Pope Gregory the Great (above), the first monk to become pope, died today in 604. He devoted much of his papacy to organising aid for famine-struck Italy and in the process ended up ruling much of it because no one else wanted to. He called himself a ‘servant of the servants of the Lord’, which title has been used with slightly less justification by all popes since.
Today is the feast of Simeon the New Theologian, an important mystical writer of the Eastern Orthodox Church who died in 1022. His teaching on inner prayer stressed that a personal experience of God was not just for monks, but for all Christians.
‘So I entered the place where I usually prayed and began to say “Holy God”. At once I was so greatly moved to tears and loving desire for God that I am unable to describe in words the joy and delight I felt. I fell on the ground, and at once saw a great light immaterially shining on me, seizing hold of my whole mind and soul. I was struck with amazement at the unexpected marvel and I was in ecstacy.’ St Simeon the New Theologian
Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier, founders of the Society of Jesus (that is, the Jesuits), were canonized by the Roman Catholic Church today in 1622.
William Buckland, the English geologist and Dean of Westminster, was born today in 1784. Buckland was a keen fossil hunter, and was one of the first people to study fossilised turds (which he named coprolites, a name that has stuck), to discover the lunching habits of long-dead species.
Tirso de Molina, who combined being a monk with also being one of Spain’s greatest dramatists, died today in 1648. His most famous play The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest, put the legend of Don Juan on the stage for the first time.
Image: Francis Helminski