William Wilberforce, Renewer of Society, 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.

Lazarus, Mary, and Martha of Bethany, Companions of our Lord

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, 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’ character is evidenced by the love that Mary, Martha, and Jesus all had for him. His being raised from the dead is the final of the divine signs that Jesus performs and is the culmination of Jesus’ ministry before his death and resurrection.

Devotion to Lazarus, whose , became widespread in the Church during the first millenium. 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. According to 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.)

prepared 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 hymn, “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 and Ecumenist, 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.

Joachim and Anne, Parents of the 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.

Saint Anne teaching Saint Mary to read

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, your servant and apostle James was first among the Twelve to suffer martyrdom for the Name of Jesus Christ: Pour out upon the leaders of your Church that spirit of self-denying service, by which 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 7:1-11
Domine Deus meus

O Lord my God, in you have I put my trust; * save me from all those who persecute me, and deliver me,

Lest they devour me like a lion and tear me in pieces * while there is none to help.

O Lord my God, if I have done any such thing, * if there be any wickedness in my hands,

If I have repaid evil to him who has dealt with me as a friend, * or plundered him who without any cause is my enemy,

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

Stand up, O Lord, in your wrath, and lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; * rise up for me in the judgment that you have commanded.

Then shall the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you; *  lift yourself up again, O Lord, O judge of all the nations.

Give sentence for me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, * and according to the innocence that is in me.

O let the wickedness of the ungodly come to an end, * but establish the just.

For the righteous God * tries the very hearts and minds.

God is my shield and my defense; * he preserves those who are true of heart.

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 (2019).

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

Thomas à Kempis, Presbyter and Teacher of the Faith, 1471

Thomas, the author (or compiler) of the most treasured devotional book The Imitation of Christ, was born in 1380, the son of John and Gertrude Hämerken (or Hemmerken), respectively a craftsman and a teacher in the town of Kempen in the sovereign Archbishopric of Cologne.  He left home at thirteen to join his older brother in the Brethren of Common Life at Deventer, where he received his education.  This order was founded by Geert (or Gerhard) Groote and received papal approval from Gregory the Eleventh in 1376.  The brotherhood was composed of clergy and laity who cultivated a practical biblical piety and who supported themselves by copying manuscripts and by teaching.  Their spirituality, known as the devotio moderna, the “new (or modern) devotion”, influenced later Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions of prayer and meditation.  Thomas joined the Brethren in 1399 at the house of Mount St. Agnes in Zwolle (where his brother had become prior), making his profession as an Augustinian Canon Regular (taking his vows) there in 1407.  He was ordained a priest in 1413 and was elected subprior of Mount St. Agnes in 1425, acting as master of novices and keeping the chronicle of the house.

Thomas’ successor as chronicler recorded that on the feast of Saint James (July 25), 1471,

…after Compline, our brother Thomas Hämerken, born at Kempen, a town in the diocese of Cologne, departed from this earth.  He was in the ninety-second year of his age, the sixty-third of his religious clothing, and the fifty-eighth of his priesthood…He copied out our Bible and various other books, some of which were used by the convent, and others were sold [to raise funds for the monastery].  Further, for the instruction of the young, he wrote various little treatises in a plain and simple style, which in reality were great and important works, both in doctrine and efficacy for good.  He had an especial devotion to the Passion of our Lord, and understood admirably how to comfort those afflicted by interior trials and temptations.  Finally, having reached a ripe old age, he was afflicted with dropsy of the limbs, slept in the Lord in the year 1471, and was buried in the east side of the cloister….

Thomas’ remains were translated in 1672 by the Prince-Archbishop of Cologne from the ruined house of Mount St. Agnes to the chapel of St. Joseph; and in the nineteenth century his remains were translated to the Church of St. Michael in Zwolle, where they are preserved to the present day.

The book that Thomas either wrote or compiled from extant sources, The Imitation of Christ, has been described as next to Dante’s Divina Commedia as “the most perfect flower of medieval Christianity.” Translated into more languages than any other book except the Holy Scripture, millions of Christians the world over have found this devotional manual a treasured source of edification in their life in Christ.

prepared from the New Book of Festivals and Commemorations
(Philip H. Pfatteicher) and Lesser Feasts and Fasts (1980)

The Collect

Holy Father, you have nourished and strengthened your Church by the inspired writings of your servant Thomas a Kempis: Grant that we may learn from him to know what is necessary to be known, to love what is to be loved, to praise what highly pleases you, and always to seek to know and follow your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and 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 those 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 in her universal appearance in medieval sanctoral calendars. The universities of both Oxford and Cambridge have colleges dedicated to her.

adapted from Lesser Feasts and Fasts (1980),
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 desires the water brooks,* so longs my soul for you, O God.

My soul is athirst for God, even 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?”

When I think upon these things, I pour out my heart, * when I remember how I went with the multitude, and brought 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?

O put your trust in God, * for I will yet give him thanks, 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; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.

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 (2019).

Margaret of Antioch, Martyr, 4th c.

Though popular in the later Middle Ages in England and elsewhere, Margaret of Antioch probably never existed as an historical person, but only as a character in pious legend.

According to her Legend, which was declared apocryphal by Pope Gelasius in 494, she was the daughter of a pagan priest, Aedisius of Antioch of Pisidia in central Asia Minor. She became a Christian, was turned out of her home, and became a shepherdess. Olybrius, the governor of Antioch, carried her off to his palace and attempted to seduce or to marry her, but she declared herself to be a Christian and refused. She was then tortured and tempted in various incredible ways, even being swallowed by a dragon that later burst asunder. Through her preaching she was said to have converted immense numbers of people to Christianity who were later killed during the persecution under the emperor Diocletian. She is said to have been beheaded during the same persecution.

Margaret’s name first appears in the West in the Martyrology of Rhabanus Maurus (ninth century). As the late medieval Sarum breviary relates, at the end of her life she promised that those who write or read her “history” will receive an unfading crown in heaven, that those who invoke her on their deathbeds will enjoy divine protection and escape from devils, that those who dedicate churches or burn lights in her honor will obtain anything useful for which they pray, and that pregnant women who invoke her will escape the dangers of childbirth, as will their infant children. These apocryphal promises contributed powerfully to the spread of her veneration.

Well over two hundred medieval English churches were dedicated to her, and she was frequently depicted in wall paintings and in stained glass windows. Joan of Arc believed Margaret was one of the saints whom heard encouraging her in her support of the French dauphin against the English. She was removed from the Roman calendar and her veneration suppressed by Holy See in 1969.

Margaret is commemorated in the calendars of the Book of Common Prayer (1662), the Book of Common Prayer (1962) of the Anglican Church of Canada, and the Book of Common Prayer (2019) of the Anglican Church in North America.

adapted from The Oxford Dictionary of 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 servants, may persevere in running the race that is set before us, until at last, with them, we 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.

Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa and Teacher of the Faith, 396

Born at Caesarea, Gregory was of the sons of Basil the Elder, a lawyer and rhetorician, and Emmelia, daughter of a prominent and wealthy family, both of whom were later revered as saints. He was also a brother of Macrina the Younger and Basil the Great. He received an excellent education at Athens, became a rhetorician, and married. After he became disillusioned with teaching rhetoric, he was ordained to the presbyterate around 362. In 371 he was chosen as bishop of Nyssa, which lay within his brother Basil’s metropolitical authority as bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia. (Basil had strongly influenced or even forced Gregory to take up the bishopric as part of Basil’s resistance to the attempt of the Arian emperor Valens to reduce Basil’s authority and power by dividing the province of Cappadocia.) Gregory seems to have lacked administrative skill and diplomacy in supporting Basil’s cause against Arianism.

Gregory’s chief talents lay instead in his ability as a theologian and writer against Arianism and other christological heresies in ardent defense of the Nicene definition of Jesus’ deity and the triune God. His exegetical works, which were influenced by the third-century Alexandrian theologian Origen and dealt especially with the mystical (or allegorical) sense of Scripture, includs a Life of Moses and homilies on Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Beatitudes. He also wrote works of ascetical theology, including a treatise “On Virginity.” He also wrote a life of his elder sister, Macrina.

Gregory took a prominent part in the Council of Constantinople (381) with Gregory of Nazianzus in defense of Nicene theology and later traveled much as a preacher.

prepared from The Oxford Dictionary of Saints and The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church

The Collect

Almighty God, you gave your servant Gregory of Nyssa special gifts of grace to understand and teach the truth revealed in Christ Jesus: Grant that by this teaching we may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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The image is of a mosaic of Saint Gregory of Nyssa in the Hosios Loukas Monastery, Boeotia, Greece.

Macrina, Nun and Teacher of the Faith, 379

Macrina was born around the year 327, the daughter of Basil the Elder, a lawyer and rhetorician, and Emmelia, daughter of a prominent and wealthy family, both of whom were later revered as saints. Macrina was also 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 rhetorician 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 converted their family estate in Pontus into 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 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, transfiguring 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

Almighty God, you gave your servant Macrina the Younger special gifts of grace to understand and teach the truth revealed in Christ Jesus: Grant that by this teaching we may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.