On this day in 430 St Augustine (above) died of malaria in his home town of Hippo, in what is now Algeria. Around him, the Roman world was collapsing. Hippo was three months into a siege by the Vandals, the Germanic tribe which had crossed over from Spain into North Africa the year before, burning towns and carrying out atrocities. Augustine, who was 75, spent his last days in prayer, seeking the forgiveness of his sins, with four of King David’s penitential psalms copied out and hung on the walls of his room. Today is his feast day.
Martin Luther King Jr delivered his ‘I have a dream’ speech today in 1963, during the Civil Rights March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. King’s speech, calling on Americans to ‘lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood’ is one of the great speeches of the 20th century, and has been called the greatest English language speech of all time.
‘With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.’ Martin Luther King
Thérèse of Lisieux’s mother, known to her family as Zélie, died of cancer today in 1877, in the family home in Alençon, France. Thérèse, who was four years old, entered the most difficult years of her life, and was frequently ill. She turned to the Virgin Mary for consolation, developed a spiritual life beyond her years, and entered the Carmelite convent at Lisieux when she was just 15. Thérèse had only nine years of life ahead of her, but since her death has become one of the most popular saints in the history of the church.
‘Suddenly the statue came to life, and Mary appeared utterly lovely, with a divine beauty I could not possibly describe. There was a wonderful sweetness and goodness about her face, and her expression was infinitely tender, but what went right to my heart was her smile. Then, all my pain was gone. Silently two big tears trickled down my checks, tears of complete and heavenly happiness. Our Lady had come to me!’ St Thérèse of Lisieux, Story of a Soul
Slavery was abolished in the British Empire today in 1833, thanks in large part to the work of evangelical Christian campaigners led by the politician William Wilberforce, who had died a month earlier. The government paid the incredible sum of £20 million in compensation – but the money went not to the slaves, but to their tormentors.
It is the feast day of Moses the Black, the Ethiopian Desert Father. Also known as Moses the Robber, he was powerfully built and led a violent criminal gang in Egypt until one day, on the run, he used a desert monastery as a hideout. The monks took hm in, he gave up his old way of life, and eventually became renowned for his disarming wisdom. He was martyred when his monastery was attacked by bandits.
‘So sudden a conversion from vice to virtue was never before witnessed, nor such rapid attainments in monastical philosophy. Hence God rendered him an object of dread to the demons, and he was ordained presbyter over the monks at Scetis. After a life spent in this manner, he died at the age of seventy-five, leaving behind him numerous eminent disciples.’ Sozomen, The Ecclesiastical History
Image: Rijksmuseum