This week, there is a feast day almost every day. This blog will survey a few of them. What do St. James the Greater, William Reed Huntington, Ignatius
of Loyola, and William Wilberforce all have in common? Besides the obvious fact
that each is venerated with a feast day in the Anglican liturgical calendar during
this blog-week (July 25 through July 31), each man is directly responsible for
some aspect of Christian education as a vocation imparted through a vision from
God.
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| St. James the Greater |
St. James the
Apostle, July 25—One of the “Sons of Thunder” apostles, so named by
Jesus for his fiery temper and evangelical zeal, James the Greater was one of
Jesus favored disciples. St. James is
the patron saint of Spain, for it is said that he brought Christianity to the
Iberian Peninsula. Legend has it that
the apostles divided the known world into mission territories and James was
given the Iberian Peninsula with the task of converting the Moors. (Often, St. James is depicted on horseback,
trampling a Moor underfoot—one presumes the Moor refused the generous offer of
baptism and conversion.) Another part of the legend of James in Spain tells of
a vision he had on a particularly discouraging day. He was contemplating the futility of his task
and deciding whether to pack it all in and go home when the image of the Virgin
Mary, who still lived in Jerusalem at the time, appeared before him atop a
pillar, instructing him to construct a sanctuary for the poor and destitute who
will come to learn about Jesus, “that they may learn and grow in deeper
knowledge of Christ’s love”—thus the first Christian Church honoring Mary,
complete with a ministry for Christian education for the poor and ignorant, was
built. Today, that church is better known as the Basilica-Cathedral of Our Lady
of the Pillar in Zaragosa, Spain. Mary further went on to inform James that once
he was finished constructing this sanctuary, he was to return to Jerusalem to
be martyred. So of course he did! His
remains were allegedly transferred to a site in western Galicia in Spain and
forgotten for 900 years. A hermit named
Pelagria was said to have seen a vision of stars in a field that led him to the
relics of St. James. That place is now
arguably the most famous pilgrimage site in the world--Camino de Santiago de
Compostela (the road to St. James in “the Field of Stars”).
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| Rev. William Reed Huntington |
William Reed Huntington,
July 27—While Huntington referred to his vision metaphorically, he
nevertheless purported that God spoke to him and through him in his essays and
works. Huntington was an Episcopal
priest who was very active in the church and participated in every General
Convention during his career, and in fact was consider a leader in the House of
Deputies. His book, The Church Idea, laid the foundation for the “Chicago-Lambeth
quadrilateral” which is the basis of the reformed prayer book of 1890. Huntington’s vision and mission was for
Christian unity. But like the others
venerated this week, he was an advocate for the education of those seeking
God. His parish of Grace Church, NYC, founded
the Huntington House for the training of deaconesses in 1871. (Here’s a fun
little trivial aside: our own Fr. Christopher David served as a priest at Grace
Church, and was able to salvage a few marble slabs from the lavatories of
Huntington House before it was razed to make way for a gymnasium. Those marble pieces are now countertops in
the kitchen of his former home.)
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| William Wilberforce |
William
Wilberforce, July 30—Most people who have any familiarity at all with
William Wilberforce recognize his name as the leading force behind the
abolition of slavery in England. But
Wilberforce had a broader vision. He
lived his life with the deep conviction that God spoke to him clearly about the
paths of social reform he was to take.
One such reform was the need to provide spiritual education and
leadership to the impoverished classes of rural England. He co-founded with Hannah More the
Association for the Better Observance of Sunday. The Association ensured the
establishment of an Anglican school in every parish to educate the children of
the poorer classes. Not satisfied with
that, Wilberforce worked diligently (and apparently eloquently) in Parliament
to have the school’s curates paid for by the government through a bill he
proposed.
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| Ignatius of Loyola |
Ignatius of Loyola,
July 31—This founder of the Society of Jesus (more profanely known as
the Jesuits) did not have an easy life or calling. He was born in 1491 to a noble family in
Spain and grew into a rather dissolute young man, entangled in court intrigue
and politics. He joined the army when
his father died, and in 1521, on Whit-Tuesday, Ignatius Loyola survived being
struck by a cannon ball at the fall of the citadel during the siege of
Pamplona. His legs were drastically
damaged and during his recovery, Ignatius was feverish and prone to
visions. One of these visions led to his
own personal reformation and eventually (after years of self-imposed suffering)
to his life’s mission of Christian education.
Ignatius developed a following of like-minded thinkers. In spite of great initial opposition from the
Church, Ignatius and his band of followers took a vow to serve the Pope at his
discretion. This band was the beginning
foundation for the Society of Jesus. At
the Pope’s incentive, Ignatius formed the group into a religious order that
would allow for the training of postulants.
Today, the Society for Jesus is known throughout the world as an order whose
constitutional doctrine includes the education of the young and impoverished. In the interest of coming “full circle” to
our topic, there is an interesting historical note that Ignatius Loyola was one
of the more famous people in Spanish history who’ve paid their devotions before
the pillar of Mary in the afore-mentioned Basilica founded by St. James.
So as you meander through your week, give a tip of the hat
to all those saints, past and present, who are educators with vision and who have been inspired through
the grace of God to lead young minds!
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