Anna Julia Hayward Cooper, Educator, 1964

Most of the saints in the lectionary seem to be somewhat mythical, priests, male, dead at least 1000 years, and mainly white (though there are exceptions on the latter point). Anna Julia Hayward Cooper was none of these. At a time when in many places women could not graduate from university, she headed one. Her mother was a slave and her father possibly her mother's owner. She insisted that African American students could do just as well as their white counterparts in school and university, and she was the fourth black woman ever to gain a PhD.

I recently attended the PhD examination and graduation ceremony of a friend and colleague in the Netherlands. Like Cooper, my colleague is a pioneer. She was the first ever PhD from her country to graduate from her university. She had to face many difficulties - mainly financial - during her studies, but was bolstered by the belief in herself that her parents had given her. Cooper is one of those people that hopefully can instill that kind of self-belief in women and minorities. If such pioneers can complete their education despite opposition and hardships, then it is an obligation in some senses on the rest of us not to let them down.

"The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class - it is the cause of humankind, the very birthright of humanity."

George Herbert, Priest, Poet, 1633

George Herbert was younger than I am now, when he died of consumption. He nevertheless managed to fill his life with kind deeds and lovely, lovely poetry. I can't really say much that he couldn't say in his own words:

Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack'd anything.

"A guest," I answer'd, "worthy to be here";
Love said, "You shall be he."
"I, the unkind, the ungrateful? ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee."
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
"Who made the eyes but I?"

"Truth, Lord, but I have marr'd them; let my shame
Go where it doth deserve."
"And know you not," says Love, "who bore the blame?"
"My dear, then I will serve."
"You must sit down," says Love, "and taste my meat."
So I did sit and eat.

Martin Luther, 1546

Being an Anglican is a bit odd. On the one hand we are Protestant - well, we certainly aren't Roman Catholic. On the other hand, unlike the vast majority of Protestant churches, our founding was not really a direct result of Martin Luther and you don't really hear much about him in Anglican circles.

However I imagine there are a lot of things we aren't acknowledging. For example, he was the first person to translate the Old Testament into a vernacular language direct from Hebrew (rather than via Greek as Wycliffe did). Interestingly, perhaps Henry VIII should have taken him on as a spiritual adviser since Luther decided polygamy was acceptable.

He does also seem to have been someone who had a finger in every pie and something to say on everything. A Renaissance man, though normally we associate that term with someone a bit less serious.

Janani Luwum, Archbishop of Uganda, Martyr, 1977

Having recently visited Uganda (I've been a couple of times before as well) and also read the book and watched the film "The Last King of Scotland", I am really interested to read about Luwum. He sounds like a very holy man, not afraid to put his life at risk and firm in the belief that politics and poverty are things that the Church should speak about, and thoughtful about how Christ speaks in Africa and how Africans can speak about Christ.

Although Uganda is a beautiful country and is in many ways a success story - dramatic reduction in HIV infection, the South largely peaceful and prospering, it still has big problems, especially with conflict in Northern Uganda. Pray for the country and its people.

Thomas Bray, Priest, Founder of the SPCK and the SPG, 1730

The SPCK (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge) has been in existence for over 300 years and still operates as a publisher. It was founded by Thomas Bray and colleagues who were concerned that his absence in America would call a halt to his good works in England. In fact although he did not spend very long in Maryland he still managed to reorganise Anglican education in the colony as well as founding libraries, championing slaves' rights on his return to England, and also founding the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts - now USPG, the more "high church" and liberal of the Anglican missionary societies. He was a very busy man.

SPCK has had a very stormy recent history, as blogged about by our own Dave. I don't currently have access to an SPCK bookshop but in the past I have been heartily grateful for the balance they have brought to the cheesy world of Christian bookselling.

Sigfrid, Bishop, Apostle of Sweden, 1045

St Sigfrid seems to have been originally from York, though as the North-East of England has for a long time been heavily under Viking influence, it is of course possible that he was actually Scandinavian. Christianity was established relatively late in Scandanavia, compared to other parts of Europe, and even the earliest wooden churches are still in existence in some places. It is probably a rather romantic notion, but somehow I have felt close to the spirit of the early evangelists when I have been in these old wooden churches.

St Sigfrid is particularly associated with Växjö, where this rather nice cathedral is. This seems to be the third cathedral on this site.

Cyril and Methodius, Missionaries to the Slavs, 869 and 885

These saints are important to many Slavic and Slavonic peoples, including Czechs, Bulgarians, and Macedonians. The brothers were originally Greek and served as missionaries in Russia, being responsible for, among other things, the Cyrillic alphabet.

I came across the concept of Orthodoxy - especially of preaching and worshipping in the language of the people - when I was also very into Celtic Christianity. The conflict here strikes me as very similar to that at the Synod of Whitby - Christianity of and for the people rather than Christianity of and for the Church. I realise that is a very simplistic distinction and that Roman Catholicism has an eremitical tradition, as well as a highly organised and established Church in Orthodoxy.

Scholastica, sister of Benedict, Abbess of Plombariola, c.543

The most prominent stories about Scholastica seem to be that she was a very devout child and brought her brother to faith, and that one of her last acts was to try to prolong a religious discussion she was having with her brother. She seems therefore to be in the category of "Sister of the more famous...". I think my feminist roots are showing here, as I can't help feeling that if it hadn't been for her, Benedict wouldn't have been particularly famous, and I suspect some androcentric bias in the history books.

A very interesting and slightly related story (see link in title; more here) is of the St Scholastica Day Riots in Oxford. This was an early instance of Town vs. Gown, starting with a row over beer and ending up with nearly 100 dead. These days the row would still be over beer (or possibly alcopops) but the protagonists would be slightly less likely to be armed.

The Martyrs of Japan

Although the link I have above suggests the date for this celebration is the 5th February, I have put this on the 6th as in the CofE lectionary.

This martyrdom was 410 years ago this year. It does appear to have been a very political execution, with one side first supporting and then banning Christianity. What is amazing to me is that Christians carried on worshipping in secret for 250 years. I know very little about Japan, or its religions, even though I have a good friend and colleague who is Japanese and attends our church. Her family were, I think, Presbyterian, and I get the impression her church was traditional but very un-ceremonial.

Incidentally there appears to be a very cute church in Jersey that is dedicated to these martyrs. And this book also looks very interesting.

Lent 2008

Slightly late, but I have decided to make a bit of an effort on this blog for Lent this year. I have a lectionary list downloaded to my e-calendar which doesn't include a saint for every day, but I'm also going to be using the wikipedia calendar. Again, this doesn't include something for every day, but this may mean I'm a bit more likely to keep this up.