William Wilberforce, 1833

William Wilberforce was born into an affluent Yorkshire family in Hull in 1759, and was educated at St John’s College, Cambridge.  He was elected to the House of Commons in 1780, and he served in the House until 1825.

His conversion to an evangelical Christian life occurred in 1784.  He was induced by friends not to leave Parliament and abandon his political activities after this inward change in his life, but to bring his newfound principles to bear in political life.  He remained in the House of Commons, but thereafter he steadfastly refused to accept high office or a peerage.

Wilberforce gave himself unstintingly to the promotion of overseas missions, popular education, and the reformation of public manners and morals.  He supported parliamentary reform and Catholic emancipation.  But chiefly his fame rests on his persistent and uncompromising crusade for the abolition of slavery and the slave trade.  Chiefly due to his efforts, Parliament abolished the slave trade in 1807, and in 1833 slavery itself was abolished throughout the British empire, just one month after Wilberforce’s death.

Wilberforce’s eloquence as a speaker, his charm in personal address, and his profound Christian spirit, made him a formidable power for good.  He died on July 29, 1833, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

adapted from Lesser Feasts and Fasts (1980)

The Collect

Let your continual mercy, O Lord, kindle in your Church the never-failing gift of love, that, following the example of your servant William Wilberforce, we may have grace to defend the poor, and maintain the cause of those who have no helper; for the sake of him who gave his life for us, your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Mary, Martha, and Lazarus of Bethany

This little family of Bethany were Jesus’ friends who opened their home to him, and it was at their house that he found refreshment during his earthly ministry.  The depth of affection and love that they had for Jesus, and he for them, is evident in the Gospel narratives about them, most particularly in the story of Lazarus death in the Gospel according to John.  The names of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, on various dates, appear in lists of martyrs from the seventh and eighth centuries.

Mary, a form of Miriam, is portrayed in the tenth chapter of Luke and the eleventh chapter of John as a contemplative person with a single-minded absorption in the kingdom of God.  In John’s account, at dinner six days before the Passion, Mary anointed Jesus, perhaps as a sign of his royal dignity, which he took to be a consecration of himself for his approaching sacrifice.

Martha, whose name means “lady” or “mistress”, has come rather unfairly to represent the unrecollected activist.  She was of a practical turn to be sure, but she enjoyed the friendship and esteem of Jesus nonetheless, and it was she who made the confession of faith when Jesus came after the death of Lazarus, “I believe that your are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

In the tenth chapter of Luke the house where the three siblings lives is called Martha’s.  In the twelfth chapter of John the supper at Bethany at which Lazarus was present and at which Martha again served, is held at the house of Simon the leper.  This has led some to suggest that Mary may have been the widow of Simon.

Lazarus, who was raised from the dead by Jesus, is in the Fourth Gospel a sign of the eternal life possessed by those who believe.  Lazarus’ character is evidenced by the love that Mary, Martha, and Jesus all had for him.

Devotion to Lazarus was apparently widespread in the early Church.  He is commemorated in the Eastern Church on the Saturday before the Sunday of the Passion (Palm Sunday), called “Lazarus Saturday”, which anticipates the resurrection of Jesus on the following Saturday night.  According to a curious legend, Lazarus, his sisters, and some friends were put in a leaky boat by their enemies and miraculously made their way to Cyprus where Lazarus was made a bishop.  In 890 what were thought to be his relics were taken to Constantinople and a church was built there in his honor.  In an eleventh century legend, Lazarus had been bishop of Marseilles and was martyred under Domitian.  (The legend perhaps confuses Lazarus of Bethany with the fifth century Bishop Lazarus of Aix.)

from The New Book of Festivals and Commemorations
(Phillip Pfatteicher, Fortress Press © 2008), with amendments

The Collect

O God,  heavenly Father, your Son Jesus Christ enjoyed rest and refreshment in the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus of Bethany:  Give us the will to love you, open our hearts to hear you, and strengthen our hands to serve you in others for his sake; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Lo! I come with joy to do the Master’s blessed will,
him in outward works pursue, and serve his pleasure still;
faithful to my Lord’s commands, I still would choose the better part,
serve with careful Martha’s hands, and loving Mary’s heart.

from the text, “For a Believer, in Worldly Business”, Charles Wesley (1747)

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The icon of Saint Mary, Saint Martha, and Saint Lazarus is taken from the website of the Holy Transfiguration Monastery.

William Reed Huntington, Presbyter, 1909

“First Presbyter of the Church” was the well-deserved, if unofficial, title of the sixth rector of Grace Church, New York City.  Huntington provided a leadership characterized by breadth, generosity, scholarship, and boldness.  He was the acknowledged leader in the House of Deputies of the Protestant Episcopal Church’s General Convention during a period of intense conflict within the Church, and his reconciling spirit helped preserve the unity of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the early days after the departure of George David Cummins, the assistant bishop of Kentucky, and the formation of the Reformed Episcopal Church.

In the House of Deputies, of which he was a member from 1871 until 1907, Huntington showed active and pioneering vision in making daring proposals.  As early as 1871, his motion to revive the primitive order of deaconesses began a long struggle which culminated in 1889 in canonical authorization for that order.  Huntington’s parish immediately provided facilities for the new ministry, and Huntington House became a training center for deaconesses and other women workers in the Church.

Christian unity was Huntington’s great passion throughout his ministry.  In his book, The Church Idea (1870), he attempted to articulate the essentials of Christian unity.  The grounds he proposed as a basis for unity were presented to, and accepted by, the House of Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Chicago in 1886, and with some modification, were adopted by the Lambeth Conference of 1888.  The Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral of 1) the Holy Scriptures, 2) the historic Creeds, 3) the Sacraments of the Lord’s Supper and Baptism, and 4) the historic episcopate, has become an historic landmark for the Anglican Communion.

In addition to his roles as ecumenist and churchman, Huntington is significant as a liturgical scholar.  It was his proposal to revise the American Prayer Book that led to the revision of 1892, providing a hitherto unknown flexibility and significant enrichment.  His Collect for Monday in Holy Week, now used also for Fridays at Morning Prayer, is itself an example of skillful revision.  In it he took two striking clauses from the exhortation to the sick in the 1662 Prayer Book, and joined them as part of a prayer for grace to follow the Lord in his sufferings.

adapted from Lesser Feasts and Fasts (1980)

The Collect

O Lord our God, we thank you for instilling in the heart of your servant William Reed Huntington a fervent love for your Church and its mission in the world; and we pray that, with unflagging faith in your promises, we may make known to all people your blessed gift of eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

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The icon of William Reed Huntington was written by Tobias Stanislas Haller, BSG, and is reproduced here with his generous permission.

Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Gospels tell us little about the home of our Lord’s mother.  She is thought to have been of Davidic descent and to have been brought up in a devout Jewish family who cherished the hope of Israel for the coming kingdom of God, in remembrance of the promise God made to Abraham.

In the second century,  a pious Christian sought to supply a fuller account of Mary’s birth and early life to satisfy the interest and curiosity of believers and bequeathed to the Church a pseudepigraphal book known as the Protoevangelium of James, also known as The Nativity of Mary.  The book includes a legendary narrative of Mary’s parents, Joachim and Anne, built out of the Old Testament narratives of the births of Isaac and of Samuel (whose mother’s name, Hannah, is the original form of Anne), and from traditions of the birth of John the Baptist.  In this narrative, Joachim and Anne – a faithful but childless elderly couple who grieved that they would have no posterity – were rewarded with the birth of a girl whom they dedicated in infancy to the service of God under the tutelage of the Temple priests.

In 550 the emperor Justinian the First erected in Constantinople the first church dedicated to Saint Anne.  The increasing veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the West led to new interest in her parents, such that Anne’s feast was kept at Canterbury from around the beginning of the twelfth century and spread to Worcester soon afterwards.  Churches in the Rhineland (at Duren), Apt-en-Provence, Canterbury, Reading, and Durham claimed her relics.  In the East, she is commemorated on July 25.  In the West, in 1378 Pope Urban the Sixth fixed Anne’s feast on July 26, to follow the feast of Saint James.  Joachim’s commemoration in the West was comparatively late, there being no official veneration until the fifteenth century.  In the East the feast of Joachim and Anne together has been on September 9 for many centuries.  In the Roman Martyrology, Joachim was commemorated on March 20.  The later date of his commemoration was August 16, but the new Roman Calendar of 1969 joined his feast day to that of Saint Anne on July 26.

In art Anne is often represented teaching Mary to read, a depiction that may be English in origin, as there are thirteenth century examples in manuscripts at the Bodleian Library and in murals in Northhampshire.  She and Joachim are also often depicted at their betrothal or marriage.

prepared from Lesser Feasts and Fasts (1980) and
The Oxford Dictionary of Saints

The Collect

Almighty God, heavenly Father, we remember in thanksgiving this day the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary; and we pray that we all may be made one in the heavenly family of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

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The image above is from Giotto di Bondone’s Meeting at the Golden Gate, 1266.

Saint James the Apostle

James, often called “the Greater”, was a Galilean fisherman who with his brother John was one of the first disciples called by Jesus to follow him.  The two brothers, sons of Zebedee, were called Boanerges, “sons of thunder”, and were part of the inner circle of the disciples, along with Simon Peter.  They were present with Jesus at his tranfiguration and with him in the garden of Gethsamane.  They angered the other disciples by asking Jesus for places of honor when he was to come into his glory, one at his right hand and one at his left (the Gospel according to Matthew relates that their mother asked this favor of Jesus).  They were present for the appearances of Jesus after his resurrection.

James was the first of the apostles to suffer martyrdom, being put to the sword on the orders of Herod Agrippa, who hoped in vain that, by getting rid of the leaders of the early Jerusalem Christian community, he could stem the flow of those hearing the good news and becoming followers of the Way.  James’ martyrdom is thought to have taken place in the year 44.

A ninth century legend places the relics of Saint James in the eponymous city of Santiago in Galicia, in northwestern Spain.  The great cathedral and shrine of Santiago became one of the great pilgrimage centers of western Europe during the Middle Ages.  Monasteries, both Cluniac and Augustinian,  were built along the famous pilgrims’ route to provide hospitality for the pilgrims.  Pilgrims to Santiago would return bearing on their cloaks the scallop shell as a sign of their having made the pilgrimage, hence the appearance of the shell in western iconography of Saint James.

prepared from Celebrating the Saints and other sources

The Collect

O gracious God, we remember before you today your servant and apostle James, first among the Twelve to suffer martyrdom for the Name of Jesus Christ; and we pray that you will pour out upon the leaders of your Church that spirit of self-denying service by which alone they may have true authority among your people; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

The First Lesson
Jeremiah 45:1-5

The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah, when he wrote these words in a book at the dictation of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to you, O Baruch: You said, ‘Woe is me! For the Lord has added sorrow to my pain. I am weary with my groaning, and I find no rest.’ Thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord: Behold, what I have built I am breaking down, and what I have planted I am plucking up—that is, the whole land. And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not, for behold, I am bringing disaster upon all flesh, declares the Lord. But I will give you your life as a prize of war in all places to which you may go.”

Psalm 7:1-10
Domine Deus meus

O LORD my God, I take refuge in you; *
save and deliver me from all who pursue me;

Lest like a lion they tear me in pieces *
and snatch me away with none to deliver me.

O LORD my God, if I have done these things: *
if there is any wickedness in my hands,

If I have repaid my friend with evil, *
or plundered him who without cause is my enemy;

Then let my enemy pursue and overtake me, *
trample my life into the ground,
and lay my honor in the dust.

Stand up, O LORD, in your wrath; *
rise up against the fury of my enemies.

Awake, O my God, decree justice; *
let the assembly of the peoples gather round you.

Be seated on your lofty throne, O Most High; *
O LORD, judge the nations.

Give judgment for me according to my
righteousness, O LORD, *
and according to my innocence, O Most High.

Let the malice of the wicked come to an end,
but establish the righteous; *
for you test the mind and heart, O righteous God.

The Second Lesson
Acts 11:27-12:3

Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world (this took place in the days of Claudius). So the disciples determined, everyone according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.

About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of John with the sword, and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread.

The Gospel
Matthew 20:20-28

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.” He said to them, “You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
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The Lessons and Gospel are taken from the English Standard Version Bible.  The Collect and Psalm are taken from the Book of Common Prayer (1979).

The icon of Saint James is from the workshop of Simone Martini, c. 1320.  This image is © National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Birgitta, Abbess of Vadstena, 1373

Born in 1303, the daughter of the wealthy governor of Uppland, Birgitta (Bridget) married at the age of fourteen.  She bore her husband eight children, and in 1335 she was summoned to the Swedish court to be the chief lady-in-waiting to the queen, Blanche of Namur, wife of King Magnus the Second.  It was at this time that she began to have supernatural revelations.  The king and queen respect her, but they did not reform their lives according to her revelations, and the courtiers gossiped about her.  On the death of her husband at the Cistercian abbey at Alvastra, Birgitta retired there to live as a penitent from 1343 to 1346.

Having gained an understanding during her retirement of what she should now do, in 1346 she founded a monastery at Vadstena, on the shores of Lake Vättern, for sixty nuns and twenty-five monks, who lives in separate cloisters but shared the same church.  Her Rule stipulated:

“the number of choir nuns shall not exceed sixty, with four lay sisters; the priests shall be thirteen, according to the number of the thirteen apostles, of whom Paul the thirteenth was not the least in toil; then there must be four deacons, who also may be priests if they will, and they are the figure of the four principal Doctors, Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory, and Jerome, the eight lay brothers, who with their labours shall minister necessaries to the clerics, therefore counting three-score sisters, thirteen priests, four deacons, and the eight servitors, the number of persons will be the same as the thirteen Apostles and the seventy-two disciples”.

The nuns were strictly cloistered, with an emphasis on scholarship and study, but the monks could also serve as preachers and itinerant missionaries.  In temporal matters the abbess was supreme, while in spiritual ones the prior of the monks was.  All superfluous income was given to the poor, and luxurious buildings were forbidden, but the nuns and monks could have as many books for study as they wished.  The Brigettine Order enjoyed the generous patronage of King Magnus.

In 1349 Birgitta went to Rome to obtain approval for her Order.  She never returned to Sweden but spent the rest of her life in Italy or on pilgrimages, including one to the Holy Land.  Her austerity of life, her devotion both in visiting shrines and in serving pilgrims, the poor, and the sick were impressive.  Throughout this time her visions continued.  Some were of Christ’s Passion.  Others, marked by comminatory prophecies and sayings, were concerned with political and religious events of her own day.  She attempted to dissuade King Magnus from a so-called crusade against the pagans of Estonia and Latvia, and like other visionaries she warned Pope Clement the Sixth to return to Rome from Avignon and to make peace between England and France.

Birgitta died on July 23, 1373 in Rome.  Her commemoration was formerly on October 8, the date of her canonization and of the translation of her relics to Vadstena Abbey.

The Brigettine Order was approved by the Holy See.  At its greatest extent it numbered seventy houses, but nearly all of its northern European houses (the bulk of the Order’s houses) were dissolved during the Reformation.  There is now a Swedish branch with houses in Europe, Asia (including India), and North America; and a Spanish branch with houses in Spain, Mexico, and Venezuela.  While a twentieth century attempt to revive the Brigettine monks in England was eventually unsuccessful, in 1976 the monks were revived as the Brigettine Order of the Most Holy Savior with the establishment of the Monastery of Our Lady of Consolation in Amity, Oregon.  The Societas Sanctae Birgittae (SSB) is a high church Lutheran religous order founded in 1920 in response to a charge by Archbishop Nathan Söderblom to deepen the spiritual life of the Church of Sweden by highlighting the rich spiritual life inherent in the Swedish tradition focused on the life and spirituality of St Birgitta and by deepening contact with Brigittine communities throughout the world and with corresponding
spiritual movements in the Church of Sweden.  The SSB lives out this charge by serving the Church of Sweden with liturgical worship emphasizing the celebration of the Eucharist, with preaching that is faithful to the Scriptures and the Creed, and with pastoral care.

prepared from The Oxford Dictionary of Saints and other sources

The Collect

O God, by whose grace your servant Birgitta of Sweden, kindled with the flame of your love, became a burning and a shining light in your Church: Grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline, and walk before you as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Saint Mary Magdalene

Mary of Magdala near Capernaum was one of several women who followed Jesus and ministered to him in Galilee.  The Gospel according to Luke records that Jesus “went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out” (Luke 8:1-2).  The Gospels tell us that Mary was healed by Jesus, followed him, and was one of thos who stood near his cross at Calvary.

Mary Magdalene’s life was changed radically by Jesus’ healing.  Her ministry of service and steadfast companionship, even as a witness to the crucifixion, has through the centuries been an example of the faithful ministry of women to Christ.  All four Gospels name Mary as one of the women who went to the tomb to mourn and to care of Jesus’ body in burial.  Her weeping for the loss of her Lord strikes a common chord with the grief of all others over the death of loved ones.  Jesus’ tender response to her grief – meeting her in the garden, revealing himself to her by calling her name – makes her the first witness to the risen Lord.  She is given the command, ” go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” (John 20:17).  As the first messenger of the resurrection, she tells the disciples, “I have seen the Lord” (John 20:18).

In the Eastern Churches, Mary is venerated as isapostolos:  equal to the Apostles.  Eastern tradition holds that Mary went to Ephesus with Mary, the mother of Jesus, and John the Evangelist, and that there she died and was buried.  Willibald, the eighth century English monk who traveled widely through the Christian world, saw the traditional site of her tomb.  Her feast has been kept in the West since the eighth century, and her popularity in England is reflected in the nearly two hundred ancient dedications of churches and her universal appearance in medieval sanctoral calendars.  Both Oxford and Cambridge have a college dedicated to her.

taken from Lesser Feasts and Fasts (1980), alt.,
with additions from The Oxford Dictionary of Saints

The Collect

Almighty God, whose blessed Son restored Mary Magdalene to health of body and of mind, and called her to be a witness of his resurrection: Mercifully grant that by your grace we may be healed from all our infirmities and know you in the power of his unending life; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The Lesson
Judith 9:1,11-14

Then Judith fell upon her face and put ashes on her head and uncovered the sackcloth she was wearing; and at the very time when that evening’s incense was being offered in the house of God in Jerusalem, Judith cried out to the Lord with a loud voice and said:

“For your power depends not upon numbers, or your might upon men of strength; for you are God of the lowly, helper of the oppressed, upholder of the weak, protector of the forlorn, Savior of those without hope. Hear, O hear me, God of my father, God the inheritance of Israel, Lord of heavne and earth, Creator of the waters, King of all our creation, hear my prayer! Make my deceitful words to be their wound and stripe, for they have planned cruel things against your covenant and against your consecrated house and against the top of Zion and against the house possessed by your children. And cause your whole nation and tribe to know and understand that you are God, the God of all power and might and that there is no other who protects the people of Israel but you alone!”

Psalm 42:1-7
Quemadmodum

As the deer longs for the water-brooks, *
so longs my soul for you, O God.

My soul is athirst for God, athirst for the living God; *
when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?

My tears have been my food day and night, *
while all day long they say to me,
“Where now is your God?”

I pour out my soul when I think on these things: *
how I went with the multitude and led them into the house of God,

With the voice of praise and thanksgiving, *
among those who keep holy-day.

Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul? *
and why are you so disquieted within me?

Put your trust in God; *
for I will yet give thanks to him,
who is the help of my countenance, and my God.

The Epistle
2 Corinthians 5:14-18

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

The Gospel
John 20:11-18

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.
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The Lesson, Epistle, and Gospel are taken from the English Standard Version Bible.  The Collect and Psalm are taken from the Book of Common Prayer (1979).

Macrina, Monastic and Teacher, 379

Macrina was born around the year 327, the daughter of Basil the Elder and Emmelia, both of whom were later revered as saints, and the elder sister of  Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa.  She was known as Macrina the Younger to distinguish her from her paternal grandmother, who was known as Macrina the Elder.  The elder Macrina had lived during the days of the persecution of the emperor Diocletian, and she and her husband had fled into hiding, living into the time of the emperor Constantine and the legalization of Christianity and eventual imperial favor given to the Christian religion.

Macrina was sought after as a bride because of her beauty, her wisdom, and her illustrious birth.  She was betrothed at the age of twelve, after the custom of the day.  Upon the early death of her betrothed, she refused all other suitors, devoting herself to a life of virginity, asceticism, and prayer.  When her brother Basil returned home from the university at Athens, an accomplished rhetoritician  puffed up with youthful pride and supercilious disdain for the local officials, Macrina took him in hand, deflating his ego and persuading him to forsake earthly glory and imperial office for the work and ministry of a bishop in Christ’s Church.

On the death of her father, Basil, Macrina and her mother formed a monastic community of women who devoted themselves to the feeding and care of the poor, the hungry, and the sick.  Many of the women for whom they cared joined the community, as did women of worldly means.  Macrina’s attention to her younger brothers both before and after the death of their parents led them to give her the affectionate (and descriptive) epithet, “the Teacher”.  Three of the brothers, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Peter of Sebaste became bishops.  Basil the Great became a leader in the development of Eastern monasticism.  Another brother, Dios of Antioch, named in an ambiguous source, was the abbot of a monastery in Antioch, and founded another famous monastery in Constantinople.

Macrina ended her earthly life in the convent that she had founded on the family estate in Pontus, on July 19, 379.  Her surviving brother, Gregory of Nyssa, attended her in her dying hours and wrote a moving account of her death in his Vita Macrimae Junioris (Life of Macrina the Younger), the chief source of knowledge of her life.  Her ability as a theologian is attested in her dying prayer, as recorded by Gregory:

“You, O Lord have freed us from the fear of death.  You have made the end of this life the beginning to us of true life.  For a season you rest our bodies in sleep, and you awaken them again at the last trumpet.  You give our earth, which you have fashioned with your hands, to the earth to keep in safety.  One day you will take again what you have given, transfigurin with immortality and grace our mortal and unsightly remains.  You have saved us from the curse and from sin, having become both for our sakes.  You have broken the heads of the dragon who had seized us with his jaws, in the yawning gulf of disobedience.  You have shown us the way of resurrection, having broken the gates of hell, and have brought to nothing him who had the power of death – the devil.  You have given a sign to those who fear you in the symbol of the Holy Cross, to destroy the adversary and save our life.

“O God eternal, to Whom I have been attached from my mother’s womb, Whom my soul has loved with all its strength, to Whom I have dedicated both my flesh and my soul from my youth until now – give me an angel of light to conduct me to the place of refreshment, where is the water of rest, in the bosom of the holy Fathers.  You who broke the flaming sword and restored to Paradise the man that was crucified with you and implored your mercies, remember me, too, in your kingdom; because I, too, was crucified with you, having nailed my flesh to the cross for fear of you, and of your judgments have I been afraid.  Let not the terrible chasm separate me from your elect, nor let the slanderer stand against me in the way, nor let my sin be found before your eyes, if in anything I have sinned in word or deed or thought, led astray by the weakness of our nature.  O One Who has the power on earth to forgive sins, forgive me, that I may be refreshed and may be found before you when I put off my body, without defilement on my soul.  But may my soul be received into your spotless and undefiled hands, as an offering before you.”

Gregory records that after saying these words, she sealed her eyes and mouth and heart with the Cross.  Gradually, because of the fever and the dryness of her mouth, she was unable to speak, and those with her could recognize that she was praying only by the trembling of her lips and the movements of her hands.  When evening came, a light was brought in, and Macrina opened her eyes and looked toward the light, wanting to repeat the thanksgiving sung at the Lighting of the Lamps (the hymn Phos hilaron).  Her voice failed, and she contented herself by repeating the hymn in her heart and by lifting up her hands, while her lips moved to the words.  When she finished the prayer, she signed herself with the Cross, and “she drew a great deep breath and closed her life and her prayer together.”

prepared from various sources

The Collect

Merciful God, who called your servant Macrina to reveal in her life and her teaching the riches of your grace and truth: Mercifully grant that we, following her example, may seek after your wisdom and live according to her way; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Elizabeth Ferard, Deaconess, 1883

Elizabeth Catherine Ferard was encouraged by Bishop Archibald Tait of London to visit deaconess institutions in Germany, notable at Kaiserswerth am Rhein.  Three years later, in November 1861, she and a group of women dedicated themselves “to minister to the necessities of the Church, as servants in the Church”.  On July 18, 1862, Elizabeth received a deaconess license from Bishop Tait, making her the first deaconess in the Church of England and in the Anglican Communion.  She went on to found a community with a dual vocation of being deaconesses and religious sisters, working first in a poor parish in the King’s Cross area of London, and then moving to Notting Hill in 1873.  When her health failed, she passed on the leadership to others and died on Easter Day in 1883.

To understand the ministry of the deaconess, we need only turn to Elizabeth’s own work, Of the Deaconess Office in General, where she writes:

“Deaconesses have, according to the apostolical regulations, the office of serving the Christian congregation as Phoebe served the Church at Cenchraea.  To them is committed the care of the sick, the poor, the education of your children, and generally the help of the needy of whatever kind.  And also it is their office to be helpers, either directly or indirectly, of the ministers of the Church.

“They must, therefore, have the qualities which the Apostle requires from deacons (Acts 6:8).  They must first, be of good report; and second, be full of faith and good works.”

taken from Celebrating the Saints

The Collect

Almighty God, you have surrounded us with a great cloud of witnesses: Grant that we, encouraged by the good example of your servant Elizabeth Ferard, may persevere in running the race that is set before us, until at last we may with her attain to your eternal joy; through Jesus Christ, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury, 1099

The son of a Norman count, Henry of Seez, Osmund came to England in the wake of William the Conqueror, his mother’s half-brother.  He became William’s chaplain until he was promoted to chancellor in 1072, obtaining in this office useful experience as an administrator.

In 1078 he succeeded Herman as bishop of Salisbury, a see that had been formed by uniting the dioceses of Sherborne and Ramsbury.  The episcopal seat for the new diocese was at Old Sarum, where the cathedral was built in the same enclosure as the royal castle.  Osmund completed and consecrated this cathedral and formed a chapter with its own constitution, which became a model of other English cathedrals.  The Sarum Use, a local variation of the Roman rite which became widespread in medieval England and on which the first Book of Common Prayer (1549) was based, has been associated with Osmund, but it reached its definitive form under Richard le Poore, bishop of Salisbury from 1198 to 1228.

Osmund was known for his administration and for his scholarship.  He had a great love for books and liked to copy them himself and to bind them with his own hands.  According to the chronicler William of Malmesbury, he was known not only for his learning but for his purity also, for his strictness with himself and with others, and for a commendable lack of avarice and ambition at a time when these traits were common in Church and State.  Osmund also promoted the veneration of Aldhelm, the Anglo-Saxon abbot of Malmesbury and bishop of Sherborne, accomplishing the translation of his relics to Old Sarum in 1078.  This event marked the end of the period in which Aldhelm and other Anglo-Saxon saints had been under attack by the Normans and by Archbishop Lanfranc.

Osmund’s appointment to the see of Salisbury did not bring to an end his part in the administration of the kingdom, and he took part in collecting the information for William’s Domesday Book.  He was present at the council of Sarum, when in April 1986 the results of the Domesday survey were presented to the king.

Osmund died on December 4, 1099, and was buried in his cathedral at Old Sarum.  In 1226 his body and its tomb were translated to the new cathedral of Salisbury, a few miles away from Old Sarum.  This translation is commemorated on July 16.

prepared from The Oxford Dictionary of Saints and  Celebrating the Saints

The Collect

O God, our heavenly Father, who raised up your faithful servant Osmund to be a bishop and 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.

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I feel a peculiar geographical connection to Saint Osmund in a rather roundabout way.  Old Sarum, Osmund’s cathedral city and fortress, had been built on the site of an old Roman town, Sorviodunum (contracted and mutated to “Sarum” over the centuries), and it declined after Bishop Richard le Poore relocated the cathedral to the banks of the Avon River, where a new settlement grew up around the cathedral.  In time, Sarum (now “Old” Sarum to distinguish it from “new” Sarum, or Salisbury) was depopulated and fell into ruin, its stones being used as building materials for the new town.

Its depopulation and ruin notwithstanding, from the reign of Edward the Second in the fourteenth century, the borough of Old Sarum elected two members to the House of Commons, despite the fact that from the seventeenth century there were no resident voters in the borough.  One of the members of Parliament from this rotten borough was William Pitt the Elder, the Earl of Chatham, whose lands included Old Sarum.  Pitt the Elder is of course the British prime minister and member of Parliament who was sympathetic to the Americans’ cause before and during the American War for Independence and is the namesake for the town outside of which I reside, Pittsboro, and the county in which I live, Chatham County.

Our family is now part of a newly-planted Anglican mission in Pittsboro, the Church of the Holy Trinity, or as we call it, Holy Trinity – Chatham (HTC).  While he is not our named patron (our new church does not bear his name), I like to think that Saint Osmund is praying to God the Holy Trinity for the  faithfulness and success of our endeavor as well.

Salisbury Cathedral in early morning, the River Avon in the foreground