Above: Glasgow University, Between 1890 and 1900
Image Source = Library of Congress
Reproduction Number = LC-DIG-ppmsc-07596
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EDITH FLORENCE BOYLE MACALISTER (JUNE 16, 1873-NOVEMBER 27, 1950)
English Novelist and Hymn Writer
Information about Edith Florence Boyle MacAlister is, in my experience, not plentiful. Yet what I have found is positive.
Our saint, born in 1873, wrote Uncle Hal (1910), a book for girls. Not only id she write juvenile fiction, but she served for a time as superintendent of the Primary Department of St. Columba’s Presbyterian Church, Cambridge, England (now St. Columba’s United Reformed Church).
In 1895 Edith married Donald MacAlister (1854-1934) who, from 1909 to 1929 served as Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glasgow. He became Sir Donald MacAlister, Baronet of Tarbert, in 1924, and Chancellor of the University five years later. As if all this were not enough, he was also a linguist, a mathematician, and a medical doctor.
The Hymnal (1933), Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. contains a lovely text for the occasion of an infant baptism written by our saint and altered. Those verses read:
Father, hear us as we pray
For these little ones today:
Good and gentle may they be;
Ever loving Thee.
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Fold them ‘neath the wings of love;
Write their names in heaven above:
Guard and keep them safe from harm;
Hold them with Thine arm.
Our saint died in 1950.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JANUARY 11, 2014 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF MIEP GIES, RIGHTEOUS GENTILE
THE FEAST OF DAVID I OF SCOTLAND, KING
THE FEAST OF GEORGE FOX, QUAKER FOUNDER
THE FEAST OF SAINT PAULINUS OF AQUILEIA, ROMAN CATHOLIC PATRIARCH
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Eternal God, light of the world and Creator of all that is good and lovely:
We bless your name for inspiring Edith Florence Boyle MacAlister
and all those who with words have filled us with desire and love for you;
through Jesus Christ our Savior, who with you and the Holy Spirit
lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
1 Chronicles 29:14b-19
Psalm 90:14-17
2 Chronicles 3:1-3
John 21:15-17, 24-25
–Adapted from Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints (2010), page 728
