Vote suppression is wrong in all circumstances. When a political party seeks to boost its electoral odds to suppressing votes, it damages the structure of the republic. Such a party deserves scorn for doing so.
I know enough about United States history to list vote suppression efforts since the earliest days of the republic.
Gerrymandering (a practice older than the label) dates to at least 1788, when Patrick Henry of Virginia tried to draw Congressional district lines to deny James Madison a seat. The germane historical records tell us Madison won the seat anyway. The term derives from Elbridge Gerry, the Governor of Massachusetts, who presided over the redrawing of district lines in 1812 to favor his (Jeffersonian) Republican Party. A famous political cartoon from the time depicts a district the shape of which resembles a salamander. Gerrymandering entails politicians choosing the voters, not the voters selecting the politicians. The practice suppresses votes by making voting futile for many potential voters. Many may choose not to vote because there is no point in doing so. In 2020, too few Congressional districts are politically competitive. Some politically secure seats exist apart from gerrymandering, of course. However, many exist only because of the practice.
The annals of the John Adams Administration (1797-1801) document the Naturalization Act of 1798, which made the minimum period of time to naturalize fourteen years, as opposed to the previous standard of five years. When one examines the politics of the late 1790s, one realizes that the Federalist Party was trying to maintain its grip on power. One may also understand that the targeted immigrants were Irish, therefore anti-British. Perhaps one recalls that the Federalist Party, with its pro-British foreign policy, was unlikely to receive the votes of naturalized Irish-American immigrant men, who tended to favor the (Jeffersonian) Republican Party. The historical record also tells us that the Naturalization Act of 1798 backfired on the Federalist Party when immigrants hastened to complete their naturalization process than voted (Jeffersonian) Republican enthusiastically.
The Democratic Party committed vote suppression in the post-Civil War South in the name of restoring and maintaining white supremacy. Methods of vote suppression for nearly a century included lynchings, other forms of violence, informal social pressure, poll taxes, grandfather clauses, and literacy tests. Literacy tests varied widely, from having to read Latin to guessing how many jelly beans were in a jar. In Atlanta, Georgia, in the 1890s, voting officials used a literacy test to prevent the brilliant W. E. B. DuBois, a professor at Atlanta University, from registering to vote. DuBois was literate, beyond a shadow of a doubt.
The Republican Party has been committing vote suppression lately. Some party officials have even candidly admitted this, without apology. Their efforts have often had a racist edge, given the rate at which African Americans vote for Democratic candidates. Since the Republican Party launched its Southern Strategy in the 1960s and began to appeal to White Southern racists, some portion of that party has maintained the Southern Strategy. Donald Trump has made no secret of his racism. His dog whistles have been so loud that one does not need canine ears to hear them. And he has called neo-Nazis “very fine people.”
Voting by mail is safe. Trump, one who has voted via mail, is lying about it being untrustworthy. I recall having voted absentee–by mail–more than once. Some states have much experience conducting elections entirely via mail. Actually, I prefer voting by mail. I recall that, earlier this year, I sat down with my ballot, looked up candidates, and marked my ballot. I also remember that, more than once, I wrote in “None of the above,” even in uncontested races.
No political party has a monopoly on vote suppression. No major political party in the United States has a clean record regarding opposing this practice.
I hesitate to apply “sacred” to secular institutions, such as the republic. However, some principles come close to being sacred. Among these principles are these:
Any political party that has difficulty appealing to voters should seek methods of appealing to them without betraying the highest ideals of human equality.
In a republic, governments should facilitate voting by citizens, not discourage it.
WILLIAM LAWRENCE HERZFELD (JUNE 9, 1937-MAY 9, 2002)
U.S. Lutheran Ecumenist, Presiding Bishop of the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches, and Civil Rights Activist
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Will was a person with uncanny insight, constant respect for people, and a focus on the gospel. He conveyed the partnership, accompaniment, of a large North American church with churches in other lands in a manner that transcended economic, cultural, and political boundaries.
–Bonnie L. Jansen, Executive Director, Division for Global Mission, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; quoted in G. Scott Cady and Christopher L. Webber, A Year with American Saints (2006), 408
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Bishop Will Herzfeld was a leader of U.S. Lutheranism. He departed from one denomination, helped to form two denominations, and played a vital role in increasing the degree of unity of Lutheranism in the United States. Activism in support of civil rights was a component of his faith.
Herzfeld grew up in the Jim Crow South. He, born in Mobile, Alabama, on June 9, 1937, was a son of Julius Herzfeld, Sr., and Clarice Heinningburg Herzfeld. Our saint grew up in The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS)–in Faith Lutheran Church, Mobile, to be precise. He attended parochial schools then other Lutheran institutions of education for African Americans. Herzfeld graduated from the subpar Alabama Lutheran Academy and College (now Concordia College), Selma. He carried negative memories of this institution for the rest of his life. Our saint also graduated from Immanuel Lutheran College, Greensboro, North Carolina (1957). Herzfeld went on to graduate from Immanuel Lutheran Seminary, Greensboro (M.Div., 1961), and to continue his studies at Concordia Theological Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri. Meanwhile, he married Thressa M. Alston at Kannapolis, North Carolina, on June 11, 1961. The couple had four children–two daughters and two sons–three of whom lived to adulthood. Their first child, a daughter, lived only one day.
Herzfeld was an ordained minister in the LCMS from 1961 to 1976. His first pastorate was Christ Lutheran Church, Tuscaloosa, Alabama (1961-1965). Our saint became a leader in the Civil Rights Movement while in Tuscaloosa. He helped to organize the Tuscaloosa chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1963. Herzfeld, the first president of that chapter, worked closely with Martin Luther King, Jr. (1939-1968). OUr saint also served as the president of the Alabama branch of the SCLC (1964-1965). On the denominational level, he was active in the Southern District of the LCMS. Our saint sat on the Stewardship Committee and the Family Life Committee. Furthermore, he was the Vice President of the Lutheran Human Relations Association of America (1964-1966).
Herzfeld ministered in the California-Nevada-Hawaii District of the LCMS, starting . He, based in Oakland, California, was an urban minister for the district (1966-1969). Our saint also served as the regional mission executive of the Lutheran Council in the U.S.A. (1969-1973). This service overlapped with his time on the LCMS Board of Missions (1969-1973), the Council for Christian Medical Work (1973-1975), and the Board of Directors of the Wheat Ridge Foundation (now the We Raise Foundation) from 1069 to 1972. The latter organization addresses social inequality.
Herzfeld ministered in the California-Nevada-Hawaii District of the LCMS, starting in 1966. He, based in Oakland, California, was an urban minister for the district (1966-1969). Our saint also served as the regional mission executive of the Lutheran Council in the U.S.A. (1969-1973). This service overlapped with his time on the LCMS Board of Missions (1969-1973), the Council for Christian Medical Work (1973-1975), and the Board of Directors of the Wheat Ridge Foundation (now the We Raise Foundation) from 1969 to 1972. (The We Raise Foundation addresses social inequality.)
Above: Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Oakland, California
Image Source = Google Earth
Herzfeld was the pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Oakland, California, from 1973 to 1992. These were eventful years for U.S. Lutheranism. Our saint, who had represented LCMS President Jacob Preus at the seventy-fifth anniversary of the LCMS mission in India in 1969, broke with Preus during the doctrinal turmoil (1969-1976) in the denomination. Herzfeld became the vice president of the moderate Evangelical Lutherans in Mission (ELIM) in 1973. Three years later, he became the Vice President of the moderate, breakaway Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC), to which ELIM gave birth. The AELC eventually changed its title to Presiding Bishop. Herzfeld became the Presiding Bishop in 1984. By then he had been active for years in efforts to merge the AELC, the Lutheran Church in America (1962-1987), and The American Lutheran Church (1960-1987) into the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
Herzfeld was socially and politically active. He taught urban ministry at the Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, Berkeley, California, starting in 1976. He devoted much to ecumenical Black Theology-related projects and organizations for decades. Our saint always seemed to find time for work in civil rights. He worked for nuclear disarmament. Herzfeld, active in urban renewal in Oakland, served in a variety of capacities toward that end. He also found time to be the chaplain of the Golden State Warriors, a professional basketball team, from 1984 to 1991.
Herzfeld made history. He made history in 1984, when he became the first African-American head of a U.S. Lutheran denomination. He made history in the 1980s by being prominent in the movement to bring global pressure on the Apartheid-era governments of South Africa. Our saint made history by helping to seal the deal to form the ELCA.
Meanwhile, Herzfeld continued his education. He earned two doctorates–one from the Center for Urban Black Studies, the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California; and the other one from Seminex.
Herzfeld resigned from Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Oakland, at the end of 1992 to accept promotion to the denominational level. He moved to Chicago, Illinois, to become the Director for Global Community and Overseas Operations of the Division of Global Mission of the ELCA. He, already a presence in global Lutheranism, expanded his worldwide profile. He served as the Vice Presidency of Lutheran World Relief. Our saint, a vice president of the National Council of Churches during his final years, was also active in the World Council of Churches and the Lutheran World Federation. Herzfeld represented the ELCA globally in a variety of capacities and at a number of events.
In 2002, Herzfeld visited the Central African Republic. He went there to attend the ordination of the first female Lutheran minister in that country. Unfortunately, he also contracted cerebral malaria. A month later, on May 9, our saint died at Resurrection Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois. Had Herzfeld lived one month longer, he would have celebrated his sixty-fifth birthday.
Survivors included Herzfeld’s former wife, Thressa; his three adult children–Martin, Katherine, and Stephen; and five grandchildren. Our saint’s second wife, the Reverend Michele L. Robinson, had died in May 2001.
Herzfeld’s death prompted many remembrances and kind words. Perhaps the most poignant statement came from a colleague, Herbert Chilstrom, the first Presiding Bishop of the ELCA. Chilstrom said,
I’ve lost a friend.
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God of justice, we praise you as we thank you for the
life, work, and legacy of your servant, Will Herzfeld.
May we, deriving inspiration from his example,
confront and resist systems of oppression and artificial inequality
as we strive to live according to the Golden Rule
and to leave society better than we found it.
May we also work to break down unnecessary barriers
to greater ecclesiastical unity and cooperation, for your glory.
In the Name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Amos 5:21-24
Psalm 95
Galatians 5:13-15
Matthew 25:31-46
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
APRIL 28, 2020 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF JAROSLAV VAJDA, U.S. LUTHERAN MINISTER, HYMN TRANSLATOR, AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAINT JOZEF CEBULA, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1941
THE FEAST OF SAINT PAMPHILIUS OF SULMONA, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP AND ALMSGIVER
THE FEAST OF SAINT PETER CHANEL, PROTOMARTYR OF OCEANIA, 1841
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM STRINGFELLOW, EPISCOPAL ATTORNEY, THEOLOGIAN, AND SOCIAL ACTIVIST
ANNA ELLISON BUTLER ALEXANDER (1865?-SEPTEMBER 24, 1947)
African-American Episcopal Deaconess in Georgia, and Educator
Deaconess Anna Ellison Butler Alexander comes to this, my Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via The Episcopal Church.
The history of this feast exemplifies how many commemorations rise to the denominational level in The Episcopal Church.
The feast rose from the diocesan level. In 1998 Henry Irving Louttit, Jr., the Bishop of Georgia, declared Deaconess Anna Alexander a saint of Georgia, with the feast day of September 24. The feast rose to the national level at the General Convention of 2015, which added the commemoration to A Great Cloud of Witnesses (2016), the expanded version of the official calendar of saints contained in Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2006 (2007). The General Convention of 2018 approved the greatly expanded official calendar of saints, Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2018 (as of the writing of this post, available as a PDF, pending the final, published version next year), with the deaconess included.
As with many other Southern African-Americans of the time, the date–the year, even–of Anna’s birth remained uncertain, due to the lack of written records. Records of the Diocese of Georgia listed her year of birth as 1878. In 1947 her death certificate listed 1881 as her year of birth. Anna’s birth actually occurred shortly after the end of the Civil War. Most recent sources have given 1865 as her year of birth.
Above: Coastal Georgia, 1951
Scanned from Hammond’s Complete World Atlas (1951)
Our saint was the youngest of eleven children of former slaves James and Daphne Alexander (married in 1841), of the Pierce Butler Plantation on St. Simon’s Island, Georgia. Daphne was a child of plantation rape; her biological father was Roswell King, Jr. James, or “Aleck,” was a skilled carpenter and builder, as well as Butler’s personal assistant. The Alexanders instilled the value of education into their children, and modeled it. James, for example, taught himself to read and write. The couple, when slaves, violated the law against educating slaves; they taught their children.
Above: Glynn and McIntosh Counties, Georgia, 1951
Scanned from Hammond’s Complete World Atlas (1951)
Anna, raised in The Episcopal Church, found the public education available to her in Glynn County, Georgia, substandard. (The inadequate education of African Americans in the Postbellum South was often a matter of policy.) It was fortunate, then, that the Alexanders provided informal education for their children. Our saint, seeking to help others less fortunate than herself, became a teacher at the parochial school (attached to St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church, Darien, Georgia) her sister, Mary Alexander Mann, had founded. (Mary’s husband, Ferdinand M. Mann, was the Vicar of St. Cyprian’s Church from 1892 to 1914.) Many also taught at the parochial school, as did another sister, Dora. The school was, for a time, a vital to the education of African Americans in Darien.
Anna’s base of operations for most of her life was the poor, rural community of Pennick, in Glynn County. In 1894 she prompted the founding of a mission, Church of the Good Shepherd. She spent 1894-1897 studying at St. Paul’s Normal School (later College), Lawrenceville, Virginia. Episcopal priest James Solomon Russell (1857-1935) had founded the school in 1888. (St. Paul’s College closed in 2013). Our saint, back in Pennick, rebuilt the congregation and, in 1901, founded the parochial school, which grew from one room to two rooms, with an apartment for the deaconess.
The Diocese of Georgia, founded in 1823, divided in 1907; the Diocese of Atlanta formed to the northwest of the rump Diocese of Georgia. Bishop Cleland Kinloch Nelson, based in Atlanta when he was the Bishop of Georgia (1892-1907), remained in the capital city and became the first Bishop of Atlanta (1907-1917). Nelson was a relatively liberal white Georgian of the time. He disapproved of Jim Crow, but knew he could not change the system alone, so he at least tried to keep his diocese integrated. Nelson also encouraged African-American missions. The bishop was not all-powerful, however; he could not override the collective will of the majority of lay people. So, in 1907, after the as the Diocese of Atlanta was forming, the Diocese of Georgia was segregating. Nevertheless, one of Nelson’s final acts as the Bishop of Georgia was to consecrate Anna Alexander as a deaconess–the only African-American deaconess in the denomination. He did this on Friday, May 13, 1907, at the second annual meeting of the Council of Colored Churchmen.
The rump Diocese of Georgia was officially segregated for four decades. During most of that time policy was to discourage African-American missions. In 1907-1946 there were no African-American delegates to the annual diocesan conventions. The Council of Colored Churchmen, formed in 1906, barely had any representation on diocesan committees. Bishop Frederick Focke Reese (in office 1908-1936), a racist who delivered paternalistic addresses to African-American clergymen, neglected African-American congregations and schools financially. Therefore, much financial assistance had to come from other sources, official (such as the denomination) and individual. Anna was an effective fund raiser in this context. The deaconess provided an education to many African-American youth and shepherded them into further education–some at colleges and others at technical schools. She also worked as a cook at Camp Reese, the diocesan, whites-only summer camp on St. Simon’s Island, for a number of years. The racially segregated Diocese of Georgia named a cabin after her in 1938. The deaconess, while working as a cook for white campers at Camp Reese, brought groups of African-American youth to St. Simon’s Island and provided a sort of summer camp for them.
Bishop Middleton Stuart Barnwell (in office 1936-1954), unlike Bishop Reese, took an interest in African-American missions. He spent diocesan funds to replace or repair buildings. And, in 1947, he welcomed African Americans to the first racially integrated diocesan convention in four decades.
During the Great Depression Good Shepherd, Pennick, was a distribution center for federal and private aid in Glynn County. Anna, who ministered to her neighbors without regard to race, was in charge of distribution. She wrote:
I am to see everyone gets what they need….some folk don’t need help now and I know who they are. The old people and the children, they need the most….When I tell some people they can’t get help just now…that others come first, they get mad, a little, but I don’t pay no mind and soon they forget to be mad.
The deaconess earned respect in her community and vicinity; many white men removed their hats in deference when she walked past them.
Anna died on September 24, 1947. She was either in her late seventies or early eighties. She remained mostly forgotten for many years. The Episcopal Church in Georgia, 1733-1957 (1960), by Henry Thompson Malone, never mentioned the deaconess’s name. Even the otherwise excellent Black Episcopalians in Georgia: Strife, Struggle and Salvation (1980), by Charles Lwanga Hoskins, frequently misidentified her as Dora. (Father Hoskins was a wonderful man, a charming priest, and a fine homilist. When I was a member of Trinity Episcopal Church, Statesboro, Georgia, he was a supply priest, filling in when the Rector was away. Memories of some of his sermons have never ceased to edify me spiritually. Hoskins did, however, often mistake Anna for her sister, Dora, in his book, still an invaluable source for this post.) In recent years, however, Anna’s legacy has become more prominent, fortunately. It has become sufficiently prominent that, in January 2018, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, an African American, visited Good Shepherd, Pennick.
May that legacy become more prominent.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
SEPTEMBER 4, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF PAUL JONES, EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF UTAH, AND PEACE ACTIVIST; AND HIS COLLEAGUE, JOHN NEVIN SAYRE, EPISCOPAL PRIEST AND PEACE ACTIVIST
THE FEAST OF E. F. SCHUMACHER, GERMAN-BRITISH ECONOMIST AND SOCIAL CRITIC
THE FEAST OF JOSEPH AND MARY GOMER, U.S. UNITED BRETHREN MISSIONARIES IN SIERRA LEONE
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM MCKANE, SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND BIBLICAL SCHOLAR
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O God, you called Anna Alexander as a deaconess in your Church
and sent her as teacher and evangelist to the people of Georgia:
Grant us the humility to go wherever you send
and the wisdom to teach the word of Christ to whomever we meet,
that all may come to the enlightenment which you intend for your people;
through Jesus Christ, our Teacher and Savior. Amen.
—A Great Cloud of Witnesses: A Calendar of Commemorations (2016)
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O God, who called Anna Alexander as a deaconess in your Church:
Grant us the humility to go wherever you send
and the wisdom to teach the word of Christ to whomever we meet,
that all may come to the enlightenment you intend for your people;
through Jesus Christ, our Teacher and Savior. Amen.
CLARENCE LEONARD JORDAN (JULY 29, 1912-OCTOBER 29, 1969)
Southern Baptist Minister and Witness for Civil Rights
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He took the Bible seriously.
–United Methodist Minister James Howell of Charlotte, North Carolina, on Clarence Jordan, 2012
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Deeds reveal creeds. Orthodoxy is right doctrine. Orthopraxy is correct practice. The first necessarily leads to the second. Such as one thinks, one is.
Clarence Jordan (pronounced JER-dun) came from rural western Georgia. He, born in Talbotton, Georgia, on July 29, 1912, was a son of James Weaver Jordan and Maude Josey. While growing up our saint wondered how church-going Christians could support Jim Crow laws. He studied Agriculture at The University of Georgia, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in 1933. While at UGA, Jordan edited the Georgia Agriculturalist and served as the state president of the Baptist Student Union. In 1933 our saint also matriculated at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky (Th.M., 1936; Ph.D., 1939). He, ordained in 1934, served as a pastor of several rural congregations while pursuing degrees. In July 1936 Jordan married Florence Kroeger (d. 1987) of Louisville; the couple had four children.
Jordan could have taught on the college level or been minister of a large church, but he chose instead to found (with Martin and Mabel England) the Koinonia Farm south of Americus, Georgia, in Sumter County, in 1942. Southwestern Georgia has long been a reactionary place (I know; I used to live there.), so Koinonia Farm was especially radical in its setting. The model for the farm came from the Acts of the Apostles; there was a common treasury. Jordan and company practiced radical egalitarianism and lived in a racially integrated community. They were also pacifistic. Jordan considered racism, discrimination, and economic injustice sinful. He was truly a counter-cultural figure. The farm became a target for violence, ostracism, and economic boycotts. Were they communists? No. Were they patriotic? Yes. They took the Bible seriously.
Above: Fellowship Baptist Church, Americus, Georgia, June 13, 2018
Photographer = Kenneth Randolph Taylor
The presence of a mixed-race group at a church in Americus, Georgia, was controversial into at least the 1970s. In 1973, for example, the deacons of First Baptist Church voted to bar African Americans from joining the congregation. Fellowship Baptist Church formed in protest. (It is still one of the more liberal congregations in town.) One time in the 1960s the senior pastor of First Baptist Church visited Koinonia Farm and invited the people there to attend that night’s revival service. They accepted the invitation. Soon First Baptist Church was looking for a new senior minister. Meanwhile, across the street, at First Methodist Church, men clad in their Sunday best kept African Americans from attending Sunday morning services. They turned away Jordan and a group from Koinonia.
In 1968 Koinonia Farm reorganized as Koinonia Partners.
Jordan, a sought-after speaker on the liberal lecture circuit, as well as a friend of Dorothy Day and Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote the Cotton Patch Versions of New Testament books. Thus Jerusalem became Atlanta, Nazareth became Valdosta, et cetera. Jordan was writing another Cotton Patch Version on October 29, 1969, when he died of a heart attack at Koinonia Partners. He was 57 years old.
Habitat for Humanity, founded by Millard Fuller (1935-2009) and Linda Fuller, is part of the continuing legacy of Clarence Jordan’s radical experiment in Christian community. (The Fullers were two of the Koinonia Partners.)
Koinonia continues, fortunately.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 11, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT BARNABAS THE APOSTLE, COWORKER OF SAINT PAUL THE APOSTLE
–Lesbia Scott, “I Sing a Song of the Saints of God,” in The Hymnal 1982, #293
And some of them died last year.
This is and Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days. And it is mycalendar, so formal canonization by an ecclesiastical authority is not necessary. Today I add a witness for civil rights in Oklahoma and elsewhere to that roll of honor which includes Apostles, martyrs, theologians, and founders of religious orders.
Clara Luper was born into a segregated society in Oklahoma in 1923. Her father was a bricklayer and her mother was a laundress. Since the family was African-American, they could not eat at certain restaurants or attend some schools. The saint graduated from Langston College in 1944. Then, in 1950, she and other African Americans integrated the University of Oklahoma. She graduated with an M.A. in history education in 1951.
She became a high school history teacher and a civil rights activist. So, in 1958, at Oklahoma City, the saint became a leader in the sit-in movement to integrate dining establishments in that municipality. She also advised the local NAACP chapters’s Youth Council. Between 1958 and 1964 the saint played a crucial role in integrating hundreds of establishments in Oklahoma. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, of course, outlawed racial discrimination in privately owned public accommodations, such as restaurants.
The saint also sought to improve society in other ways. She continued her teaching career. And she participated in the March on Washington (1963) and the marches at Selma, Alabama (1965). The saint also ran for the United States Senate in 1972.
Clara Luper died in 2011, aged 88 years. The State of Oklahoma had honored her by then.
Those who claim that one person cannot change society are mistaken. Society is concrete, not abstract. It is simply us. It is what we have made it; so we can change it. May we do so for the better, expanding civil rights and diminishing discrimination, among other things.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MAY 8, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT BENEDICT II, BISHOP OF ROME
THE FEAST OF DAME JULIAN OF NORWICH, SPIRITUAL WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAINT MAGDALENA OF CANOSSA, FOUNDER OF THE DAUGHTERS OF CHARITY AND THE SONS OF CHARITY
THE FEAST OF SAINT PETER OF TARENTAISE, ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP
SUNDRY THOUGHTS 
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