Today’s saint is William Porcher DuBose, an Episcopal priest, author, and teacher. Born in South Carolina in 1836, he went to what’s now called The Citadel in Charleston, then went on to University of Virginia in Charlottesville. During the Civil War, he fought and later was a chaplain in the Confederate Army.
After the war, he was a parish priest until 1871, when he began as a professor of theology at University of the South, Sewanee. Some consider him the best theologian the Episcopal Church ever had. He served as Dean of the School of Theology from 1894 until 1908, dying ten years later. A writer as well as a teacher, he used his knowledge of the Early Church Fathers and of Greek philosophy to pen such books as The Gospel in the Gospels and The Soteriology of the New Testament. (Soteriology is a 50-cent word for the doctrine of salvation.) Here’s an interesting sidelight: DuBose, whose family had been slave owners, was also a defender of slavery and of the early Ku Klux Klan. In 1902 he wrote to honor a Confederate general who had died. “Liable to many abuses and evils, it [slavery] could also be the nurse of many great and beautiful virtues.” He died in 1918, apparently without changing his mind about that. The Episcopal Church, in now coming to terms with ideas of reparation and systemic racism, is considering removing him from the list of saints honored in Lesser Feasts and Fasts. (Meaning he’s not as big a deal as, say, Saint Paul or Saint Mary Magdalene.) There is no precedent, though there is a procedure, for removing a saint from the calendar. Next year, there will be a vote, the second required one, to remove him as a saint. Also of interest to me is that he wasn't a saint until 1971; the Church requires a waiting period of 50 years after a person's death before they can achieve official sainthood. the thought of removing DuBose speaks to how the Church has changed in my lifetime. Prayer: Almighty God, you gave to your servant William Porcher DuBose special gifts of grace to understand the Scriptures and to teach the truth as it is in Christ Jesus: Grant that by this teaching we may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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Saints Alive!
I have been privileged to offer Noonday Prayer at my church, usually on Thursdays, which doesn’t matter because it’s on Youtube forever. [It’s amazing what can be done with a smartphone and a smart, helpful parish administrator!] The service is brief, with a place for a meditation. We usually look at the Episcopal calendar of saints, who are nearly always honored on their death dates, not their birth dates. Here is a hymn by medieval saint Hildegard of Bingen to set the mood.
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