The Rev. Joseph Farnes
All Saints, Boise
Proper 8A
Oh look, a new set of banners! So we all know what that means… learning about the saints!
Sergius and Bacchus: These saints were 4th Century Syrian military officers of the Roman Empire who were outed as Christians, paraded around in women’s clothing, and eventually tortured and killed. They were inseparable – official church biographies go with “They were the bestest of friends”, but for some reason I wonder if that’s like when historians say, “They were lifelong roommates” to hide the reality of same-sex couples. The fact that Sergius and Bacchus were paraded around in women’s clothing to humiliate them does suggest something more than simply “These guys are Christians and won’t sacrifice to the Roman gods” was at play.
Hildegard of Bingen: The most brilliant woman of the European Middle Ages, hands down. A keen observer of the natural world, a poet and playwright, and a mystic … as well as a woman who could speak truth to power. She was a Benedictine abbess and cultivated learning in her monastery. She had mystical visions throughout her life, and at God’s command she wrote them down. Bernard of Clairvaux shared her works with the pope, leading to Hildegard being highly sought-after for counsel. She was also a musician, and wrote chants and hymns for her community. If you ever really want to get into chant, look her up!
Richard Hooker: If Thomas Cranmer was the architect of our Prayer Book tradition, then Richard Hooker is the architect of our theological tradition. Richard Hooker was a priest during the time of Elizabeth the First, and the Church of England at the time was still reeling from attacks by more radical Protestants who wanted to abolish anything even remotely Roman Catholic. Hooker was a learned man and with a charitable yet firm heart pointed out that following Christ is more than just getting your interpretation of the Bible “correct” – it was a way of life. Just because something looked Roman Catholic didn’t mean it was wrong – which was something that could get you burned at the stake in those days. His “Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity” defended our theology and worship as a distinctive contribution to the whole Church. His collect is one of my favorite saints’ collects: “O God of truth and peace, you raised up your servant Richard Hooker in a day of bitter controversy to defend with sound reasoning and great charity the catholic and reformed religion: Grant that we may maintain that middle way, not as a compromise for the sake of peace, but as a comprehension for the sake of truth.”
Juana Ines de la Cruz: A Mexican nun in the 1600s who might never be made a saint by the Vatican, but we will recognize her saintliness. She was born to a wealthy family in colonial Mexico. A brilliant child who read voraciously even when she was forbidden to, because noblewomen were expected to be good wives and nothing more. She wrote poetry, treatises on theology, criticized government and church for their sexism and hierarchicalism, and was, at one point, trying to get admitted to university by disguising herself as a man. She ended up joining a monastic order because that was the way to escape marriage – just like how women in the Roman Empire dedicated themselves as virgins to avoid marriage in that patriarchal society, too. And in the safety of the monastery she could read and read, until she was forced to sell them because the church hierarchy said that women should only be devoted to “good works” and not learning.
Kamehameha and Emma: King and Queen of Hawai’i. These beloved Hawai’ian saints were monarchs in a time of growing American expansion in the Pacific. When smallpox ravaged the islands, the king and queen went from place to place, notebook in hand, to figure out what the people needed. A hospital in Hawai’i, Queen’s Hospital, is named after Emma. Kamehameha and Emma brought an English bishop and clergy to start the Anglican Church of Hawai’i, which is now a part of the Episcopal Church as the Episcopal Diocese of Hawai’i. After the death of their son, Kamehameha was devastated by grief and died a year later, and Emma declined to rule so she could spend her days in prayer and service to her people.
Gregory the Great: Yes, yes, I’ll get the awkward right out of the way. He was the one who conflated Biblical accounts of the women who anointed Jesus’ feet and said Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. This is why we read the Bible very, very carefully, and that tradition can help our reading, but we should always be careful readers. I know for some his grave error is inexcusable, and I get it. I do think that countless people throughout the years who thought they were too sinful to pray thought that they could look to Mary Magdalene and find a friend – and I’d say that Mary Magdalene’s magnanimous heart would rather embrace them. But back to Gregory – he was made pope when he didn’t want to be. He wanted to be a hermit, maybe have a small monastic community around him. But he had gifts that made the people of Rome basically drag him there and make him pope because everything was falling apart. And it is Gregory the Great who sent missionaries to England with the explicit counsel that if they found something good among the pagans in England, they were supposed to praise what is good and bring it to Christ, not tear everything down. A bit of our Episcopalian temperament comes from Gregory.
John of Damascus: A priest born in the 600s after the Islamic conquest of Syria. He was a brilliant student, studying Arabic and Greek texts. He was a scholar, writing treatises on theology and writing defenses of icons in a time when the Byzantine Empire was destroying icons. He stands as a reminder of the deep Christian roots in the Middle East – our pop culture has erased the lives and witness of countless Egyptian, Syrian, Palestinian, and Lebanese Christians. But John was also a hymnwriter, and his Easter hymns show up in our hymnal to this day.
Clare of Assisi: She never gets enough credit for being a monastic in her own right. She so often gets overshadowed by St Francis – but her dedication to Christ and her care and compassion for her small community of “Poor Ladies of San Damiano” which later came to be called “The Poor Clares” embodies the simplicity of a radical call to follow Jesus Christ. She was the first woman to write a religious rule for communities, and she insisted that poverty be a core value of her community. She fought with the church hierarchy to maintain the uniqueness of her community. And when later generations of Franciscans were made part of the Inquisition, guess which Franciscans wasn’t part of that? That’s right – the Poor Clares.
Martin de Porres: A Peruvian brother of the Dominican order born in the late 1500s. The racism of the Spanish government in Peru meant that a mixed race person like Martin was not allowed to join any of the religious orders. He was allowed to be a houseservant, though, which he did became, until the prior of the house finally ignored the racist law. That, of course, did not stop the racism that impacted Martin, even in the religious community. But he persevered. He cared for the household of the monastery, and he was renowned for caring for the sick in the monastery and outside the monastery, even when he was ordered to stop. He proves that there is nothing too small that cannot be done prayerfully and lovingly.
Frances Xavier Cabrini: An Italian nun from the late 1800s who wanted to be a missionary sent to Asia like Francis Xavier, one of her heroes, but who was sent to work among the poor in New York City instead. She was sent to care for the Italian Catholics of New York who were being neglected by the Irish Catholics. You see, back in those days, the construct of who counted as “white” was different than accounted today. The white Anglo-Saxon Protestants of England and Germany would see themselves as white, but they wouldn’t count the Irish. Well, because few things scratch that itch to be better than someone else than to decide that some other group is worse than you, the Irish Catholics looked down on the Italian Catholics as being lesser. And so the Irish Roman Catholic hierarchy was hardly interested in caring for the Italian immigrants. Mother Cabrini then founded orphanages and hospitals, often in spite of people not wanting “those kind of people” in their backyard. But she kept going, and generations of people have benefited from the work of her and her sisters. So there we have it, our latest set of saints! You’ll notice the breadth of their witness – some monks, some clergy, some even royalty. Syria, England, Germany, Italy, Mexico, the Kingdom of Hawai’i, Peru. People of great love – fallible and human, but the saintly love of God showing through their words and deeds.