desired papal approval and became the Superior General of her order in April 1917.
Aubert spent her final years in her adopted country. She, aged 91 years, died at Our Lady’s Home of Compassion, Wellington. Mourners at her funeral included many politicians and leaders of a variety of denominations. It was the largest funeral for a woman in New Zealand.
Aubert loved her neighbors as she loved herself. The Golden Rule, seemingly simple and inoffensive, has proven to be neither simple nor inoffensive. That has been unfortunate, reflecting the immorality and amorality of those who have found it offensive.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
SEPTEMBER 26, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT PAUL VI, BISHOP OF ROME
THE FEAST OF FREDERICK WILLIAM FABER, ENGLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF JOHN BRIGHT, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND BIBLICAL SCHOLAR
THE FEAST OF JOHN BYROM, ANGLICAN THEN QUAKER POET AND HYMN WRITER
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God of love, we remember with thanksgiving Mother Marie-Joseph Aubert,
whose devotion to the needs of others transcended race or religion;
touch us deeply with your love,
enlarge the boundaries of our compassion,
and keep us in the way of Jesus, for your name’s sake. Amen.
or
Jesus of Jerusalem, in your compassion, Marie-Joseph visited and fed
the taurekareka, the unwanted, the desperate and the criminal;
give to your whole church, we pray, your caring, pioneering spirit. Amen.
Deuteronomy 15:7-11
Psalm 107:1-22
James 2:14-18
Mark 6:34-44
–The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia
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SUNDRY THOUGHTS 
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