Santorale anglicano

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January 13

Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, Teacher of the Faith, 367

Hilary of Poitiers (315-367) lived during the great controversy between
Athanasius, who taught that the Son is fully God, equally with the Father, and
Arius, who denied this.

Hilary is sometimes called "the Athanasius of the West." He was bishop of
Poitiers, and when he refused to sign a condemnation of Athanasius, the Arian
emperor Constantius (one of the sons of Constantine) banished him to Phrygia
in 357. His exile lasted three years, during which time he wrote several essays, including On The Trinity. Finally the Emperor was forced to send him back to Gaul because he was causing such difficulties for the Arians in the East. In 364, he journeyed to Milan, where he engaged in public debate with the Arian bishop Auxentius, and persuaded him of the error of his ways. [James Kiefer]

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January 15

The Second Sunday after Epiphany

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January 16

Charles Gore, Bishop, Founder of the Community of the Resurrection, 1932


Charles Gore was born in Wimbledon in 1853 in an aristocratic family. After
the death of Edward Pusey (see BIO at 18 September), a library and study
center was established at Oxford in 1883, known as Pusey House, and Gore
became its first Principal, a position he held until 1893. His appointment raised
some eyebrows, since Gore was known to be friendly to what was called the
Higher Criticism, which favored non-traditional views on the authorship of
some books of the Old Testament.

In 1888 Gore wrote THE MINISTRY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, a book on the origins of the Christian Ministry and its development in the first two centuries of the Christian era. In the same year, he wrote ROMAN CATHOLIC CLAIMS, a reply to assertions that the Anglican Church was not the true successor of the New Testament Church. In 1889, he helped to found the Christian Social Union (he was one of the two Vice-Presidents), dedicated to promoting the view that Christian principles as applied to the political and economic organization of society demanded reform along trade-unionist and
moderate socialist lines. His political views aroused some public protest.
Considerably more protest was aroused, however, by the publication, also
in 1889, of a book called LUX MUNDI (meaning "Light of the World"): A
SERIES OF STUDIES IN THE RELIGION OF THE INCARNATION. The
book was a set of essays by various writers. Gore was the general editor, and
contributed one essay. Overall, the book expressed the belief of many educated Christians that Biblical and archaeological studies and scientific discoveries had made it necessary for the Church to re-examine and perhaps restate some of its traditional formulations. The book was a sensation, and considered by many to
be less a restatement than an abandonment of traditional doctrines. Gore's
essay was called, "On the Inspiration of Holy Scripture." He distinguished
sharply between the Old and New Testaments, saying that the New Testament accounts were either eye-witness or close to eye-witness accounts of the events described, while we had reason to suppose that some Old Testament accounts were written centuries after the event, and were not reliable sources of factual detail. Their value is not as a revelation of historical of scientific information, but as a revelation of God's nature and his dealings with us.

Earlier, in 1887, Gore had founded the Society of the Resurrection, an
association for priests, aimed at a deepening of the spiritual life. In July 1892
this became the Community of the Resurrection, a religious order for priests,
beginning with six members. The members declared their intention of
remaining celibate for life, but took vows of celibacy for only one year at a
time, rather than taking a vow binding for life.
In 1901 he wrote THE BODY OF CHRIST, dealing with the Sacrament of the
Lord's Supper, asserting and defending the doctrine that Christ is objectively
present in the Sacrament, and that the Sacrament is a sacrificial offering, but
repudiating certain late mediaeval innovations in worship, such as Processions
of the Sacrament, unknown to the Primitive Church.
As tension increased between the British government and the Boer republics of South Africa, Gore denounced British Imperialism, and when war began in
1899 he denounced the British policy of rounding up Boer civilians in
detention camps, where the mortality rate was very high. Gore was
consecrated Bishop of Worcester in February 1902. The diocese included the
city of Birmingham, which had been tiny or non-existent when the dioceses of
England were organized, but which had grown to become a large industrial
city. Gore saw that the needs of Birmingham and of the surrounding rural areas were quite different, and immediately began to urge a division.

Chamberlain, who had come to respect and admire Gore, helped steer the necessary legislation through Parliament. In 1905 Birmingham was organized as a separate bishopric and Gore became its first bishop. In 1911 he was transferred and became Bishop of Oxford instead. In the next few years, several Anglican clergy publicly declared that an Anglican might reasonably deny the Virgin Birth and the physical Resurrection of Christ and remain an Anglican. Gore was horrified, and proposed to resign his bishopric so as to devote himself to contending against a position that he believed to be destructive of all Christian faith. His friends persuaded him to reconsider.

After World War I, Gore resigned his bishopric and retired in July 1919, being
66 years old. He was flooded with invitations to speak or preach and published
several books. In November of 1930, he began a six-month tour of India,
preaching and lecturing pretty much in every district in the country, "speaking
whenever he was not walking, riding, or sleeping." He returned home totally
exhausted. From then on his health deteriorated. In January 1932 he acquired a sever cough, and then pneumonia. On Friday 15 he was still able to write a few postcards to friends. Then he fell into a coma, and died on the morning of
Sunday 17 January 1932. His influence remains great. [James Kiefer, abridged]

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January 18

The Confession of Saint Peter the Apostle

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January 23

Phillips Brooks, Bishop of Massachusetts, 1893


Phillips Brooks is best known today as the author of "O Little Town of Bethlehem." Former generations, however, accounted him the greatest
American preacher of the nineteenth century (and not for lack of other
candidates). His sermons are still read.
He was born in Boston in 1835 and educated at Harvard and at Virginia
Theological Seminary. After ten years of ministry at two churches in
Philadelphia, he returned to Boston in 1869 and was rector of Trinity Church
there until 1891. He was then elected Bishop of Massachusetts, and died two
years later. [James Kiefer)

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January 25

The Conversion of Saint Paul

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January 26

Timothy and Titus, Companions of Paul

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January 27

John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople, Teacher of the Faith, 407

John was called "Chrysostom" ("Golden Mouth") because of his eloquence. He
was a priest of Antioch, and an outstanding preacher. (Audiences were warned not to carry large sums of money when they went to hear him speak, since pickpockets found it very easy to rob his hearers -- they were too intent on his words to notice what was happening.) His sermons are mostly straightforward expositions of Holy Scripture (he has extensive commentaries on both Testaments, with special attention to the Epistles of Paul), and he emphasizes the literal meaning, whereas the style popular at Alexandria tended to read allegorical meanings into the text.

He loved the city and people of Antioch, and they loved him. However, he
became so famous that the Empress at Constantinople decided that she must
have him for her court preacher, and she had him kidnaped and brought to
Constantinople and there made bishop. This was a failure all around. His
sermons against corruption in high places earned him powerful enemies
(including the Empress), and he was sent into exile, where he died.
Along with Athanasius of Alexandria, Basil the Great, and Gregory of
Nazianzus, he is counted as one of the Four Great Eastern (or Greek) Doctors
of the Ancient Church. The Four Great Western (or Latin) Doctors are
Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory the Great.

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January 28

Thomas Aquinas, Priest, Philosopher, Teacher of the Faith, 1274

In the thirteenth century, when Thomas Aquinas lived, the works of Aristotle,
largely forgotten in Western Europe, began to be available again, partly from
Eastern European sources and partly from Moslem Arab sources in Africa and
Spain. These works offered a new and exciting way of looking at the world.
Many enthusiastic students of Aristotle adopted him quite frankly as as an
alternative to Christianity. The response of many Christians was to denounce
Aristotle as an enemy of the Christian Faith. A third approach was that of those who tried to hold both Christian and Aristotelian views side by side with no attempt to reconcile the two.

Aquinas had a fourth approach. While remaining a Christian, he immersed himself in the ideas of Aristotle, and then undertook to explain Christian ideas and beliefs in language that would make sense to disciples of Aristotle. At the time, this seemed like a very dangerous and radical idea, and Aquinas spent much of his life living on the edge of ecclesiastical approval. His success can be measured by the prevalence today of the notion that of course all Christian scholars in the Middle Ages were followers of Aristotle.

Aristotle is no longer the latest intellectual fashion, but Aquinas's insistence
that the Christian scholar must be prepared to meet other scholars on their own ground, to become familiar with their viewpoints, to argue from their premises, has been a permanent and valuable contribution to Christian thought. [James Kiefer, abridged]

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January 29

The Fourth Sunday after Epiphany