Category Archives: Continent

Ephrem the Syrian — June 10

Asia, Forerunners (33-1226),
Mosaic in Nea Moni of Chios (11th century)

Bible connection

How sweet are your words to my taste,
    sweeter than honey to my mouth!
Through your precepts I get understanding;
    therefore I hate every false way.
Your word is a lamp to my feet
    and a light to my path. — Psalm 119:103-105

All about Ephrem the Syrian (c. 306-373)

Ephrem (later differentiated by “the Syrian”) was born to poor farmers in Nisibis (now in south-central Turkey). Later hagiographers filled in what was not recorded about his youth. They said his Christian parents raised him for piety, but from childhood he was known for his quick temper and impetuous character. He often had fights, acted thoughtlessly, and doubted God. Once, he was unjustly accused of stealing a sheep and was thrown into prison. He heard a voice in a dream calling him to repent and correct his life. After this, he was acquitted of the charges and set free.

Not much later, the young Ephrem ran off to the mountains to learn from the hermits. Some dispute that he ever actually became a monk. Ascetic Christian discipleship was introduced to his area by a disciple of Anthony (the Great), the Egyptian desert dweller. He became the disciple of James of Nisibis, a noted ascetic, preacher of Christianity and denouncer of Arians. Under his direction Ephrem was trained in monastic virtues. Soon his talents were recognized and he was assigned to preach sermons and teach children. James took Ephrem with him to the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 325. Ephrem led the church in Nisbis with James for fourteen years, until the bishop’s death in 338.

Ephrem lived during a time of enormous political and religious upheaval. Traditional beliefs and values were under attack from every side. Society was coming apart at the seams, and the leaders did not seem to care. All that mattered was winning the latest high-profile, public debate.  Ephrem did not mince words: “God’s flock is starving; it has been left to graze on fields of words.” Religion and politics had become hopelessly entangled, and the result was toxic.

The church was torn between two rival factions. On one side, a new breed of Christian philosophers reduced God to a concept—“an idea.” On the other, the rigidly pious spiritualized God — kept him safely in heaven, far from the nastiness of everyday life. As Ephrem saw it, the remedy for both groups was the same—“a return to the simple words of the Apostles.” For him, God was not a monarch ruling from a distant throne; He was a person revealed in his Son. “Jesus is the Bridge,” Ephrem taught, “who leads us back to the source of our life.”

Ephrem was a poet and a teacher who  taught like no one else. Educated people of his day wrote and spoke Greek; they went to school in places like Antioch and Athens. Ephrem wrote exclusively in Syriac and never left his native land. In place of human credentials, he prayed to be filled with the Spirit of God.

People who heard Ephrem speak nick-named him the “Harp of the Holy Spirit.” Today he is best remembered as a composer of hymns, over four hundred are still known. The lyrics of his songs helped to defend the faith against false doctrine, teach about various aspects of Christian belief, and express worship. His glorious “Hymn to the Light” is an example, with its words of hope in the coming kingdom (see below).

Ephrem combined contemplation with a ceaseless study of the various documents soon to become the New Testament, as well as the Tanakh. He described opening the Bible as a homecoming: “The words ran out to meet me. They flung their arms around me, took me by the hand, and led me in.” People began to come to him for counsel. He eventually wrote the first Syriac commentary on the Pentateuch (i.e. “Five Books”) of Moses. His works were read publicly in certain churches after the Holy Scripture, as Saint Jerome tells us.

After the capture of Nisibis by the Sassanid Persians in 363, Ephrem went to a monastery near the city of Edessa (now Urfa in Turkey). There he met many ascetics, some living alone in caves. He became especially close Julian, who was of one mind with him.

Near the end of his life Ephrem went to Egypt to see the work of prayer among the first monks. On his return journey he visited at Caesarea in Cappadocia with Basil (the Great), who wanted to ordain him a priest, but he considered himself unworthy. At the insistence of Basil, he consented only to be ordained as a deacon, in which rank he remained until his death. Later, Basil invited Ephrem to become a bishop, but he feigned madness in order to avoid the assignment.

After his return to his own Edessa wilderness, Ephrem hoped to spend the rest of his life in solitude, but the inhabitants of Edessa were suffering from a devastating famine. He persuaded the wealthy to aid those in need. He raised funds from the church to build a house for the poor and sick. He died serving others; in 373, having caught the plague while ministering to the sick.

Quotes

  • If the Son of God is within you, then His Kingdom is also within you. Thus, the Kingdom of God is within you, a sinner. Enter into yourself, search diligently and without toil you shall find it. Outside of you is death, and the door to it is sin. Enter into yourself, dwell within your heart, for God is there.
  • Our Lord spoke gently to teach his followers the power of gentle words.
  • Jesus is  the Medicine of Life.
  • We wear ourselves out hording power and working for personal advancement. It only adds to our insecurity and makes us unhappy. The Lord taught us in the Gospel that creation has blessings enough for everyone. He said, ‘Look at the birds of the air and the lilies of the field.” When will we look?
  • The things our Lord wants to teach us are simple, but they’re hard…. This should tell us how well our Lord knew human nature.

More

Harp of the Holy Spirit: The Life of Saint Ephrem the Syrian by Trisagion Films:

Hymn to the Light

The Light of the just and joy of the upright is Christ Jesus our Lord.
Begotten of the Father, He manifested himself to us.
He came to rescue us from darkness and to fill us with the radiance of His light.
Day is dawning upon us; the power of darkness is fading away.

From the true Light there arises for us the light which illumines our darkened eyes.
His glory shines upon the world and enlightens the very depths of the abyss.
Death is annihilated, night has vanished, and the gates of Sheol are broken.
Creatures lying in darkness from ancient times are clothed in light.
The dead arise from the dust and sing because they have a Savior.
He brings salvation and grants us life. He ascends to his Father on high.
He will return in glorious splendor and shed His light on those gazing upon Him.

Our King comes in majestic glory.

Let us light our lamps and go forth to meet Him.
Let us find our joy in Him, for He has found joy in us.
He will indeed rejoice us with His marvelous light.

Let us glorify the majesty of the Son and give thanks to the almighty Father
Who, in an outpouring of love, sent Him to us, to fill us with hope and salvation.
When He manifests Himself, the saints awaiting Him in weariness and sorrow,
will go forth to meet Him with lighted lamps.

The angels and guardians of heaven will rejoice
in the glory of the just and upright people of earth;
Together crowned with victory,
they will sing hymns and psalms.

Stand up then and be ready!
Give thanks to our King and Savior,
Who will come in great glory to gladden us
with His marvelous light in His kingdom.

Put to music in Arabic:

Hymn of Repentance by St Ephrem the Syrian (in Aramaic) [Link]

A Song of Ephrem the Syrian — Church of England Hymnal. Common Worship: Daily Prayer:

1    Behold: Fire and Spirit in the womb that bore you:  ♦
Behold: Fire and Spirit in the river where you were baptized.
2    Fire and Spirit in our baptism:  ♦
In the Bread and the Cup, Fire and Holy Spirit.
3    In your Bread is hidden a Spirit not to be eaten,  ♦
In your Wine dwells a Fire not to be drunk.
4    Spirit in your Bread, Fire in your Wine,  ♦
A wonder set apart, yet received by our lips.
5    How wonderful your footsteps, walking on the waters!  ♦
You subdued the great sea beneath your feet.
6    Yet to a little stream you subjected your head,  ♦
Bending down to be baptized in it.
7    The stream was like John who performed the baptism in it,  ♦
In their smallness each an image of the other.
8    To the stream so little, to the servant so weak,  ♦
The Lord of them both subjected himself.

Ephrem the Syrian, Nineteen Hymns on the Nativity of Christ in the Flesh  from the Catholic Library

Ephrem’s Day is celebrated on several dates. We chose to go with the U.S. Episcopalians.

What do we do with this?

Many Eastern Christians (and those of us who have been influenced by their traditions) recite the Prayer of St. Ephrem multiple times each day of Lent. There are three verses, each of which is accompanied by the Sign of the Cross and a prostration, in which the person praying kneels down on both knees and touches his or her head to the floor.

The Prayer of St. Ephrem is a prayer of petition, asking God to curb the desires of our soul that prevent us from humbling ourself before him. During Holy Week especially, as our spiritual enemies try to divide us from one another when we should all be walking together on the Way of the Cross, this prayer is a powerful reminder that true humility is something that we cannot gain on our own. We must ask God to grant it to us as a gift.

This is one of many translations of the Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian:

O Lord and Master of my life, Keep from me the spirit of indifference and discouragement, Lust of power and idle chatter. [Sign of the Cross/prostration]

Instead, grant me the spirit of wholeness of being, Humblemindedness, patience, and love. [Sign of the Cross/prostration]

O Lord and King, Grant me the grace to be aware of my sins and not to judge my brother or sister, For you are blessed always, now and ever, and forever. Amen.” [Sign of the Cross/prostration]

Columba — June 9

Europe, Forerunners (33-1226)

Bible connection

Praise the Lord from the earth,
    you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,
lightning and hail, snow and clouds,
    stormy winds that do his bidding,
you mountains and all hills,
    fruit trees and all cedars,
wild animals and all cattle,
    small creatures and flying birds,
kings of the earth and all nations,
    you princes and all rulers on earth,
young men and women,
    old men and children.

Let them praise the name of the Lord,
    for his name alone is exalted;
    his splendor is above the earth and the heavens. — Psalm 148:7-13

All about Columba (521-597)

Columba (also Colmcille) still appeals to our imaginations almost fifteen hundred years after his death. He is credited with bringing Christianity to Scotland. He was not only a great leader, he had a big imagination that resulted in an outbreak of Celtic art we still admire. He also had a big voice and might have sang his own version of today’s psalm, since the Celtic church had a deep respect of God’s presence in creation and Columba, no doubt, met the Lord on his many daring sea voyages and missionary journeys.

He was born in Ireland, on December 7, 521 A.D. to Fedhlimidh and Eithne in Donegal (Northern Ireland). He was of “royal blood,” and might have become High King of Ireland had he not devoted his life to the church.

As a young man, Columba joined the monastery at Moville, and was ordained a deacon by the famous and influential Finnian. After studying with a bard called Gemman, Columba was ordained a priest, and then became bishop in Clonfad. Columba entered the monastery of Mobhi Clarainech and trained with the others who became “the twelve apostles of Ireland.” When disease forced the disbanding of that monastery, Columba went north and founded the church of Derry.

Tradition has it that after founding several other monasteries, Columba copied Finnian’s psalter (or was it a precious copy of the Latin Vulgate? — 6th century history was not fastidiously collected). He did this without the permission of Finnian, and thus devalued the book and broke with common decency. When Finnian took the matter to High King Dermott for judgment, Dermott judged in favor of Finnian, stating “to every cow its calf; to every book its copy” (the first copyright law!). Columba refused to hand over the copy, claiming that his converts deserved the scripture. King Dermott forced the issue militarily. Columba’s family and clan defeated Dermott at the battle of Cooldrevny in 561.

Tradition further holds that Molaisi of Devenish, Columba’s spiritual father, ordered Columba to bring the same number of souls to Christ that he had caused to die as penance.

For his theft and the deaths it caused, a penitent Columba exiled himself from Ireland. He settled at the first place where his homeland could no longer be seen across the sea. With twelve companions he started a new life, founding a monastery on the island of Iona in the year 563. They lived as Celtic monks in a community of separate cells. But Columba and his companions combined their contemplative life with extraordinary missionary activity.

Among his many accomplishments, Columba was a splendid sailor. He sailed among the islands of Scotland and traveled deep inland, making converts and founding churches. In Ireland, it is said, he had already founded a hundred churches. In Scotland he is credited with converting the Picts, including a journey to witness to the King during which he thwarted the Loch Ness monster (see more below).

Columba and the Loch Ness monster, found in British Library

Of all the Celtic saints in Scotland, Columba’s life is the best documented, because manuscripts of the Life of Columba, written by Adamnan, one of his early successors as abbot of Iona, have survived.

Columba was a poet as well as a man of action. Some of his poems in both Latin and Gaelic have come down to us, and they reveal him to be very sensitive to the beauty of his surroundings, as well as, in Adamnan’s phrase, “gladdened in his inmost heart by the joy of the Holy Spirit.”

He died on June 9 in the year 597.

More

Rod’s Columba the Creative Sufferer [link]

Dramatic video about Columba on Iona [link]

Columba (and others) and the Book of Kells [Part 1 link] [Part 2 link]

What do we do with this?

Columba might have been king if he had not been serious about Jesus. He might have been a powerful church man in Ireland if he hadn’t put himself on the wrong side of the law and started a war!

Maybe you wish you had never followed Jesus. Maybe you wish you had not done the wrong things you did. Maybe Jesus can use you anyway, starting on whatever little island you find yourself today, despite the desires and enemies that threaten to dominate your life. Consider what would happen if your future were in God’s hands (since it is).

Hudson Taylor — June 3

Asia, Europe, The Modern Era (1227-1936)

Bible connection

Don’t you know that those who serve in the temple get their food from the temple, and that those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.

But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing this in the hope that you will do such things for me, for I would rather die than allow anyone to deprive me of this boast. For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. — 1 Corinthians 9:13-17

All about Hudson Taylor (1832-1905)

In 1853 a small boat left Liverpool with Hudson Taylor on board, a gaunt and wild-eyed 21-year-old missionary. He was headed for a country that was just coming into the European/American Christian consciousness: China. By the time Taylor died a half-century later, China was viewed as the most fertile and challenging mission field of all and thousands volunteered annually to serve there.

Taylor was born to a Methodist couple fascinated by the “Far East” who had prayed for their newborn, “Grant that he may work for you in China.” Years later, a teenage Hudson experienced a spiritual birth during an intense time of prayer in which, as he later put it, life stretched out “before Him with unspeakable awe and unspeakable joy.” He felt called to China. He spent the next years in frantic preparation, learning the rudiments of medicine, studying Mandarin, and immersing himself ever deeper into the Bible and prayer.

His ship arrived in Shanghai, one of five “treaty ports” China had opened to foreigners following its first Opium War with England. Almost immediately Taylor made a radical decision (as least for Protestant missionaries of the day): he decided to dress in Chinese clothes and grow a pigtail (as Chinese men did). His fellow Protestants were either incredulous or critical.

Taylor, for his part, was not happy with most missionaries he saw; he believed they were “worldly” and spent too much time with English businessmen and diplomats who needed their services as translators. Instead, Taylor wanted the Christian faith taken to the interior of China. So within months of arriving, and the native language still a challenge, Taylor, along with Joseph Edkins, set off for the interior, setting sail down the Huangpu River distributing Chinese Bibles and tracts.

When the Chinese Evangelization Society, which had sponsored Taylor, proved incapable of paying its missionaries in 1857, Taylor resigned and became an independent missionary; trusting God to meet his needs. In 1861, he became seriously ill (probably with hepatitis) and was forced to return to England to recover. In England, the restless Taylor continued translating the Bible into Chinese (a work he’d begun in China), studied to become a midwife, and recruited more missionaries. Troubled that people in England seemed to have little interest in China, he wrote China: Its Spiritual Need and Claims. In one passage, he scolded, “Can all the Christians in England sit still with folded arms while these multitudes [in China] are perishing—perishing for lack of knowledge—for lack of that knowledge which England possesses so richly?”

Taylor became convinced that a special organization was needed to evangelize the interior of China. He made plans to recruit 24 missionaries: two for each of the 11 unreached inland provinces and two for Mongolia. It was a visionary plan that would have left veteran recruiters breathless: it would increase the number of China missionaries by 25 percent. He was wracked with doubt about the dangers his plan presented. But at the same time he despaired for the millions of Chinese who were dying without the hope of the gospel. While walking along the beach on day, his gloom lifted:

“There the Lord conquered my unbelief, and I surrendered myself to God for this service. I told him that all responsibility as to the issues and consequences must rest with him; that as his servant it was mine to obey and to follow him.”

His new mission, which he called the China Inland Mission (CIM), had a number of distinctive features, including this: its missionaries would have no guaranteed salaries nor could they appeal for funds; they would simply trust God to supply their needs; furthermore, its missionaries would adopt Chinese dress and then press the gospel into the China interior. Within a year of his breakthrough, Taylor, his wife and four children, and 16 young missionaries sailed from London to join five others already in China working under Taylor’s direction.

Taylor continued to make enormous demands upon himself. He was accused of being a tyrant and people left for other missions. Yet by 1876, with 52 missionaries, CIM constituted one-fifth of the missionary force in China. Because there continued to be so many Chinese to reach, Taylor instituted another radical policy: he sent unmarried women into the interior, a move criticized by many veterans. But Taylor’s boldness knew no bounds. In 1881, he asked God for another 70 missionaries by the close of 1884: he got 76. In late 1886, Taylor prayed for another 100 within a year: by November 1887, he announced 102 candidates had been accepted for service.

His leadership style and high ideals created enormous strains between the London and China councils of the CIM. London thought Taylor autocratic; Taylor said he was only doing what he thought was best for the work, and then demanded more commitment from others:

“China is not to be won for Christ by quiet, ease-loving men and women,” …“The stamp of men and women we need is such as will put Jesus, China, [and] souls first and foremost in everything and at every time—even life itself must be secondary.”

Taylor’s grueling work pace, despite poor health, ended up with a breakdown in 1900. He also lost his wife and four of his eight children by living like the Chinese. Between his work ethic and his absolute trust in God (despite never soliciting funds, his CIM grew and prospered), he inspired thousands to forsake the comforts of the West to bring the Christian message to the vast and unknown interior of China. Though mission work in China was interrupted by the communist takeover in 1949, the CIM continues to this day under the name Overseas Missionary Fellowship (International).

More

Four-minute YouTube bio [link]

Chinese pilgrimage to Barnsley, birthplace of Hudson Taylor [link]

What do we do with this?

What do you think of Taylor’s passion for evangelism? In some ways he was strikingly anticolonial. In some ways he was self-destructively obsessive. What do you do with that? What do you think God thinks of Hudson Taylor?

The Lord’s mission also ended in Jesus’ “untimely” death. Do you think we are called to imitate him in some way?

Are you aware of a people group who need to hear the truth about Jesus? Are you called to do anything about that?

Kizito — June 3

Africa, The Modern Era (1227-1936)

Image result for st. kizito

Bible connection

When they had brought them, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them, saying, “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man’s blood on us.” But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than any human authority. The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.” — Acts 4:17-32

All about Kizito (1872-1886)

Kizito* was the youngest of the Ugandan martyrs who suffered death rather than renounce his faith on June 3rd, 1886. The Ugandan Martyrs refer to a group of forty-five Christians – twenty-two Catholics and twenty-three Anglicans – who were tortured and killed over a period stretching from 1885 to 1887 for their faith.  Christians were persecuted by Mwanda,  the Kabaka (ruler) during this period.  Bugandan territory is now incorporated into the Republic of Uganda.

Priests belonging to the Missionaries in Africa, commonly referred to as the White Fathers (due to their white habits), arrived in Uganda in 1879.  Their mission was met with little resistance at first as they shared their faith among the people of Buganda.  That changed when the Kabaka, Mutesa, died and was succeeded by his son, Mwanga.  Mwanga viewed Christianity as a threat to his power.

The Christian views on morality – especially the teaching that pedophilia was a sin – did not endear them to Mwanda, who was a pedophile and routinely solicited sexual favors from his young pages.  His chief page, Joseph Mukasa was a Catholic who did his best to protect his young charges.  He even had the courage and conviction to confront Mwanga and insist he give up his sinful ways.  Mwanga’s response was to have him beheaded.

Joseph Mukasa was succeeded as chief page by Charles Lwanga who also was a Catholic and who also was vigorous in his protection of the young pages.  Mwanga became increasingly enraged as the pages, Kizito among them, continually refused and rebuffed his sexual advances. Mwanga eventually had the pages brought before him and gave them a choice to renounce their Christian faith and live or choose to keep their faith and die.

Many of the pages including Charles Lwanga and Kizito chose their faith.  There were fifteen in the group who were bound and made to walk two days to Namugongo where they would be killed.  One of the Christians, Matthias Kalemba, was martyred enroute.

Upon reaching Namugongo, Charles Lwanga was the first to be burned at the stake.  The following is a moving excerpt taken from the Catholic News agency:

The executioners slowly burnt his feet until only the charred remained.  Still alive, they promised him that they would let him go if he renounced his faith.  He refused saying, “You are burning me, but it is as if you are pouring water over my body.”  He then continued to pray silently as they set him on fire.

The other pages were burned alive together.  As they were being executed, their faith remained strong until the end, as they prayed and sang hymns.

The death of these martyrs had quite the opposite effect the Kabaka intended. Many witnessing the horrific deaths of these amazing young men who gave their young lives so willingly for their faith asked to be baptized.

* The Bugandan kinship structure may be unfamiliar to you if you grew up in the United States.

  • Kizito’s birth father was Lukomera of the Lungfish (Mamba) Clan, and his mother, who bore Lukomera nine children before she deserted him and died, was Wanga-bira of the Civet-cat (Ffumbe) Clan.
  • Nyika (or Nyikomuyonga), Guardian of Kabaka Mwanga’s umbilical cord, is often said to be the father of Kizito, but it was by adoption only. The paternal relationship arose from a blood-pact between Nyika’s father Kiggwe and a member of the Lungfish Clan named Mitalekoya.
  • Kiggwe, a descendent of Kabaka Kateregga and a member of the Leopard (Ngo) Clan, was county chief of Ggomba when he made this alliance. Later he incurred the royal displeasure, was deprived of his office and possessions and became virtually an outlaw, because he was out of favor with the Kabaka. In this time of adversity, the blood-pact stood him in good stead.
  • Because of it, the Lungfish Clan gave him and his family asylum and aid, and Mitalekoya became a second father to his son Nyika, who adopted Kizito into royal circles.

More

Uganda martyrs: Tracing the roots of St. Kizito

Mwanga – the king who killed the Uganda martyrs

What do we do with this?

The church in Uganda remains attentive to sexuality. That seems predictable, since some of its foundation is resistance to sexual predators. Most contexts prove dangerous for Christians, if not everyone. What is prowling around like a lion, as Peter sees it, trying to devour your heart and soul?

The main pressure the King of Buganda felt in the time of Kizito was from colonizers. The French Catholics and English Anglicans were in league with their respective country’s rush to “protect” areas of Africa. Muslim traders were eager to have fortified trading posts and a beachhead for Islam. Evangelism coupled with colonization is one of the stains on Christian history. Like Joseph told his brothers, “You meant it for evil but God used it for good.” Africa is now the continent with the most Christians. Have you experienced or done anything evil that God used for good? Praise God for the goodness, and consider what justice and forgiveness mean to you.

Eusebius — May 30

Asia, Forerunners (33-1226)
6th century Syriac portrait of St. Eusebius of Caesarea from the Rabbula Gospels

Bible connection

The Rock, his work is perfect,
and all his ways are just.
A faithful God, without deceit,
just and upright is he;
yet his degenerate children have dealt falsely with him,
a perverse and crooked generation.
Do you thus repay the Lord,
O foolish and senseless people?
Is not he your father who created you,
who made you and established you?
Remember the days of old;
consider the years long past;
ask your father, and he will inform you,
your elders, and they will tell you. — Deuteronomy 32:4-7

I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness.

Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not become idolaters as some of them did, as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.” — 1 Corinthians 10:1-6

All about Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 260/265-339)

No collection of the great figures in the history of the church would be complete without including the premier historian of the church, Eusebius of Caesarea. He lived during a very formative period for the Church and his writings reflect every aspect of it. There was once a biography of Eusebius, written by his successor as Caesarea’s bishop, but like so many of his own writings, it is lost. So we know nothing for certain about his early life. He was probably born in Palestine, certainly baptized at Caesarea and ordained a presbyter (elder) there under his teacher and friend, Pamphilus — so closely did he follow this Origen devotee that he called himself Eusebius Pamphili (son of Pamphilus) after he died.

In 303 the co-emperors Diocletian and Galerius ordered the “great persecution,” and Pamphilus was martyred within seven years. Eusebius too, was imprisoned but managed to avoid his mentor’s fate. The persecutions turned the historian’s attention to the martyrs of his own time and the past. He writes:

“We saw with our own eyes the houses of prayer thrown down to the very foundations, and the divine and sacred Scriptures committed to the flames in the market-places, and the shepherds of the churches basely hidden here and there, and some of them captured ignominiously, and mocked by their enemies” (Church History 8.2.1).

Collecting those personal histories led him to the history of the whole Church and finally to the history of the world, which, to him, was only a preparation for Church history.

Imagine writing a comprehensive history of the Church’s last three centuries — that means you start in 1725. Now imagine no one has ever written such a history before, so there’s no single collection of key documents, no books profiling key figures, no chronology of major events, no Google, not even a fixed system of dating the past. When Eusebius undertook such an effort, he felt trepidation. In his introduction to the The Church History  (or Ecclesiastical History) [Internet Archive] he writes:

“I feel inadequate to do it justice as the first to venture on such an undertaking, a traveler on a lonely and untrodden path. But I pray that God may guide me and the power of the Lord assist me, for I have not found even the footprints of any predecessors on this path, only traces in which some have left various accounts of the times in which they lived.”

Around 313, about the time of Constantine’s Edict of Milan, Eusebius became bishop of the Palestinian city of Caesarea. There he continued work on his church history, which he began during the persecutions. He also wrote a 15-volume refutation of paganism called Preparation, and Demonstration of the Gospel [Internet Archive], demonstrating Christ’s fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. He also completed his Chronicle of world history.

Just as Eusebius was writing about Christianity’s defeat of paganism, one the greatest threats to the Church was developing within it. Arius, a presbyter from Libya, was gaining followers around the empire, teaching, “There was a time when the Son was not.” Egyptian bishop Alexander and his chief deacon, Athanasius, fumed at the teaching. The argument spread throughout the empire, promising to rip the church in two. Constantine, God’s chosen instrument, as Eusebius saw him, called the Council of Nicaea to close the fissure.

Since his earliest days with Pamphilus, Eusebius had been enthralled with the teachings of Origen, who has been criticized for 1,800 years for believing the Trinity is a hierarchy, not an equality. This led Eusebius to be less concerned with Arius’ heresy than the threat of disunity in the Church. When Arius was censured, Eusebius, who thought the entire debate brought Christianity the “most shameful ridicule,” was among the first to ask he be reinstated.

At the Council of Nicaea, Eusebius (whose name means “faithful”) attempted to mediate between the Arians and the orthodox. But when the council was over and Arius was anathematized, Eusebius was reluctant to agree with its decision. He eventually signed the document the council produced, saying, “Peace is the object which we set before us.” But a few years later, when the tables flipped and Arianism became popular, Eusebius criticized Athanasius, hero of the council. He even sat on the council that deposed him. Eusebius wasn’t himself an Arian—he rejected the idea that “there was a time when the Son was not” and that Christ was created out of nothing. He simply opposed anti-Arianism.

As the Arian controversy continued to rage, Eusebius stayed in Caesarea, declining a promotion to become bishop of Antioch, and wrote. Among his most famous writings of this final period was another history: a praise-filled Life of Constantine, his adored political leader.

Eusebius wrote many other things, including an important treatise on the location of biblical place names and the distances between them. He also created a system to  number passages of the Gospels and made a table so readers could find the parallels between Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. This numbering exists in almost all the Greek manuscripts we have. It became a central idea behind how people read the Bible.

Holy History

His famous Church History shares a missionary purpose with Eusebius’s more explicitly apologetic writings. The opening words state his six interests:

  • It is my purpose to write an account of the successions of the holy apostles;. …
  • to relate the many important events that are said to have occurred in the history of the church;
  • to mention those who have governed and presided over the church in the most prominent parishes and those who in each generation have proclaimed the divine word either orally or in writing;. …
  • to give the names. … of those who through love of innovation have run into the greatest errors;. …
  • to recount the misfortunes that immediately came upon the whole Jewish nation in consequence of their plots against our Savior;
  • and to record the ways and the times in which the divine word has been attacked by the nations and to describe the character of those who at various periods have contended for it in the face of blood and tortures, as well as the confessions that have been made in our own days, and finally the gracious and kindly succor that our Savior has afforded them all.

Eusebius later added a seventh interest: the canon of New Testament Scripture. Athanasius’ definitive list of books stems from Eusebius.

He begins his Church History by describing the divine nature of the pre-existent Christ and the “scattering of the seeds of true religion” among human beings from the beginning of time. Many people throughout history rejected this divine teaching, but it was always available. This point was crucial to Eusebius because it answered a significant question from pagans: If Christianity is the only true religion, why was it so late in coming to the world?

Furthermore, the affirmation that Christianity began at Creation was central to Eusebius’s theology of history. To bolster his claim that God’s plan reached its climax in Christ, he had to trace that plan back through all time. On this basis, he could show how God continued to work through the church as well.

Eusebius wrote the History for ordinary Christians and interested non-Christians. This broad audience was not interested in doctrinal questions, so Eusebius gives such questions little attention. Instead, he concentrates on what would have popular, and enduring, appeal: sensational tales of martyrdom, juicy tidbits about famous leaders, lively quotations, and personal reflections.

Eusebius’ history has, in retrospect, many defects, both in style and method. For instance, he assumes, inaccurately, that the early church looked just like the church he knew. He displayed no sense of doctrinal or institutional development, especially in the Latin West, a region about which he knew little.

Eusebius can also be accused of whitewashing what he did know. As he introduced accounts of persecution in his day, he stated that he was including only what would be profitable:

We shall not mention those who were shaken by the persecution nor those who in everything pertaining to salvation were shipwrecked. … But we shall introduce into this history in general only those events which may be useful first to ourselves and afterwards to posterity (Church History 8.2.3).

Other complaints about Eusebius include his inattention to coherent narrative, his occasionally careless use of sources, and of course his belief that Christianity and the Roman state belonged together. But this negative picture can be exaggerated, and modern readers should be grateful that Eusebius collected material that would otherwise be lost.

Whatever may be said about Eusebius’s inability to organize his materials, he nonetheless had keen insight into themes that would have abiding interest for future generations. Who can forget the scenes recorded by Eusebius?

  • The apostle John fleeing the bathhouse upon finding Cerinthus, “the enemy of the truth,” there.
  • Justin Martyr in a philosopher’s cloak preaching the Word of God.
  • Polycarp confessing his faith before the governor: “Eighty-six years I have served Christ, and he has done me no wrong; how can I blaspheme my king who saved me?”
  • Blandina, the slave girl, hanging on a stake as if on a cross, but inspiring her fellow martyrs, “who saw the One who was crucified in the form of their sister.”
  • Origen’s father admiring his sleeping boy as one in whom the divine Spirit was enshrined.

Eusebius did not perfect the discipline of church history, but he took the crucial first step of considering world events from a Christian perspective. It is a tribute to his accomplishment that scholars continued his pursuit—though none attempted to rewrite what he had written for centuries.

More

The Wikipedia page is extensive [link]

Catholic criticisms and congratulations regarding Church History [link]

Podcast: Eusebius: History from the Wrong Side of History | Way of the Fathers with Mike Aquilina:

What do we do with this?

Many people know Eusebius as the “Father of Church History.” But did he write history? Because of his style of weaving short entries into a broader scheme he has been called one of the fathers of  journalism. Others call him a propagandist – he did call Emperor Constantine “most beloved by God,” and described the fourth-century church as being brought to “a state of uniform harmony.” However we evaluate his achievements, his works remain foundational for our knowledge of the church in its first three centuries. And this foundation stands firm despite noticeable cracks.

Have you ever written your own personal history of faith in your day? It would be interesting to see who and what influenced you, what heresies you faced, what nonsense in the church you had to endure, even your persecutions! Give it a try and see how God blesses it.

Mechthild of Magdeburg — May 28

Europe, The Modern Era (1227-1936)
Sculptor: Peter Paul Metz, 1896. Church of Gordian and Epimachus, Merazhofen, Germany

Bible connection

It is necessary to boast; nothing is to be gained by it, but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord.  I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows.  And I know that such a person—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows —  was caught up into paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat.  On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. But if I wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think better of me than what is seen in me or heard from me,  even considering the exceptional character of the revelations.  — 2 Corinthians 12:1-7

All about Mechthild of Magdeburg (c. 1208-c. 1282/94)

Mechthild is the author of The Flowing Light of the Godhead. She is one of the best-known  beguines. For most of her adulthood, she lived in a communal house in Magdeburg (now in Germany). Women became beguines because they had the same aspirations that contributed to the founding of the Franciscans and Dominicans in the same era: the desire to return to the ideals of early Christianity and imitate more closely the lives of the apostles, to be unworldly while living in the world. Beguines were usually under the direction of a parish priest, but because of their similarities  to the Franciscan and Dominican communities, they often associated with them. They were regularly criticized for being loosely overseen and, as mysticism arose among them, were accused of being unorthodox.

In composing her book, Mechthild felt constrained to answer two questions. What gives a woman with no formal education, no special training in theology, and no place in an approved religious order the right to speak to on theological matters and sharply criticize the clergy? What’s more, by whose authority did she write, or why should she expect to be taken seriously?

The few facts we have of Mechthild’s life come from her own works and subsequent introductions to them. Her familiarity  with the literature of the German court places her from a noble lineage at some low or medium level. She says at age twelve she was “greeted” by the Holy Spirit. An infilling continued daily for over three decades. About 1230, as a twentysomething, she left home for a beguinage in Magdeburg. About 1250, in her forties, she revealed to her spiritual director, Heinrich of Halle, the spiritual favors she had been granted. He commanded her to write her book “out of God’s heart and mouth.” For the next ten years she completed five books. During the next ten years, she decided she was not finished and completed two more.

She finished the seventh book at the Cistercian community at Helfta, under the guidance  of its second abbess, Gertrud of Hackeborn. She retreated there about 1270. She became feeble and blind and needed to dictate the final chapters.

A manuscript of Flowering Light was discovered in 1861 in which the Low German vernacular of Mechthild (“low” means northern Germany) had been translated into the High German of Bavaria. Until then the main versions of her work derived from Latin translations by Dominicans in Halle sometime before 1298. In comparing the texts, scholars discovered the Latin translators toned down her criticism of the clergy and some of her erotic imagery. The later manuscript clarified some of her language which was obscure to people who were not Low German speakers from the 13th century.

Mechthild’s work has no antecedents or descendants. Most “revelations” of her time just reported what happened to the mystic. Mechthild uses her revelations as starting points for reflection. She uses every form of writing available in her time to express what the greetings mean:

  • Religious forms: the vision, hymn, sermon, spiritual instruction and tract, prayer, liturgy, litany, and prophecy.
  • Courtly forms: love poetry, allegorical dialogue, dialogue between lovers, the messenger’s song, and the exchange (Wechsel).
  • Other forms: autobiography, drama, epigrammatic poetry and wisdom literature, anecdote, letter, parody, nursery rhyme and polemics.

Love is the force that compels Mechthild to write. She is not coming up with a system of theology.

Quotes:

Prayer is naught else but a yearning of soul … it draws down the great God into the little heart; it drives the hungry soul up to the plenitude of God; it brings together these two lovers, God and the soul, in a wondrous place where they speak much of love.

The soul is made of love and must ever strive to return to love. Therefore, it can never find rest nor happiness in other things. It must lose itself in love. By its very nature it must seek God, who is love.

The day of my spiritual awakening was the day I saw and knew I saw all things in God and God in all things.

Stupidity is sufficient unto itself. Wisdom can never learn enough.

From suffering I have learned this: that whoever is sore wounded by love will never be made whole unless she embraces the very same love which wounded her.

More

The Flowing Light of the Godhead online. This version also available in print. [Goodreads]

Poems collected by the Poetry Foundation [link]

A meditation on her sayings [YouTube]

YouTube purveyor of esoterica spends 30 minutes on Mechthild to good end:

What do we do with this?

Use her poem as your prayer:

I cannot dance, O Lord,

Unless You lead me.
If You wish me to leap joyfully,
Let me see You dance and sing—
Then I will leap into Love—
And from Love into Knowledge,
And from Knowledge into the Harvest,

The sweetest Fruit beyond human sense.

There I will stay with You, whirling.

Consider how brave Mechthild was to leave her family and join a radical community. Consider how she felt the need to keep her spiritual life a secret for so long. Consider how she followed the command of her confessor and applied herself to writing her book. Consider how she broke with tradition and found her own voice, even when her kindred spirits came under criticism. Especially if you are a woman, enjoy the story of someone who got through a thick glass ceiling.

Bede — May 26

Europe, Forerunners (33-1226),
The Venerable Bede writing. Detail from a 12th century codex

Bible connection

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. — Hebrews 11:13

All about the Venerable Bede (c. 673-735)

“The Venerable Bede” died on this day in 735. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest Anglo-Saxon scholars. When he was seven, Bede was sent to Benedict Biscop at the monastery of St. Peter at Wearmouth, Northumbria, for his education; when he was nine he moved a short distance to the sister house in Jarrow, where he would live out the rest of his days. Bede became a deacon at age 19 and priest at 30.

Page from Ecclesiastical History

Eventually, Bede was the first native of the British Isles to be named by the Pope as Doctor of the Church (in 1899). His most famous work, which is a key source for understanding early British history and the arrival of Christianity, is Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum or The Ecclesiastical History of the English People which was completed in 731 AD. It is the first work of history in which the AD system of dating is used.

Much of Bede’s observations and writings were focused on the natural world. His scholarship is notably advanced because of his ability to weave together fragments into coherent works with very limited resources.

Here is a bit from his most famous work:

The present life of man, O king, seems to me, in comparison of that time which is unknown to us, like to the swift flight of a sparrow through the room wherein you sit at supper in winter, with your commanders and ministers, and a good fire in the midst, whilst the storms of rain and snow prevail abroad; the sparrow, I say, flying in at one door, and immediately out at another, whilst he is within, is safe from the wintry storm; but after a short space of fair weather, he immediately vanishes out of your sight, into the dark winter from which he had emerged. So this life of man appears for a short space, but of what went before, or what is to follow, we are utterly ignorant. If, therefore, this new doctrine contains something more certain, it seems justly to deserve to be followed.

Try on this quote:

Better a stupid and unlettered brother who, working the good things he knows, merits life in Heaven than one who though being distinguished for his learning in the Scriptures, or even holding the place of a doctor, lacks the bread of love.

This is also a good image:

Jesus opened the tavern of heaven and poured out the wine of the Holy Ghost.

Bede’s work was so famous and respected that it earned him an honorific addition to his name. The title Venerabilis [Venerable] was associated with the name of Bede within two generations after his death. There is no proof for the legend that an unskilled monk composing an epitaph on Bede was at a loss to complete the line: Hac sunt in fossa Bedae . . . . ossa (in this grave are Bede…bones) and then found the next morning that angels had filled the gap with the word venerabilis [venerable]. The title is used by Alcuin (a Northumbrian teacher who became the lead scholar in Charlemagne’s court), Amalarius of Metz and Paul the Deacon within years of his death. The important Council of Aachen in 835 describes him as venerabilis [venerable] et modernis temporibus doctor admirabilis Beda [venerable and admirable doctor of our time, Bede].

More 

Want to read Bede’s groundbreaking book? [link]

More from English people who love him? [link] 

Additions from Orthodox Wiki: [link]

This Channel 4 story takes less than 2 minutes:

What do we do with this?

Bede was a writer and researcher. He was a preserver of good things and true things. If you are a writer, too, take your art seriously and tell the truth. Maybe you should write a little history of your church, your team, or of a person you admire. Or write your spiritual autobiography! Bede’s work has made a difference for 1300 years!

Why highlight Anglo-Saxon church history? The main reasons: it is inspiring and influences U.S. Christianity. The history of how other religions develop is interesting, too. If you would like to know about how first-century Buddhist texts recently discovered in Afghanistan have impacted how present day Buddhists see their history, here is an article [link]. There are the “Bedes” of Buddhism to appreciate.  For instance, someone collected the earliest record of Buddhist oral tradition: the Pāli Canon, but they are unknown. We have a name associated with other foundational collections. The Edicts of Ashoka from the 3rd century B.C., especially those mentioning the Buddha’s birthplace and Dhamma texts, provide the earliest written evidence of Buddhism. The Edicts are a collection of more than thirty inscriptions on pillars, boulders, and cave walls, made by Emperor Ashoka of the Mauryan Empire during his reign, from 268 BCE to 232 BCE. They were dispersed throughout the areas of modern-day India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan and Pakistan.  

Frances Perkins — May 14

North America, This century (1937-2025)

Bible connection

Perkins’ motto: “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” — 1 Cor 15:58 (ESV) 

Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker,
    but whoever is kind to the needy honors God. — Proverbs 14:31 (NIV)

All about Frances Perkins (1880-1965)

Frances Perkins was the first woman cabinet member in U. S. history. She was born Fannie Coralie Perkins in Boston, Massachusetts. She received her B.A. from Mount Holyoke College in 1902. While a student there, Perkins heard a speaker vividly describe the nation’s growing urban and industrial problems. She found her calling.

David Brooks writes of former days in the U.S.A. and Frances Perkins :

Much of American moral education drew on an ethos expressed by the headmaster of the Stowe School, in England, who wrote in 1930 that the purpose of his institution was to turn out young men who were “acceptable at a dance and invaluable in a shipwreck.” America’s National Institute for Moral Instruction was founded in 1911 and published a “Children’s Morality Code,” with 10 rules for right living. At the turn of the 20th century, Mount Holyoke College, an all-women’s institution, was an example of an intentionally thick moral community. When a young Frances Perkins was a student there, her Latin teacher detected a certain laziness in her. She forced Perkins to spend hours conjugating Latin verbs, to cultivate self-discipline. Perkins grew to appreciate this: “For the first time I became conscious of character.” The school also called upon women to follow morally ambitious paths. “Do what nobody else wants to do; go where nobody else wants to go,” the school’s founder implored. Holyoke launched women into lives of service in Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East. Perkins, who would become the first woman to serve in a presidential Cabinet (Franklin D. Roosevelt’s), was galvanized there.

When she was living in Lake Forest, Illinois, and working in Chicago, she was attracted to the Episcopal Church. Perkins was confirmed at the Church of the Holy Spirit, Lake Forest, on June 11, 1905. She remained a life-long Episcopalian.

While working at a Chicago settlement house, she determined to “do something about unnecessary hazards to life, unnecessary poverty” because “our Lord has directed all those who thought they were following in His path to visit the widows, the orphans, the fatherless, the prisoners and so forth.”

Perkins earned an M.A. at Columbia University in 1910. In 1911 she witnessed the Triangle Shirtwaist fire in New York in which 146 factory workers died. She took up industrial safety work for the City of New York. Perkins continued her work in industrial relations, serving at the state level with Al Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt during their respective terms as Governor of New York.

In 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed her Secretary of Labor. Before accepting the job, she consulted with her friend, Suffragan Bishop Charles K. Gilbert of New York. Receiving spiritual direction was one of her disciplines. She was an associate of the All Saints’ Sisters of the Poor, and she spent one day a month in silent retreat at their Catonsville, Maryland convent throughout her twelve years in the cabinet

Frances Perkins had a clear vision of her priorities—what God wanted came first. As secretary of Labor under Franklin Roosevelt, she developed programs that bettered the lives of the American people. These included Social Security, workplace safety regulations, unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation, minimum wage laws, and the forty hour work week. Throughout a life spent championing the rights of working people, the poor, children, and the disadvantaged, Perkins used her Christian faith as her guide. When friends asked why it was important for the fortunate to help the poor she told them, “that it was what Jesus would want them to do.”  [See Michelle Kew at the Francis Perkins Center]

As Secretary of Labor, she was instrumental in helping draft and implement Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation. Perkins resigned her post shortly after Roosevelt’s death in 1945.

In 1955 she joined the faculty of the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She remained active in teaching and lecturing until her death in New York City.

Quotes

  • I came to Washington to work for God, FDR, and the millions of forgotten, plain common workingmen.
  • The door might not be opened to a woman again for a long, long time, and I had a kind of duty to other women to walk in and sit down on the chair that was offered, and so establish the right of others long hence and far distant in geography to sit in the high seats.
  • The accusation that I am a woman is incontrovertible.
  • It’s only when we’re relaxed that the thing way down deep in all of us – call it the subconscious mind, the spirit, what you will – has a chance to well up and tell us how we shall go.
  • You can always get sympathy by using the word small. With little industries you feel as you do about a little puppy.

Last December Joe Biden created a new National Monument dedicated to Perkins [link].

What do we do with this?

Frances Perkins was given a unique opportunity because she held on to her unique convictions. They were not unusual to Jesus, but she stood out in comparison to many people. Her faith and courage made her notable.

Capitalism wants to extract the most profit it can from its workforce. There is always a drift toward injustice and even slavery within it. Recently, the demands for a minimum wage and the rights of unions within the new giant corporations like Apple and Amazon have renewed the fight Perkins succeeded in so well. Human rights assumes people must be responsible for one another. The quest for the “freedom” of individualism is always an aggressive counterpoint to that responsibility. Where are your thoughts on that spectrum? Where is Jesus, as far as you can tell?

Georges Cuvier – May 13

Europe, The Modern Era (1227-1936)

Bible Connection

My child, if you accept my words
and treasure up my commandments within you,
making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding,
if you indeed cry out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures—
then you will understand the fear of the Lord
and find the knowledge of God.
For the Lord gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly,
guarding the paths of justice
and preserving the way of his faithful ones. — Proverbs 2:1-8

All about Georges Cuvier (1769-1832)

Georges Cuvier (Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier) was a Christian who became one of the premier scientists of his time. He established comparative anatomy and paleontology as sciences. As most people of his time, he started with the assumption that God created the world and all creatures/species  bore the mark of his intention. Unlike most people of his time, he compared living animals with fossils and became the first to suggest certain animals had become extinct.

The bust of Georges Cuvier in the Gallery of Palaeontology and Comparative Anatomy of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.

Cuvier is well-known for proposing “catastrophism,” the idea that Earth’s history has been shaped by sudden, catastrophic events. As a result of these events, he surmised, many species became extinct and new species emerged after each world-shaping event. He rejected the new idea of organic evolution, and continued to view species as fixed and unchanging, each one having a specific purpose and function. While Cuvier rejected evolution, his work on extinctions and comparative anatomy influenced later scientists, including Charles Darwin, who built upon his ideas. Darwin wrote to William Ogle in 1832, “Linnaeus and Cuvier have been my two gods, though in very different ways, but they were mere school-boys to old Aristotle.”

Georges Cuvier was born in Montbéliard, a French-speaking community in the Jura Mountains, near Switzerland, which was part of the Duchy of Württemberg at the time. During his lifetime, the Duchy was abolished. His parents were devout Lutherans and he remained one for his entire life. He attended the Karlsschule Academy in Stuttgart, Germany, where he learned to dissect animals and developed his interest in natural history. After graduation, he became a tutor for a noble family in Normandy, France. There he met the Abbot Teissier, an agronomist and member of the former Royal Academy of Science. Teissier shared with Cuvier his research on mollusks and, impressed by his encyclopedic knowledge, introduced him to his friends in Paris, where Cuvier settled in 1795 to embark on a brilliant career.

Cuvier was already well-known when, in 1812, he published his opus Recherches sur les Ossements Fossiles des Quadrupèdes (Researches on the Fossil Bones of Quadrupeds). He advanced a principle of “subordination of organs” (the organs of a living being affect each other and cooperate to bring about the same action through reciprocal reaction), and he established a new classification for vertebrates. These principles enabled him to reconstruct complete skeletons from bones and fossils, thus proving the existence of fauna so far unknown.

Cuvier invented the science of paleontology. He defended his theory of  cataclycisme (catastrophist scenario) in his Discours sur la Révolution du Globe (Discourse on the Revolutionary Upheaval on the Surface of the Earth) and opposed actualisme, a theory according to which the laws that determined past geological phenomena are identical to those that determine present phenomena.

British geologists made Cuvier an ally in connecting catastrophism to the Bible’s story of Noah and the flood. But there is little indication in Cuvier’s writings that this was part of his science.  Cuvier treated the Bible both as a book with divine authority and as a source of information about nature and history. In doing so, he distanced himself both from scholars finding natural laws in the Bible and from neologists making up theology to match the latest data. For Cuvier the Augustinian principle of “accommodation,” which pre-dates historical criticism, sufficed to keep scripture and geology relatively separate, as his interpretation of texts on the flood and on Old Testament chronology indicate. The accommodation principle suggests God adjusts revelation to fit human understanding and limitations. So theological, scientific or historical understanding are all provisional. God uses language for revelation but the revelation is beyond language and limited human capacity.

Cuvier distanced himself from a speculative geology based solely on Bible texts. For him, the Bible could be consulted for elements of natural history, such as the features of the earth, of organisms and of ancient civilizations. But any responsible use was limited by an awareness of the accommodated nature of the texts. He was working on stronger, empirical alternatives built on the standard belief that God’s work revealed in nature agrees with the revelation in scripture. Cuvier’s use of Bible texts, or of metaphysical ideas in general, is characterized by an insistence that any matter under consideration can stand on its own empirical feet. This means Cuvier is not a “scriptural geologist.” The general idea of geological catastrophes may have been inspired by the story of the Flood, and the definition of biological species by the story of Creation, but the hypotheses stand on their own merit.  (See “Georges Cuvier and the Use of Scripture in Geology” by Jitse M. van der Meer).

Georges Cuvier became a baron in 1818 and Chancellor of his university in 1820. He was President of the State Council and Director of Religious Affairs, and held many other positions and titles. He became one of the most powerful and decorated men of his era.

After he approached Napoleon for the organization of the Lutheran Church in Paris, it  was established in 1806 at the Oratoire des Billettes. In 1824, he was placed in charge of the Faculty of Protestant Theology and in 1828 was appointed director of non-Roman Catholic religions under King Charles X. He encouraged the creation of numerous pastoral positions, especially in the Montbéliard region. His daughter Clémentine devoted much of her time to Protestant charities.

Balzac’s quotation about the man he considered equal to Napoleon is well-known “Cuvier is married to the globe.”

Quotes

Why has not anyone seen that fossils alone gave birth to a theory about the formation of the earth, that without them, no one would have ever dreamed that there were successive epochs in the formation of the globe. — Discourse on the Revolutionary Upheavals on the Surface of the Earth

To spread healthy ideas among even the lowest classes of people, to remove men from the influence of prejudice and passion, to make reason the arbiter and supreme guide of public opinion; that is the essential goal of the sciences; that is how science will contribute to the advancement of civilization, and that is what deserves protection of governments who want to insure the stability of their power. — Historical Report on Advance in natural Sciences

Genius and science have burst the limits of space, and few observations, explained by just reasoning, have unveiled the mechanism of the universe. Would it not also be glorious for man to burst the limits of time, and, by a few observations, to ascertain the history of this world, and the series of events which preceded the birth of the human race? — Essay on the Theory of the Earth

More

Bio from the Virtual Museum of Protestantism.

Bio from the University of California Museum of Paleontology. [link]

This video shows the development of Cuvier’s assertions about extinction in  eight minutes. [link] 

November 30 is Remembrance Day for Lost Species due to human-caused catastrophe.

Noted paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould  (1941-2002) posited “punctuated equilibrium” as a more accurate view of species development. His views were reminiscent of Cuvier’s catastrophism. “Creationists” use Gould’s argument to make paleontological sense of Noah and the flood, and they have websites [link].

This video mentions Cuvier as part of a history of science lesson leading to Darwin. It is an interesting thirteen minutes! :

What do we do with this?

Would Georges Cuvier pass muster on a roll call of orthodox Evangelicals today? That remains to be seen. He was not an overt proponent for much more than his scientific discoveries. His faith was public, a given, but not something he intended to defend, scientifically. Faith influenced everything he thought and did, but he did not try to make everything fit under its Lordship, so to speak. Is he a lukewarm believer? Do you think he belongs in our historical examples of faith? Do you belong there?

Cuvier is less well known, these days, but in his own time he was very famous. He was involved in church, in politics, and was deeply involved in the scientific revolution impacting every area of thought. When he was 20 the French Revolution began. He was connected to Napoleon who became Emperor when he was 35. He rose to prominence during the Bourbon restoration, when he was made a baron. He died two years into the July Monarchy. His faith and his science survived all the turmoil. May your love and truth do the same.

Nikolaus Zinzendorf  — May 9

Europe, The Modern Era (1227-1936)

Bible connection

Read Isaiah 58

Free those who are wrongly imprisoned;
lighten the burden of those who work for you.
Let the oppressed go free,
and remove the chains that bind people.
 Share your food with the hungry,
and give shelter to the homeless.
Give clothes to those who need them,
and do not hide from relatives who need your help.

All about Nicolaus Zinzendorf (1700-1760)

Nicholas Ludwig, Count Zinzendorf, was born in Dresden in 1700. He was deeply involved in the Pietist movement in Germany, which emphasized personal devotion and the emotional component of life in Christ. This was in contrast to the state Lutheran Church of the day, which had grown to symbolize a largely intellectual faith centered on belief in specific doctrines. Zinzendorf believed in “heart religion,” a personal salvation built on an individual’s spiritual relationship with Christ.

In 2000, German Moravians created a trail of sculptures commemorating the 300th birthday of Zinzendorf. This one features the Count with children, whom he believed modeled the kind of faith we are to have. The gray figures behind represent the rigidness of those leading the old church. Photo taken in Großhennersdorf, Herrnhut, Germany.

Zinzendorf was born into one of the most noble families of Europe. His father died when he was an infant, and he was raised by his Pietist pioneer grandmother, Henrietta Catherina, Baroness von Gersdorff, at her castle Gros Hennersdorf. There are many stories about his deep childhood faith. As a young man he struggled with his desire to study for the ministry and the expectation that he would fulfill his hereditary role as a Count. As a teenager at Halle Academy, he and several other young nobles formed a secret society, The Order of the Grain of Mustard Seed. The stated purpose of this order was that the members would use their position and influence to spread the Gospel. As an adult, Zinzendorf later reactivated this adolescent society, and many influential leaders of Europe ended up joining it. Their number included the King of Denmark, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Archbishop of Paris.

Zinzendorf was one of the most controversial figures of the early eighteenth century. The crowned heads of Europe and religious leaders of both Europe and America all knew him or knew of him — and either loved him or hated him.

Although born to an aristocratic family, Zinzendorf decided to use his wealth to shelter a group of Christian radicals: the Unitas Fratrum (The Latinized form of the Czech jednota bratrská/society of brethren). This name was was assumed by the branch of the Hussites known as the Bohemian Brethren and their successors, the Moravian Brethren.  During his lifetime, Europe was a tumultuous place. It was unsafe to leave the established state churches. But many people took the risk and amazing things resulted. In 1722 a small band of Jesus-followers who chose not to be part of the state church crossed the border from Moravia to settle in a town they built on Zinzendorf’s estate. They called it  Herrnhut, or “the Lord’s Watch.”

During its first five years of existence the settlement showed few signs of spiritual power. By the beginning of 1727 the community of about three hundred people was wracked by dissension and bickering. So the village was an unlikely site for a revival! Zinzendorf and others, however, covenanted to prayer and labor for the Holy Spirit to move among them. Largely due to Zinzendorf’s leadership in daily Bible studies, the group came to formulate a unique document, known as the Brotherly Agreement, which set forth basic tenets of Christian behavior. Residents of Herrnhut were required to sign a pledge to abide by these Biblical principals. There followed an intense and powerful experience of renewal, often described as the “Moravian Pentecost.”

On May 12, 1727 during a communion service, the entire congregation felt a powerful presence of the Holy Spirit, and felt their previous differences swept away. This experience began the Moravian renewal which led to remarkable ministry. Christians were aglow with new life and power, dissension vanished and unbelievers were converted. Looking back to that day and the four amazing months that followed, Zinzendorf later recalled: “The whole place represented truly a visible habitation of God among men.”

A spirit of prayer was immediately evident in the fellowship and continued throughout that “golden summer of 1727,” as the Moravians came to designate the period. On August 27 of that year twenty-four men and twenty-four women covenanted to spend one hour each day in scheduled prayer. Some others enlisted in the “hourly intercession.” For over a hundred years members of the Moravian Church maintained this continual prayer. “At home and abroad, on land and sea, this prayer watch ascended unceasingly to the Lord,” stated historian A. J. Lewis.

In 1731, while attending the coronation of Christian VI in Copenhagen, the young Count met a converted slave from the West Indies, Anthony Ulrich. Anthony’s tale of his people’s plight moved Zinzendorf, who brought him back to Herrnhut. As a result, two young men, Leonard Dober and David Nitchmann, were sent to St. Thomas to live among the slaves and share the good news about Jesus. This was the first organized Protestant mission work, which quickly expanded to Africa, North America, Russia, and other parts of the world. By 1791, sixty-five years after starting their hourly intercession, the small Moravian community had placed 300 missionaries from Greenland to South Africa, literally from one end of the earth to the other.

Members of the Mo­ra­vi­an Church helped populate the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania. They are known as an historic Peace Church, as are the Brethren in Christ and Mennonites.

More 

All sorts of goodness at Zinzendorf.com. You need to work at this old website to reveal its treasures.

Zinzendorf in America

Zinzendorf the hymn writer [people singing one at Herrnhut]

Christian History 1) bio, 2) Magazine: Zinzendorf and the Moravians

The early Moravians were accused of sexual impropriety. The criticism may have been appropriate, at times. Here’s an investigation: Wound Worship, “Enthusiasts” and “Sodomites”: A History of Radical Moravians (2019)

1982 movie:

What do we do with this?

Pray: May the Church truly be a visible habitation of God.

The Pietists wanted heart religion. They used Bible study, prayer and intentional community to grow it. They shared resources and went on mission to show it. What do you want? What yearning in your spirit meets the passion of God’s Spirit? Are you still open to a Herrnhut in your future?