Charles Mackenzie, Bishop and Missionary in Central Africa, 1862

Charles Frederick Mackenzie, Bishop and Missionary in Central Africa

Born in Peebleshire, Scotland in 1825, Charles Frederick Frazier Mackenzie was educated at St John’s College and Caius College, Cambridge. He left England for Natal in 1855, to serve as archdeacon to Bishop John William Colenso, working among the English settlers there until 1859. In October 1860 he was commissioned at Canterbury Cathedral as the first missionary of the Universities Mission to Central Africa (UMCA). Consecrated Bishop “of the Mission to the Tribes Dwelling in the Neighbourhood of the Lake Nyasa and River Shire” on January 1, 1861 at St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town, Mackenzie led the Mission’s first expedition up the Zambezi River into Nyasaland (now Malawi) and established a base near Lake Nyasa.

The missionaries’ preaching of the Gospel and their efforts to secure the release of slaves (who formed the core of Bishop Mackenzie’s mission community) led them into conflict with native leaders and Portuguese colonists and slave traders. The mission and the people among whom they lived and ministered lived under constant threat of drought, famine, and malaria. Eventually the mission’s supply of quinine was exhausted, and in an outbreak of malaria that claimed the lives of three others in his missionary party and of many natives, Bishop Mackenzie died barely a year after his consecration, on January 31, 1862. In his book, Celebrating the Saints, Robert Atwell writes that Bishop Mackenzie was “a man of transparent and humble Christian devotion.”

Charles Mackenzie is commemorated in the Calendar of the Scottish Episcopal Church. A special service of Evensong at Canterbury Cathedral in October 2010 commemorated the sesquicentennial of his commissioning as the first UMCA missionary.

The Collect

Almighty and everlasting God, we thank you for your servant Charles Mackenzie, whom you called to preach the Gospel to the people of Nyasaland. Raise up in this and every land evangelists and heralds of your kingdom, that your Church may proclaim the unsearchable riches of our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Lydia, Dorcas, and Phoebe, Witnesses to the Faith

Lydia was the Apostle Paul’s first convert to faith in Christ in Europe. A native of Thyatira in Asia Minor, in the ancient region known as Lydia, she resided in the city of Philippi in Macedonia. She was a merchant of goods dyed with the purple-red dye known as Tyrian purple, so-called because it was first extracted by the Phoenicians. Tyrian purple was extracted from the Murex sea snail and was highly prized in antiquity because it did not fade but became more vibrant and intense with weathering and exposure to sunlight. The Romans considered the dye a mark of high status: the stripe on the toga of a senator was dyed with Tyrian purple, and its use in the emperor’s toga led to its being known as “imperial purple”. The dye was all the more costly because of the difficulty of extraction. One modern writer has estimated that twelve thousand of the Murex snails yielded little more than a gram of dye, enough to dye only the trim of a single garment. Dealing in purple-dyed goods would require a good deal of capital, so Lydia was likely wealthy. When Saint Paul first met her, she was one of a group of women who met outside the city of Philippi for prayer on the Sabbath, and Saint Luke notes that she was a “worshiper of God” (Acts 16:14), suggesting that she was one of those Gentiles who kept some of the Jewish ethical and liturgical customs (including synagogue worship) without fully entering the Jewish community. According to the Acts of the Apostles, “the Lord opened her heart to pay attention” to Paul’s preaching that Sabbath, and she and her household were baptized. After this she prevailed on Paul and his companions to stay in her house, thus relieving him of the necessity of earning his support, as was his custom elsewhere. Although Lydia does not appear in any of Saint Paul’s extant epistles, his love for the church at Philippi is evident in his letter to that church, a love that doubtless began with Lydia’s hospitality.

Dorcas, or Tabitha (from the word for “gazelle” in Greek and in Aramaic) was a believer who lived in Joppa, and was known there for her good works and acts of charity, including the making of tunics and other garments for the widows of the church. When she died, the members of the church at Joppa sent messengers to the Apostle Peter, asking him to come to them without delay. On his arrival in the upper room where Dorcas had been laid, he “knelt down and prayed; and turning to the body he said, ‘Tabitha, arise'” (Acts 9:40), whereupon she was restored to life. This was the first such miracle by one of the apostles, and because of it “many believed in the Lord”. In the Acts of the Apostles Dorcas is called a “disciple” in a feminine form of the word that in the New Testament is applied only to her. Dorcas Societies, which provide clothing and other material needs for the poor, are named for her. The original society was founded in Douglas, Isle of Man in 1834 in thanksgiving for deliverance from a cholera outbreak, and to replace the bedding and clothing of the poor that had been destroyed as part of the effort to prevent an epidemic.

Phoebe, whose name means “bright” or “radiant”, was a diakonos of the church at Cenchreae, the eastern seaport of Corinth. The word diakonos may be translated deacon (or in some versions of the Bible, deaconess), though it may also be translated “helper” or “patron”, given that Saint Paul applies the word to himself in 2 Corinthians (11:23) and in Colossians (1:23,25) and does not mean that he is himself a deacon. In his letter to the Romans, Paul commends Phoebe to the church at Rome, that they might “welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many, and of myself as well” (16:1,2). Some consider the application of the word diakonos to Phoebe, along with 1 Timothy 3:11 (which in Greek reads, “and also the women”, rather than “their [deacons’] wives” as in a number of English translations), evidence that the early Church ordained women to the same diaconate to which men were ordained.

Whether or not this be the case, Pliny the Younger attests to the existence of deaconesses in the church in Bithynia in the second century, and documents of the late third and fourth centuries (including the Didascalia and the Apostolic Constitutions) describe the ministry and duties of deaconesses, including assisting at the baptism of women and visiting and ministering to the sick. The ministry disappeared in the West and declined in the East for a number of centuries, but was revived in the Lutheran Church in the nineteenth century, when Pastor Theodor Fliedner opened the first deaconess motherhouse in Kaiserwerth on the Rhine. At the request of a local pastor, Fliedner brought four deaconesses to American in 1849 to work in the Pittsburgh Infirmary. In following decades, other deaconess communities were founded in Lutheran population centers both in America and in Europe. In 1862 Elizabeth Catherine Ferard was licensed as a deaconess by the Bishop of London, thus becoming the first Anglican deaconess. From a deaconess community in London, deaconesses were eventually introduced into many Anglican Churches. The office of deaconess has disappeared in those Anglican Churches that ordain women to the diaconate, but the office has been maintained as a commissioned or consecrated lay ministry for women in a number of traditional Anglican Churches, including the Reformed Episcopal Church and the Anglican Province in America.

Lydia, Dorcas, and Phoebe are commemorated on January 27 in the Lutheran Book of Worship and in the Calendar of The Episcopal Church. They are commemorated at For All the Saints on the first open day in the Calendar after January 27, because St John Chrysostom is commemorated on that day.

The Collect

Almighty God, you inspired your servants Lydia, Dorcas, and Phoebe to support and sustain your church by their deeds of generous love: Open our hearts to hear you, conform our will to love you, and strengthen our hands to serve you; for the sake of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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The Collect is taken from the New Book of Festivals and Commemorations, Philip H. Pfatteicher.

The icon of Saint Lydia is from the website of the Holy Transfiguration Monastery and is under copyright.

The icon of Saint Tabitha is courtesy of www.eikonografos.com and is used with permission.

Thomas Aquinas, Presbyter and Theologian, 1274

Thomas Aquinas is the greatest theologian of the high Middle Ages, and, next to Augustine, perhaps the greatest theologian in the history of Western Christianity. Born into a noble Italian family, probably in 1225, he entered the new Order of Preachers founded by Dominic (the Dominicans, or Blackfriars as they were known in England). He soon became an outstanding teacher in an age of intellectual ferment. Because of his size and slowness, Thomas was called “the Ox”. His first master, Albert the Great, is said to have prophesied that although Thomas was called “the dumb ox, his lowing would soon be heard all over the world.”

Perceiving the challenges that the recent rediscovery, through Jewish and Muslim scholars in Spain, of Aristotle’s works might entail for traditional catholic doctrine, especially in its emphasis upon empirical knowledge derived from reason and sense perception, independent of faith and revelation, Thomas asserted that reason and revelation are in basic harmony. “Grace” (revelation), he said, “is not the denial of nature” (reason), “but the perfection of it.” This synthesis Thomas accomplished in his greatest works, the Summa Theologica and the Summa Contra Gentiles, which continue today to exercise profound influence on Christian thought and philosophy. Thomas was considered a bold thinker, even a “radical”, and certain aspects of his thought were condemned by the ecclesiastical authorities. His canonization as a Doctor (Teacher) of the Church on July 18, 1323, vindicated him.

Thomas understood God’s disclosure of his Name, in Exodus 3:14, “I AM WHO I AM”, to mean that God is Being, the Ultimate Reality from which everything else derives its being. The difference between God and the world is that God’s essence is to exist, whereas all other beings derive their being from him by the act of creation. Although, for Thomas, God and the world are distinct, there is, nevertheless, an analogy of being between God and the world, since the Creator is reflected in his creation. It is possible, therefore, to have a limited knowledge of God, by analogy from the created world. On this basis, human reason can demonstrate that God exists; that he created the world; and that he contains in himself, as their cause, all the perfections which exist in his creation. The distinctive truths of the Christian faith, however, such as the Trinity and the Incarnation, are known only by revelation.

On December 6, 1272, after being recalled to Naples as regent of studies earlier that year, Thomas experienced a revelation of God, after which he dictated to his scribe no more. Of the experience he said that all he had written in comparison to what he had then seen was like so much straw.

Thomas died on the 13th of September in 1274, just under fifty years of age. In 1369, on the 28th of January, his remains were transferred to Toulouse. In addition to his many theological writings, he composed several eucharistic hymns of lasting value, including Adoro te devote (“Humbly I adore thee”) and Pange lingua (“Now, my tongue, the mystery telling”).

adapted from Lesser Feasts and Fasts,
with additions from The Oxford Dictionary of Saints

The Collect

Almighty God, you have enriched your Church with the singular learning and holiness of your servant Thomas Aquinas: Enlighten us more and more, we pray, by the disciplined thinking and teaching of Christian scholars, and deepen our devotion by the example of saintly lives; 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 propers for the commemoration of Thomas Aquinas, Priest and Friar, are published on the Lectionary Page website.

Timothy and Titus, Companions of Saint Paul the Apostle

Timothy was a native of Lystra in Asia Minor, the son of a Greek father and a Jewish mother who was a believer. We learn from the Acts of the Apostles that he “was well spoken of by the brethren at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him; and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek” (Acts 16:1-3). In addition to being a devoted companion of Paul, Timothy was entrusted with missions to the Thessalonians, to encourage them under persecution, and to the Corinthians, to strengthen the converts in the faith. Timothy became Paul’s apostolic representative and delegate at Ephesus, and, according to Eusebius, the first bishop of that city. Timothy likely did not hold the title, “bishop”, for that would have referred to the presbyter-bishops of the Church who served with him and under his authority, but this ministry of apostolic delegate almost certainly played a part in the development of the episcopate of the second century and its separation from the presbyterate.

Like Timothy, Titus was a companion of Paul, who calls him “my true child in a common faith” (Titus 1:4). Titus, a Greek, accompanied Paul and Barnabas from Antioch to Jerusalem at the time of the apostolic council. During Paul’s third missionary journey, Titus was sent on urgent missions to Corinth. Paul writes, “And besides our own comfort we rejoice still more at the joy of Titus because his mind has been set at rest by you all…And his heart goes out all the more to you, as he remembers the obedience of you all and the fear and trembling with which you received him” (2 Corinthians 7:13, 15).

Later, Titus was entrusted with the organization of the Church in Crete. Paul writes, “This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint presbyters in every town as I directed you” (Titus 1:5).

As companions of Paul, Timothy and Titus are commemorated together close to the feast of Paul’s conversion. Paul several times mentions their youth, while entrusting them with great responsibilities in pastoral oversight and administration and in the proclaiming of the Gospel, a reminder that not age but faithfulness, pastoral care, and the love of Christ are the important qualities for Christian leadership and Gospel ministry.

adapted from Lesser Feasts and Fasts

The Collect

Almighty God, you called Timothy and Titus to be evangelists and teachers, and made them strong to endure hardship: Strengthen us to stand fast in adversity, and to live godly and righteous lives in this present time, that with sure confidence we may look for our blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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The propers for the commemoration of Timothy and Titus, Companions of Saint Paul the Apostle, are published on the Lectionary Page website.

The Conversion of Saint Paul the Apostle

Paul, or Saul as he was known until he became a Christian, was a Roman citizen, born at Tarsus, in present-day Turkey. He was brought up as a devoted Jew, studying in Jerusalem for a time under Gamaliel, the most famous rabbi of the day. Describing himself, he said, “I am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin” (Romans 11:1).

A few years after the death of Jesus, Saul came in contact with the new Christian movement, and became one of the most fanatical of those who were determined to stamp out this “dangerous heresy”. Saul witnessed the stoning of Stephen. He was on the way to Damascus to lead in further persecution of the Christians when his dramatic conversion took place.

From that day, Paul devoted his life completely to Jesus Christ and especially to the conversion of Gentiles. The Acts of the Apostles describes the courage and determination with which he planted Christian congregations over a large area of the land bordering the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

His letters, the earliest of Christian writings, reveal him as the greatest of the interpreters of Christ’s death and resurrection, and as the founder of Christian theology. He writes, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). His treatment throughout his letters of a theology in which Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the hope of Israel and the climax and fulfillment of the covenant God made with Abraham and renewed at Sinai, and his breathtaking rewriting of Israel’s central confession that the Lord God is One to include Jesus as that one Lord, is nothing less than brilliant.

Paul describes himself as small and insignificant in appearance: “His letters are weighty and strong,” it was said of him, “but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech is of no account” (2 Corinthians 10:10). He writes of having a disability which he had prayed God to remove from him, and quotes the Lord’s reply, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore Paul went on to say, “I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Paul is believed to have been martyred at Rome in the year 64, during the persecution under the emperor Nero. As a Roman citizen, he would have been executed by decapitation.

adapted from Lesser Feasts and Fasts (1980)

The Collect

O God, by the preaching of your apostle Paul you have caused the light of the Gospel to shine throughout the world: Grant, we pray, that we, having his wonderful conversion in remembrance, may show ourselves thankful to you by following his holy teaching; 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.

The Lesson
Acts 26:9-21

[Paul said to King Agrippa] “I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities.

“In this connection I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, that shone around me and those who journeyed with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ And I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

“Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance. For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me.”

Psalm 67
Deus misereatur

May God be merciful to us and bless us, *
show us the light of his countenance and come to us.

Let your ways be known upon earth, *
your saving health among all nations.

Let the peoples praise you, O God; *
let all the peoples praise you.

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, *
for you judge the peoples with equity
and guide all the nations upon earth.

Let the peoples praise you, O God; *
let all the peoples praise you.

The earth has brought forth her increase; *
may God, our own God, give us his blessing.

May God give us his blessing, *
and may all the ends of the earth stand in awe of him.

The Epistle
Galatians 1:11-24

For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone; nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.

Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother. (In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!) Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” And they glorified God because of me.

The Gospel
Matthew 10:16-22

[Jesus said to the twelve] “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”

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The scripture texts for the Lesson, the Epistle, 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 is a fragment from a 13th century Roman fresco.

Francis de Sales, Bishop of Geneva and Teacher of the Faith, 1622

Francis was born in 1567 in Savoy at the Château de Sales. His later education was at the University of Paris, where he studied rhetoric, philosophy, and theology. In 1591 he became a Doctor of Laws at Padua. Although opportunities were available both for a brilliant marriage and a successful legal career through becoming a senator of Savoy, he refused both, wishing to become a priest more than anything else. Francis was ordained to the presbyterate in 1593, and he soon was distinguished for his service to the poor and for his skill as a preacher. The following year he undertook the task of converting the Chablais country from Calvinism. In spite of danger to his life from assassins and from wolves he survived, and within four years was largely successful in his task simply by preaching Catholic doctrine with great love and understanding, with persistent patience and gentleness. These would continue to be the chief marks of his character for the rest of his life.

After undergoing a severe examination in theology at Rome in the presence of the Pope and several cardinals, he was made bishop coadjutor of Geneva in 1599, and became bishop of Geneva in 1602. Because Geneva had gained its independence from the dukes of Savoy in the early sixteenth century and because the Reformed Church was the established church in the city and canton, Francis was not allowed to take up his ministry in Geneva itself. Nevertheless, he worked in adminstration, in preaching, in spiritual direction, and in catechizing within his diocese and beyond as he was able. His most famous writings, the Treatise of the Love of God and the Introduction to the Devout Life, were written during these years. The Introduction to the Devout Life was written for lay people and was immediately acclaimed as fulfilling a long-felt need. It was soon translated into several languages other than French. One of his better-known close friends was Jane Frances de Chantal, whom he first knew as a widow and who founded the Order of the Visitation in 1610 under his episcopal direction.

Frances was profoundly influential as a spiritual director and writer, and he excelled in gently leading ardent souls to the demands of self-sacrifice and the love of God. One of his favorite sayings was that more flies are attracted by a spoonful of honey than by a whole barrel of vinegar.

Frances died at Lyons in a Visitandine convent on December 28, 1622. His body was translated to Annecy in January 1623. Canonized by the pope in 1665, he was declared a Doctor (Teacher) of the Church in 1877. He was especially influential in the revival of French Catholicism in the seventeenth century, but his works have appealed to Christians of other traditions. His Introduction to the Devout Life was praised by John Wesley, and C.S. Lewis referred to the “dewy freshness” that permeates the book. Because of this wide influence, Frances de Sales is commemorated in the calendars of the Anglican Church of Canada and the Church of England.

prepared from material taken from The Oxford Dictionary of Saints and other sources

The Collect

Holy God, who called your bishop Francis de Sales to bring many to Christ through his devout life and to renew your Church with patience and understanding: grant that we may, by word and example, reflect your gentleness and love to all we meet; through Jesus Christ our Saviour, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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The Collect is taken from the Church of England’s webpages of Collects and Post Communions for Lesser Festivals.

Phillips Brooks, Bishop of Massachusetts, 1893

Writing about Phillips Brooks in 1930, William Lawrence, who as a young man had known him, began, “Phillips Brooks was a leader of youth…His was the spirit of adventure, in thought, life, and faith.” To many who know him only as the author of “O little town of Bethlehem,” this part of Brooks’ life and influence is little known.

Born in Boston in 1835, and educated at Boston Latin School, Harvard University and Virginia Theological Seminary, Brooks began his ministry in Philadelphia. His impressive personality and his eloquence immediately attracted attention. After ten years in Philadelphia, he returned to Boston as rector of Trinity Church, which was destroyed in the Boston fire three years later. It is a tribute to Brooks’ preaching, character, and leadership that in four years of worshiping in temporary and bare surroundings, the congregation grew and flourished. The new Trinity Church was a daring architectural enterprise for its day, with its altar placed in the center of the chancel, “a symbol of unity; God and man and all God’s creation,” and was symbol of Brooks’ vision – a fitting setting for a great preacher.

Brooks’ sermons have passages that still grasp the reader, though they do not convey the warmth and vitality which so impressed his hearers. James Bryce wrote, “There was no sign of art about his preaching, no touch of self-consciousness. He spoke to his audience as a man might speak to his friend, pouring forth with swift, yet quiet and seldom impassioned earnestness, the thoughts of his singularly pure and lofty spirit.”

Brooks ministered with tenderness, understanding, and warm friendliness. He inspired men to enter the ministry, and taught many of them the art of preaching. Conservative and orthodox in his theology, his generosity of heart led him to be regarded as a leader throughout the Church.

In 1891, he was elected Bishop of Massachusetts. The force of his personality and preaching, together with his deep devotion and loyalty, provided the spiritual leadership needed for the time. His constant concern was to turn his hearer’ thoughts to the revelations of God. “Whatever happens,” he wrote, “always remember the mysterious richness of human nature and the nearness of God to each one of us.

adapted from Lesser Feasts and Fasts (1980)

Collect

O everlasting God, you revealed truth to your servant Phillips Brooks, and so formed and molded his mind and heart that he was able to mediate that truth with grace and power: Grant, we pray, that all whom you call to preach the Gospel may steep themselves in your Word, and conform their lives to your will; 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 propers for the commemoration of Phillips Brooks, Bishop of Massachusetts, are published at the website of the Lectionary Page.

Vincent, Deacon of Saragossa and Martyr, 304

Vincent has been called the protomartyr (first martyr) of Spain. Little is known about the actual events surrounding his life, other than his name, his order of ministry, and the place and time of his martyrdom. He was a native of Huesca, in northeastern Spain, and was ordained deacon by Valerius, Bishop of Saragossa. In the early years of the fourth century, the fervent Christian community in Spain fell victim to the persecution ordered by the Roman emperors Diocletian and Maximian. Dacian, governor of the province of Hispania (Spain), had Valerius and his deacon Vincent arrested and imprisoned at Valencia.

According to one legend, Valerius had a speech impediment, and Vincent was often called upon to preach for him. When the two prisoners were challenged to renounce their faith amid threats of torture and death, Vincent said to his bishop, “Father, if you order me, I will speak.” Valerius is said to have replied, “Son, as I committed you to dispense the word of God, so I now charge you to answer in vindication of the faith which we defend.” The young deacon then told the governor that he and his bishop had no intention of betraying the true God. The vehemence and enthusiasm of Vincent’s defense showed no caution in his defiance of the judges, and Dacian’s fury was increased by this exuberance in Christian witness. Valerius was exiled, but Dacian ordered that Vincent should be tortured. While in prison, he is said to have converted his jailer. At one point, he was offered release on the condition that he burn the holy Scriptures that had been committed to his safekeeping, but he refused.

Accounts of his martyrdom were embellished by the early Christian poet Aurelius Clemens Prudentius. Augustine of Hippo writes that Vincent’s unshakeable faith enabled him to endure grotesque punishments and, finally, death.

Devotion to Vincent spread rapidly throughout the early Church as he was venerated as a bold and outspoken witness to the truth of the living Christ.

adapted from Lesser Feasts and Fasts

The Collect

Almighty God, your deacon Vincent, upheld by you, was not terrified by threats nor overcome by torments: Strengthen us to endure all adversity with invincible and steadfast faith; 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 propers for the commemoration of Vincent, Deacon of Saragossa and Martyr, are published on the Lectionary Page website.

The icon of Saint Vincent is from a painting in the Chiesa di San Vincenzo in Cucciago, in the Diocese of Milan.

Agnes, Virgin and Martyr at Rome, 304

As a child of twelve or thirteen years, Agnes suffered for her faith, in Rome, during the persecution of the emperor Diocletian, the last and fiercest of the persecutions of Christians by the imperial state. Intensely dedicated to Christ, her fifth century Acts tell that she refused arranged marriage, saying that she preferred even the death of the body to the end of her consecrated virginity. After rejecting the blandishments of her examiners, and withstanding the threats and torments of her executioner, she remained firm in her refusal to offer worship to the gods of the imperial state, and was executed by being pierced through the neck with a sword. Venerated as a martyr from shortly after her death, early Church Fathers, including Ambrose, Jerome and Prudentius, praised her courage and chastity and remarked upon her name, which means “pure” in Greek and “lamb” in Latin.

In his treatise On Virginity, Ambrose of Milan wrote

“Is this a new kind of martyrdom? The girl was too young to be punished, yet old enough to wear a martyr’s crown; too young for the contest, but mature enough to gain victory. Her tender years put her at a disadvantage, but she won the trial of virtue. If she had been a bride, she could not have hastened to her wedding night as much as she, a virgin, went with joyful steps to the place of her execution, her head adorned with Christ himself rather than plaits, with a garland woven of virtues instead of flowers.”

Pilgrims still visit Agnes’ tomb and the catacomb surrounding it, beneath the basilica of her name on the Via Nomentana in Rome that Pope Honorius the First (625-638 ) built in her honor to replace an older shrine erected by the daughter or granddaughter of the emperor Constantine about 350. On her feast day at the basilica, two lambs are blessed, whose wool is woven into a scarf called the pallium, with which the Pope invests archbishops. Pope Gregory the Great sent such a pallium in 601 to Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury. A representation of the pallium appears on the coat of arms of Archbishops of Canterbury to this day.

Agnes was commemorated from ancient times in England (probably from the time of the Augustinian mission to Kent), and her feast day is included in the Calendar of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, whence it has entered the sanctoral calendars of most of the Anglican Churches.

adapted from Lesser Feasts and Fasts (1980)

The Collect

Almighty and everlasting God, you choose those whom the world deems powerless to put the powerful to shame: Grant us so to cherish the memory of your youthful martyr Agnes, that we may share her pure and steadfast faith in you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, on God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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The propers for the commemoration of Agnes, Virgin and Martyr at Rome, are published on the Lectionary Page website.

The icon is from a fresco by Ambrogio Borgognone (1495).

Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, 1095

Wulfstan was one of the few Anglo-Saxon bishops to retain his see after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. Beloved by all classes of society for his humility, charity, and courage, he was born in Warwickshire about 1008 and educated in the Benedictine abbeys of Evesham and Peterborough. He spent most of his life in the cathedral monastery of Worcester as monk, prior, and then as bishop of the see from 1062 until his death on January 18, 1095. He accepted the episcopate with extreme reluctance, but having resigned himself to it, he administered the diocese with great effectiveness. Since the see of Worcester was claimed by the province of York before its affiliation as a suffragan see of Canterbury in 1070, Wulfstan was consecrated at York. As bishop, he rapidly became famous for his continued monastic asceticism and personal sanctity. He took seriously his pastoral duties as bishop, caring especially for the poor and preaching widely throughout his see.

Though Wulfstan had been confessor to King Harold of Wessex and was sympathetic to Harold’s claim to the English crown, he was among those who submitted to William of Normandy (the Conqueror) at Berkhamstead in 1066 and was therefore allowed to retain his see. At first, the Normans tended to disparage him for his lack of learning and his inability to speak French, but he became one of William’s most trusted advisers and administrators, and remained loyal in support of William the First and William the Second in their work of reform and orderly government. He assisted in the compilation of the Domesday Book, and supported William the First against the rebellious barons in 1075. William came to respect a loyalty based on principle and not on self-seeking. Archbishop Lanfranc also recognized the strength of Wulfstan’s character, and the two men worked together to end the practice at Bristol of capturing Englishmen and selling them as slaves in Ireland.

Because he was the most respected prelate of the Anglo-Saxon Church, Wulfstan’s profession of canonical obedience to the Conqueror’s Archbishop of Canterbury, Lanfranc, proved to be a key factor in the transition from Anglo-Saxon to Anglo-Norman Christianity. William’s policy, however, was to appoint his own fellow Normans to the English episcopate, and by the time of William’s death in 1087, Wulfstan was the only English-born bishop still living.

adapted from Lesser Feasts and Fasts (1980), with additions

The Collect

Lord God, you raised up Wulfstan to be a bishop among your people and a leader of your Church: Help us, after his example, to live simply, to work diligently, and to make your kingdom known; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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The propers for the commemoration of Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, are published on the Lectionary Page website.