King Edward VIII of England, known to his family as David, abdicated today in 1936 because he was forced to choose between keeping his crown or marrying his American lover, Wallis Simpson (seen above with the King), who was in the middle of her second divorce. Edward’s position as Supreme Governor of the Church of England was a key factor in the crisis, as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Gordon Lang, said it was impossible for him to marry a divorced woman – despite the fact that royal divorce (Henry VIII’s) was the sole reason the Church of England was created. The Archbishop came out badly when he uncharitably scolded the departing King in a radio speech two days after the abdication.
‘With characteristic frankness he has told us his motive. It was a craving for private happiness. Strange and sad it must be that for such a motive, however strongly it pressed upon his heart, he should have disappointed hopes so high, and abandoned a trust so great. Even more strange and sad it is that he should have sought his happiness in a manner inconsistent with the Christian principles of marriage.’ Cosmo Gordon Lang, radio broadcast, 13 December 1936
‘Hallelujah’, the enduring song by singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, was released today in 1984, in Canada. In the song, Cohen offered up a ‘broken hallelujah’ over the failure of love, sex and relationships, rooting his pain in the Old Testament’s destructive story of King David and Bathsheba, as well as Samson and Delilah. ‘Hallelujah’ was originally rejected as a single by Cohen’s record company because it ‘wasn’t good enough’, but has become one of his most famous songs.
It is the feast of St Daniel Stylites, one of the famous Byzantine saints who lived on top of a pillar. When he was a young man, Daniel visited the famous Simeon Stylites on his 15 metre (50 feet) pillar in Aleppo, Syria. He ascended a ladder to meet Simeon, who blessed him, saying, ‘Be strong, for you have many hardships to endure for God.’ Daniel lived in an iron hut on top of a pair of pillars north of Constantinople, built for him by the Emperor Leo I, where he prayed standing for 33 years, enduring cold, wind, rain and snow. He died today in the year 493 at the age of 84.
‘When the terrible storm broke and my garment was torn off me by the force of the winds, I was in great distress for about an hour, and then after a violent fainting fit I called upon the merciful God for help. And I was wafted, as it were, into sleep and I seemed to be resting on a magnificent couch and kept warm by rich coverings.’ Daniel the Stylite, recovering after a winter storm
Joseph Mohr, a priest and author of the carol Stille Nacht (‘Silent Night’), was born today in 1792. Mohr wrote the lyrics as a simple poem when he was 24. Two years later, on Christmas Eve of 1818, in need of a carol to sing at Midnight Mass, he took the poem to his friend Franz Gruber, a schoolteacher and choirmaster in the next village, and asked him to set the words to music. Gruber composed the tune in a few hours, and ‘Silent Night’ was sung for the first time that night in the village church of St Nicholas, Oberndorf, near Salzburg, with Mohr accompanying the choir on guitar.
Silent Night! Holy Night!
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon godly tender pair
Holy infant with curly hair
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace.
’Silent Night’, more accurate translation by Bettina Klein, 1998
At noon today in 1917, the British General Edmund Allenby entered Jerusalem on foot after capturing the city from the Ottoman Empire. Jerusalem had been under Muslim rule since 1244, and so Allenby was the first Christian to hold the city in 673 years. His low-key entrance into the city was offered as a mark of humility and respect, and he announced that the holy places of Islam, Judaism and Christianity would all be protected. He repaid a Christian debt to Caliph Omar, who had protected the Church of the Holy Sepulchre after he had conquered Jerusalem in the year 637 – Allenby had the Mosque of Omar, next door to the Church, placed under the protection of Muslim troops from British India. The British continued to rule Jeusalem and Palestine under a mandate from the League of Nations until 1948, when the State of Israel was declared.