Current Feasts, Saints and other Holy Days

St Catherine of Siena - April 29

Teacher of the Faith

The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in Europe witnessed a rich development of the mystical tradition in spirituality, especially amongst lay people. There were a number of women among these mystics, and Catherine of Siena is one of the most important.

Catherine was born in Siena in 1347, the youngest daughter of the very large family of a local dyer. Despite considerable opposition from her parents, who wished her to marry, she joined the Dominican Third Order at the age of 16. The development of third orders of the religious orders offered committed lay people a way of associating closely with an order and living by a rule, but without becoming a fully-professed member of the order.

Having devoted herself to prayer and fasting from an early age, Catherine began to undertake a more active ministry. She began nursing the sick, especially lepers and people with cancer, and then gathered around her groups of people who found her personal holiness immensely attractive, and her spiritual writings and reflections helpful. She had numerous intense spiritual visions and gave herself courageously to tending the sick during an outbreak of plague. Although she herself could not write, she dictated numerous letters and a Dialogue, a work of mystical spirituality.

During the last five years of her life, she became embroiled in the political strife going on in Europe over the papacy. She boldly intervened in the altercations between the papacy and the Florentines, and urged Pope Gregory XI to return to Rome from his “captivity” in Avignon, where the French exerted considerable influence on papal policy. Then, when Europe became divided in its allegiance to the rival popes, Catherine gave unstinting support to Urban VI in Rome, though at the same time castigating him for his harshness to his opponents.

Catherine wore herself out in her efforts and died after a stroke in 1380 at the age of 33. Her political significance should not be over-emphasised, though a measure of her popularity even in her own day is the fact that the return of the papacy to Rome from Avignon was attributed to her. The transparent sanctity of her life and her spiritual writings made her an influential figure.

Source: https://www.anglican.org.nz/Resources/Worship-Resources-Karakia-ANZPB-HKMOA/For-All-the-Saints-A-Resource-for-the-Commemorations-of-the-Calendar/For-All-the-Saints

St Mark the Evangelist - April 26

Transferred to April 28 because of Easter Week

The church commemorates Mark both as the author of the earliest Gospel and also as one of the leaders of the early church.

The earliest reference to Mark is in the Acts of the Apostles, where he is referred to as “John, whose other name was Mark” (Acts 12:12). The two names, one Jewish and the other Roman, suggest that he was a Hellenistic Jew. His mother lived in Jerusalem, and the home was a meeting place of the early church. Mark was a cousin of Barnabas (Colossians 4:10), who came from Cyprus. The fact that John Mark’s home was in Jerusalem has led to various suggestions that he knew of or even was involved in some of the events of the last days of Jesus’ life, but nothing can be said for certain. A later report asserts that he had not heard Jesus or been one of his followers.

Mark was with Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey as their assistant (Acts 13:5). When they got to Perga in Pamphylia (in modern Turkey), for reasons that we cannot discern, Mark left the group. Two years later, Paul and Barnabas planned another missionary journey, and Barnabas wished to take Mark, but Paul would not agree. So Barnabas took Mark with him and went to Cyprus, while Paul took Silas with him to Syria and Cilicia (Acts 15:36-41).

We next hear of Mark from near the end of Paul’s ministry, when Paul was under arrest (whether in Rome, Ephesus or elsewhere is not certain). Clearly a reconciliation had come about between Paul and Mark. Paul describes Mark as “a fellow worker” (Philemon 24), and it was hoped that Mark might visit Colossae (Colossians 4:10). Paul asked Timothy to bring Mark to him (2 Timothy 4:11).

According to 1 Peter (5:13), Mark was with Peter in Rome (which the text calls “Babylon”, a common early Christian pseudonym for Rome), and is even described as Peter’s “son”, testifying to a close relationship in the faith between the two. The association of Mark with Peter is also made by Papias of Hieropolis about 150, which supports the almost universal attribution of the second Gospel to Mark.

Mark, who had been Peter’s interpreter, wrote down carefully, but not in order, all that he remembered of the Lord’s sayings and doings. For he had not heard the Lord or been one of his followers, but later, as I said, one of Peter’s.

Most scholars regard Mark’s Gospel as the first to be written, and consider that it was used by both Matthew and Luke in their accounts of the good news. The strong evidence for Mark’s authorship of the Gospel and of his association with Peter does not mean that the Gospel of Mark can be viewed simply as a record of Peter’s references in his preaching to the words and deeds of Jesus. Scholars generally maintain that the Gospel has been shaped by other factors before taking the form in which we now know it.

There is a strong tradition that associates Mark with the founding of the church in Alexandria. Still later traditions assert that he was the first bishop of Alexandria and was martyred there during the reign of the emperor Trajan. He is also associated with Venice, because in 829 what were claimed to be his relics were brought there from Alexandria and placed in the original church of San Marco.

Source: https://www.anglican.org.nz/Resources/Worship-Resources-Karakia-ANZPB-HKMOA/For-All-the-Saints-A-Resource-for-the-Commemorations-of-the-Calendar/For-All-the-Saints

Toyohiko Kagawa - April 24

Teacher, Evangelist, Japan

Toyohiko Kagawa was a great Japanese evangelist and social reformer. He came from a rich non-Christian family. He was born in 1888 and in the course of his education sought instruction in English from a Christian mission in the city of Tokushima. Luke’s Gospel was one of the books from which he was taught. He found the picture there of the love of Christ increasingly attractive.

Kagawa was eventually baptised, an event which brought disinheritance by his family. For about four years he attended a Presbyterian theological college in Kobe, during which time he became painfully aware of the appalling social conditions under which so many of his countrymen and women lived.

On Christmas Day 1909 he went to Shinkawa, a slum area of Kobe. There he lived in a room two metres square with no window. His daily food consisted of two bowls of rice gruel. Anything else given to him he gave away. He became the acknowledged guide and leader of the countless poor in that industrial city. He preached, taught and lived love, peace and social justice. “If we could learn to love one another,” he said, “it would be a solution to our problems.” But, he insisted, the way of love is the way of the cross. “The knowledge of the Love of God comes only by way of the Bloody Cross; he who fears to bear it cannot know the Love of Christ.”

In 1914, with help from some of the churches, he went to Princeton University in the United States of America, where he spent three years studying social problems. On his return to Japan in 1917 he devoted all his efforts to improving the conditions of the poor. He was on the government list of dangerous radicals, and for many years was watched constantly by the police. One of his major tasks was the formation of trade unions, which were at the time forbidden by Japanese law. This brought him into conflict with the authorities, and he was imprisoned in 1921 and again in 1922. Yet, when a huge earthquake levelled Yokohama and Tokyo in 1923, it was to Kagawa that the government turned to lead the work of reconstruction.

A pacifist from his youth, Kagawa founded the National Anti-War League in 1928, and was imprisoned again in 1940 because of an apology which he made to China for his country’s attack on it. During the Second World War he denounced both Japan and the Allies for their part in the conflict. Yet after its conclusion the government again sought his help in restoring the life of the nation, and he became a leader in Japanese moves towards democracy. Such was his fearlessness and strength of purpose, that when he was brought before the emperor he spent the whole time expounding the gospel of peace.

In the 1920s and 30s he was constantly involved in evangelism. He began the Kingdom-of-God Movement in 1930 and travelled extensively overseas to preach and teach. He became one of Japan’s outstanding writers both in fiction and religion. The claim of Christ upon his life, love and service was his guiding principle until his death on 23 April 1960.

Source: https://www.anglican.org.nz/Resources/Worship-Resources-Karakia-ANZPB-HKMOA/For-All-the-Saints-A-Resource-for-the-Commemorations-of-the-Calendar/For-All-the-Saints

St George - April 23

Martyr, Patron Saint of England

The beginnings of the story of St George appear to lie in the region of Lydda, a town on the coast of Palestine, where a certain George was martyred about 304. That would make him one of the victims of the attack upon Christians made by the emperor Diocletian in the last and most severe period of persecution before the Christian faith was recognised by the state. Little else is known for sure about George. He was possibly a soldier. His name occurs in many of the early lists of martyrs, and his cult became widespread in the church. He was known in England by the seventh and eighth centuries, though the process by which he became patron saint of England is by no means clear.

The enormous popularity of St George in England seems to have grown up during the crusades. A vision of St George and St Demetrius preceded the fall of Antioch on the First Crusade, and Richard I placed himself and his army under the saint’s protection. According to tradition it was King Edward III who made St George patron of the Order of the Garter in 1348, and whose soldiers first raised the cry, “For England and St George”. Soldiers and sailors began to wear his red cross on a white ground as a sort of uniform. With Caxton’s printing of the Golden Legend in the next century, the saint’s story was widely read, in particular the famous episode of his vanquishing the dragon, a story that is probably no older than the twelfth century and possibly derived from the ancient story of Perseus slaying the sea monster.

Source: https://www.anglican.org.nz/Resources/Worship-Resources-Karakia-ANZPB-HKMOA/For-All-the-Saints-A-Resource-for-the-Commemorations-of-the-Calendar/For-All-the-Saints

St Anselm - April 21

Archbishop of Canterbury & Teacher of the Faith

Anselm was born in 1033. After some years of undisciplined life he entered a monastic school in Normandy. In 1060, influenced by Lanfranc, prior of the abbey of Bec, Anselm took monastic vows. Three years later he succeeded Lanfranc as prior and in 1078 became the abbot of the monastery.

On a visit to England Anselm renewed his acquaintance with Lanfranc, who had become Archbishop of Canterbury. On Lanfranc’s death in 1089, Anselm was proposed to succeed him, but King William II would not at first consent. There was considerable conflict at the time over the respective powers of the monarch and the church with regard to appointments, responsibilities and accountability. Not only did it take until 1093 before Anselm was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury, but he spent much of his episcopate in exile from England because of the strife first with King William II and then with Henry I over the issue. Despite the time and energy taken up by this conflict, Anselm succeeded in initiating far-reaching reforms in the church in England, including the holding of regular synods and a renewed emphasis on the celibacy of the clergy.

Anselm was by nature a scholar and a monk and devoted to prayer. He is best remembered for his theological work. He made a significant contribution to theology through his development of the so-called “ontological argument” for the existence of God: “God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived.” A thing existing in reality is greater than that same thing conceived of only in the mind; therefore God must truly exist.

Anselm also, in his most famous work, Cur Deus homo (Why God became human), gave classic expression to the “satisfaction theory” of Christ’s work. He explains it in terms of feudal society: when a vassal breaks his bond with his lord, satisfaction must be made. In our relation to God, we cannot make satisfaction because of our sinfulness, therefore God, in human perfection in Christ, offered satisfaction for our sin.

Behind Anselm’s scholarly theology lay a profound piety. He was less interested in “proving” God’s existence or explaining Christ’s work than in helping Christians give a coherent account of the faith by which they live. Faith and prayer always came first. In one of his early theological works he wrote:

I do not try, Lord, to attain your lofty heights, because my understanding is in no way equal to it. But I do desire to understand your truth a little, that truth that my heart believes and loves. For I do not seek to understand so that I may believe, but I believe so that I may understand. For I believe this also, that “unless I believe, I shall not understand.”

Anselm died in 1109.

Source: https://www.anglican.org.nz/Resources/Worship-Resources-Karakia-ANZPB-HKMOA/For-All-the-Saints-A-Resource-for-the-Commemorations-of-the-Calendar/For-All-the-Saints