Women priests

In the early Middle Ages, it was not uncommon for an abbess (the female superior of a community of nuns) to rule "double" communities of both men and women. One who did so was Hilda of Whitby (614-680), the founding abbess of the monastery at Whitby, which became famous for its learning and libraries. Five future bishops were trained in her community, and kings and rulers sought her advice.

Antoinette Brown Blackwell became the first woman minister in an established Protestant denomination when she she was appointed in 1853 pastor by the First Congregational Church in South Butler, New York. She served the members of the Congregational Church of South Butler until June 1854, when due to theological disagreements she resigned.

Florence Li Tim Di (May 1907 - February 26, 1992) of the neutral Portuguese colony of Macau near Hong Kong was the first woman to be ordained to the priesthood in the Anglican Communion on January 25, 1944. This was because the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong and of parts of China had made it impossible for Anglican priests to get to neutral Macau, where there was no resident Anglican priest. However, there was an explosion of outrage and to avoid further controversy she resigned her licence (though not her priest's orders) after the end of the war. Li Tim Di continued to serve a small congregation in a Chinese church as an unlicensed priest.

Florence Li Tim Di  Wikipedia

On July 29, 1974, three bishops in the American Episcopal Church, claiming that "obedience to the Spirit" justified their action, ordained eleven women deacons to the priesthood. The ensuing controversy surrounding these irregular ordinations highlighted divisions evident in the church over this issue. As a result, the American Episcopal Church approved the ordination of women as priests and bishops in 1976.

In 1978 Episcopal Canon Mary Simpson of New York spoke from the pulpit of Westminster Abbey in London. She was the first ordained woman to preach there in the 913 years since 1065, when the Abbey was first consecrated.

Afro-American Barbara Harris becomes the first female Anglican bishop, when she was ordained suffragan bishop of Massachusetts. The American Episcopal Church approved women's ordination to the priesthood in 1976.

In 1992 The Church of England Synod voted in favour of women priests. Two years later, the first 32 Anglican women priests were ordained at Bristol Cathedral by Bishop Barry Rogerson. However in response, 700 Anglican clergymen threatened to leave the Anglican Church for the Roman Catholic Church.

Source Christianhistory

John Wesley

EARLY LIFE 

John Wesley was born on June 28, 1703 in Epworth, 23 miles (37 km) north-west of Lincoln. He was christened John Benjamin, but never used the second name.

"John Wesley," by the English artist George Romney

He was the fifteenth child of clergyman and poet Samuel Wesley and his wife Susanna Wesley (née Annesley).

His Father, Samuel was a staunch High Churchman whose lifework was to minister to the inhabitants of the North Lincolnshire marshlands. His Mother Susannah was also very devout and both his parents were influenced by the Pietist movement.

His younger brother Charles was the famous hymn writer. John said that Charles' hymnal was the best theological book in existence.

John Wesley was brought up in poverty; his father was the Anglican priest in one of England's lowest-paying parishes. He had numerous children to support and was rarely out of debt even spending time in debtor's prison.

On February 9, 1708 disgruntled members of Samuel Wesley's congregation started a fire which destroyed the Epworth vicarage. The six-year-old John Wesley was trapped in his bedroom until he was rescued by a tall neighbour who stood on a friend’s shoulders. "A brand plucked from the burning" is how he later described it.

The rescue of the young John Wesley from the burning rectory by Samuel William Reynolds

John was brought up strictly and his mother would whip him to teach him to cry softly.

The Wesley children's early education was given by their mother. She educated John and his siblings in all ways including to abhor sin. She was a strict teacher and gave John one day to learn the alphabet.

In 1713 John was admitted to the Charterhouse School, London, where he lived the studious, methodical, and (for a while) religious life in which he had been trained at home.

In 1720 John entered Christ Church College, Oxford (M.A., 1727).

CAREER 

In August 1727, after taking his master's degree, Wesley returned to Epworth as his father had requested his assistance in serving the neighbouring hamlet of Wroot. Ordained a priest on September 22, 1728, Wesley served as a parish curate.

He returned to Oxford in November 1729 at the request of the Rector of Lincoln College and to maintain his status as junior fellow.

On October 14 1735, John and his brother Charles sailed on The Simmonds from Gravesend, Kent for Savannah in Georgia Colony in British America. They went on behalf of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to bring the Gospel to the Indians.

Wesley preaching to a tribe of Native Americans. Engraving By https://wellcomeimages.org

The trip didn't work out. John Wesley became upset when Sophy Hopkey, the 18-year-old niece of Savannah's chief magistrate who he was in love with married someone else. He barred her from Holy Communion, her husband sued him and the trial dragged out.

On top of this controversy Wesley has prohibited whisky to the Native Americans and on one occasion attacked a barrel of whisky on the docks with an axe. After an unsuccessful ministry of two years Wesley returned to London.

John Wesley experienced a conversion to Evangelical Christianity on May 24, 1738 just three days after his brother Charles had a similar experience. The location was a Moravian church at 28 Aldersgate Street, London.

John and brother Charles Wesley believed that their call was to travel to preach the Gospel and as opposition grew from the established churches they were forced to go to the market place or common.

John Wesley preaching. By https://wellcomeimages.org

Originally John Wesley was not overly keen on the idea of preaching outside of a church. One day when visiting the evangelist George Whitefield he was shocked to find Whitefield preaching outside a church building to some Welsh miners. At the time Wesley believed that by taking God's Word out of the church and mixing the spiritual with the secular, he was profaning God and consequently he couldn't see how anybody could be saved outside a church building. However Wesley's views changed in the midst of his preaching at a Society meeting near Bristol. The topic was the Sermon on the Mount and as he spoke he realized Jesus had preached the original message outside. The next day he found himself preaching to 10,000 coal miners from Isaiah 61 in the open air.

Again and again in Wesley's journals, there are notes of meetings where "men, women and children wept and groaned and trembled exceedingly."

For over 50 years Wesley preached 15 times a week on average. He said regarding preaching to plain people "We should constantly use the most common little, easy words (so they are pure and proper) which our language affords". Wesley in fact preached in a gentleman's style with a great deal of personal magnetism.

Wesley preaching. Portrait by William Hamilton.

When he preached in the fields and streets of England many people became furious at Wesley's Gospel of sin and salvation. In one town an angry mob beat him until he was bleeding. They dragged Wesley to the home of the mayor and shouted "kill the heretic". The mob was ready to lynch the Methodist whose message they couldn’t stand. Wesley prayed and out of the crowd stepped a muscular ruffian who said “Sir, my life will be spent in your service, follow me to safety.”

He preached over 40,000 sermons in total, sometimes to crowds of over 20,000 people without a PA system.

The number of works Wesley wrote, translated, or edited, exceeds 200, including sermons, commentaries, hymns, a Christian library of fifty volumes, grammars, dictionaries, and other textbooks, as well as political tracts.

In 1778, Wesley began the publication of The Arminian Magazine, not, he said, to convince Calvinists, but to preserve Methodists. He wanted to teach the truth that "God willeth all men to be saved."

John Wesley's rule for money was to save all he can and give all he can. Whilst a student at Oxford he had £30 a year. He lived on £28 and gave £2 away. His income increased to £60, then £90, and then £120 but he still lived on £28 and gives the rest away.

He is said to have received at least £20,000 for his publications, but used little of it for himself. His charities were limited only by his means. He died poor.

Wesley saw communicating with the Lord as the most important part of his work. “I have so much to do, that I must spend several hours in prayer before I am able to do it.”

Wesley habitually got up at 4.00 am and returned to bed at 10.00 pm.

In his eighties Wesley complained that he found it difficult to do more than 15 hours of work a day.

BELIEFS 

The young John Wesley was influenced by the book A Serious Call by the religious writer William Law, which advocated a simple and pious life. He thought it would hardly be equalled in the English tongue, either for beauty of expression, or for justice and depth of thought.”

At Oxford, John joined a prayer group in 1729, which had been formed by his brother Charles two years earlier. John soon became its leader moulding it in line with his own conviction.

The Holy Club members fasted, went without sleep, lay on grass on frosty nights, visited the sick and prisoners, but it was all good works and no personal salvation. Due to their methodical ways they were scathingly called "Methodists".

On a stormy and dangerous trip back from Georgia, Wesley was greatly impressed by the calm faith of some of his fellow passengers, a group of Moravians from Austria who sang hymns in the midst of the storm.

A few months after his disastrous Georgia experience, a down-beaten John Wesley attended a meeting at Aldersgate, London. Whilst a passage from Luther's Preface to the Romans was read, Wesley felt his heart "strangely warmed".

After Wesley had this conversion experience he visited Count Zinzendorf's Moravian community to see how the Gospel was lived out in community. He then returned to England and founded the Methodist movement, an offshoot of the Anglican Church, to spread "scriptural holiness" throughout the land.

England was in need of spiritual surgery. This was the era of the hunting, shooting, bottle a day parson who entered the ministry not on account of a vocation but because it offered a gentlemanly way of living. Often the church was the only profession open to a younger son who got his post through family influence. He embraced religion as casually as he might have bought a commission in a regiment. The churches often stood empty and there were multitudes in the cities and countryside that knew no more of the Christian message than an inhabitant of the "Dark Continent." John Wesley saw his mission as to reform the nation and spread Scriptural holiness over the land.

Wesley preaching to his assistants in the City Road Chapel 

John Wesley was one of the few prominent leaders of the 17th century awakenings to preach an "Arminian" Gospel. He opposed Calvin's doctrine of predestination and for a time he split with fellow evangelist George Whitefield over this issue. However on November 5, 1755 he wrote in his journal "Mr Whitefield called upon me. Disputings are no more. We love one another and join hand in hand to promote the cause of our common master." The Calvinist Whitefield and the Arminian Wesley remained good friends for the remainder of their lives.

RELATIONSHIPS 

Following an illness in 1748 John Wesley was nursed by a housekeeper at an orphan house in Newcastle, Grace Murray. Taken with Grace they began courting.

Wesley invited Grace to travel with him to Ireland in 1749 where he believed them to be betrothed though they were never married.

 John Wesley married Mary Vazeille, (also nicknamed 'Molly'), the widow of a London merchant in 1751. He fell in love with her after she nursed him back to health after a fall on the ice.

Molly was described as "a well-to-do widow and mother of four children. The couple had no children themselves.

Wesley was not an easy man to live with. For two years she tried to travel with him, but couldn't cope with his hectic schedule, and her health and nerve broke.

Molly grew antagonistic to Wesley, wrote critical letters and spied on him,

In 1771 John Wesley separated from Molly. She had nagged him intolerably and habitually heckled him in his meetings. He eventually took his leave from her saying "You have laid innumerable stumbling locks in the way, both of the wise and unwise. You have served the cause and increased the number of rebels, deists, atheists and weakened the hands of those that love and fear God. If you were to live a thousand years twice fold; you could not undo the mischief which you have done. And until you have done all you can towards it, I bid you farewell."

APPEARANCE AND CHARACTER 

Wesley was described as below medium height, well proportioned, strong, with bright eyes, a clear complexion, and a saintly, intellectual face.

John Wesley by George Romney crop

He was calm, good, honest, zealous, compassionate and matter-of-fact,

Powerful, autocratic and charismatic, Wesley was given to self praise.

Wesley enjoyed company but was not renowned for his sense of humour.

Wesley popularised the phrase "cleanliness is next to Godliness" in his Sermon "On Dress". The term originated in the writings of the ancient rabbi Phinehas Ben Yair.

HOBBIES AND INTERESTS 

Before he co-founded the Holy Club, Wesley enjoyed walking, field sports and was a good swimmer.

Most of the many books Wesley devoured, he read in the saddle as he rode with a slack rein towards his next meeting.

Wesley had a strong interest in science, and became convinced that the new science of electricity could benefit humanity. He pioneered the use of electric shock for the treatment of illness and published books describing his techniques and the many cases he had treated.

Sketch of an electrical machine designed by Wesley By https://wellcomeimages.org/

John Wesley's love for animals was such that Methodism became synonymous with animal advocacy. He wrote: "I believe in my heart that faith in Jesus Christ can and will lead us beyond an exclusive concern for the wellbeing of other human beings to the broader concern for the wellbeing every living creature on the face of the Earth."

HOMES AND CHAPELS 

Wesley was brought up in a handsome rectory, which was burnt down in 1708 by a mob politically opposed to the high church views of his father. Samuel Wesley rebuilt the rectory in the same year.

The first Methodist chapel in London was a disused cannon foundry. Wesley purchased the building's lease for £115, then spent a further £700–£800 on refurbishment costs, creating a chapel able to accommodate 1,500 people, plus a smaller meeting room.Wesley first preached in the place of worship on November 11, 1739.

The Methodist Chapel in Bristol was built by John Wesley in 1743. Above it are the rooms where Wesley and his preachers once lived. It is the oldest still-existing Methodist chapel in the world.

One of John Wesley's most famous preaching places was a subsided Mine which formed into the shape of an Amphitheatre. In 1762 a violent gale forced his congregation to shelter there and it became a regular meeting place for his preaching where thousands were able to attend.

The City Road chapel opened in 1778 to replace John Wesley's earlier London chapel, the Foundery.

John Wesley's House, a mid-Georgian townhouse, was built in 1779 at the same time as the chapel
Wesley lived for the last 13 years of his life on the first floor of the house, which was pine-panelled throughout.

Exterior of John Wesley;s house. By Graham Portlock and Aisha Al-Sadie

HEALTH 

By 1741 John Wesley had started to travel round Britain to preach the Gospel but had fallen ill. In his journal he wrote of how words from the Gospel of Mark prompted his recovery.

"I was obliged to lie down for most part of the day being easy only in that posture. Yet in the evening my weakness was suspended while I was calling sinners to repentance. But at our love feast that followed beside the pain in my back and head and the fever which still continued upon me, just as I began to pray, I was seized with such a cough that I could hardly speak. At the same time words came strongly in my mind 'These signs shall follow them that believe' (Mark 16v 17). I called on Jesus aloud to 'increase my faith' and to confirm the word of his grace. While I was speaking my pain vanished away, the fever left me, my bodily strength returned and for many weeks I felt neither weakness or pain."

In 1749 Wesley published Primative Physick, which proved to be a bestseller. The work showed how practically all diseases could be cured by brown paper, cold water, lemon, onions and prayer.

Wesley recommended a cold cure for children which involve swallowing six large cobwebs rolled into a ball.

He attributed his good health to getting up early at 4.00 every morning to pray.

DEATH AND LEGACY 

John Wesley died on March 2, 1791, at the age of 87. As he lay dying, his friends gathered around him. He sat up, looked at his loved ones weeping at his bedside, and whispered, “Best of all, God is with us. Farewell, Farewell!”

Wesley on his deathbed: Mezzotint by John Sartain. - https://wellcomeimages.org

He was entombed in the pretty garden behind his chapel on City Road, London.

When Wesley died, the only money mentioned in his will was the miscellaneous coins to be found in his pockets and dresser drawers. He also left behind a good library of books and his well-worn clergyman's gown.

He died an ardent Anglican, having never recognized Methodism as a new denomination.

For over 50 years Wesley preached 15 times a week on average a total of close to 40,000 sermons, sometimes to crowds of over 20,000 people. His evangelization of the proletariat helped keep Britain from a similar revolution to the one France was experiencing at the time.

By the end of the 18th century the Methodist movement had 100,000 members.

Source Great Christian Hymn Writers by Jane Stuart Smith and Betty Carlson.

Mother Teresa

EARLY LIFE 

Agnes Bojaxhiu (later to be known as Mother Teresa) was born on August 26, 1910 in Skopje (now the capital of the Republic of Macedonia), Ottoman Empire. 

Mother Teresa of Calcutta; 1986 . By © 1986 Túrelio 

Her father Nikollë Bojaxhiu was a merchant who was in sympathy with Albanian patriots and her housewife mother was named Dranafile Bojaxhiu (Bernai).

Agnes' parents had three children, and Teresa was youngest. The family was ethnically Albanian.

Nikolla and Dranafila Bojaxhiu, were Catholic, even though most Albanians are Muslim and the majority of their native Macedonia are Macedonian Orthodox.

Agnes was a member of the youth group in her local parish called Sodality.

Memorial House of Mother Teresa in her native Skopje

Her father, who was involved in Albanian-community politics in Macedonia, died in 1919 when Agnes was eight years old.

CALLING

At the age of 12 Agnes Bojaxhiu already knew she wanted to be a missionary and her desire increased when local Jesuits, sent on missions of mercy to India, wrote enthusiastic letters back home about happenings in Bengal.

Agnes left home in 1928 at age 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto at Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham, Ireland, to learn English with the view of becoming a missionary; She never saw her mother or her sister again.

The following year the teenage Albanian arrived in India, where she joined the Loretto Convent in Darjiling in the lower Himalayas. There Agnes learnt Bengali and taught at St. Teresa's School near her convent.

Agnes took her first religious vows on May 24, 1931. She chose to be named after Thérèse de Lisieux, the patron saint of missionaries; because a nun in the convent had already chosen that name, Agnes opted for its Spanish spelling (Teresa).

From 1929 to 1948 Sister Teresa taught geography and catechism at Loreto convent school in Entally, eastern Calcutta (now Kolkata) becoming its principal in 1944.

On September 10, 1946, while riding a train to Darjeeling, Sister Teresa experienced what she later described as "the call within the call", directing her to leave the convent and devote herself to the sick and impoverished. 

MISSIONARIES OF CHARITY  

She began missionary work with the poor in 1948 and two years later on October 7, 1950 Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity. 

Missionaries of Charity in traditional saris

Over the next decades Mother Teresa's organization established schools and opened centers to treat the blind, aged, lepers, disabled and dying throughout the world.

When Mother Teresa started out her Missionaries of Charity order she and her fellow sisters, inspired by her faith that God would provide, lived literally from hand to mouth as they shared with the destitute all they could cadge from well-wishers.

In 1979 Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, "for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitute a threat to peace." She refused the conventional ceremonial banquet given to laureates, and announced that she planned to give the $192,000 prize away to build more relief centers for lepers and the destitute.

On January 25, 1980,  Mother Teresa was honored with India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna.

In 1982, Mother Teresa persuaded Israelis and Palestinians, who were in the midst of a skirmish, to cease fire long enough to rescue 37 mentally-handicapped patients from a besieged hospital in Beirut.

President Ronald Reagan presented Mother Teresa with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a White House ceremony on June 20, 1985 (see picture below).

In 1990 Mother Teresa resigned as head of order of Missionaries of Charity but later voted out of retirement by members and returned to her post.

By the time of her death, missions of Mother Teresa's order existed in more than 90 countries and had grown to include 40,000 nuns and many more lay workers and volunteers.

PERSONAL LIFE 

Mother Teresa was a wispy little woman with a crinkled, weather worn face and oversized hands.

Mother Teresa wore a blue edged coarse cotton white sari.

By Manfredo Ferrari - Own work, 

Mother Teresa was banned by the Albanian communist regime from returning to her home country. It was only in her late 70s she able to return to the land of her parents.

LAST YEARS, DEATH AND LEGACY

In 1983 Mother Teresa suffered a heart attack in Rome, while visiting Pope John Paul II. After a second attack in 1989 she received a pacemaker. In 1991, after a bout of pneumonia while in Mexico, she had further heart problems.

On March 13, 1997 Mother Teresa resigned as head of the Missionaries of Charity, and she died of a heart attack on September 5, 1997.

Mother Teresa was granted a full state funeral by the Indian Government, an honor normally given to presidents and prime ministers, in gratitude for her services to the poor of all religions in India. Her death was widely considered a great tragedy within both secular and religious communities.

A "devil's advocate" is a person sanctioned by the Vatican to argue against the canonization of a potential new saint by pointing out their flaws and critically evaluating their miracles. The English journalist, literary critic and antitheist Christopher Hitchens served as a devil's advocate for Mother Teresa.

In 1999 Mother Teresa  headed Gallup's List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century.

Albania's international airport, Tirana International Airport Nënë Tereza, is named after Mother Teresa. 

Tirana Aitport By Armand Habazaj 

Pope Francis canonized Mother Teresa at a ceremony on September 4, 2016 in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City. Tens of thousands of people witnessed the ceremony, including 15 government delegations and 1,500 homeless people from across Italy.

Saint Teresa of Ávila

Saint Teresa was born in Avila, Spain of a noble family on March 28, 1515. Her father, Alonso Sánchez de Cepeda, was a successful wool merchant and one of the wealthiest men in Ávila.

The portrait below of Teresa is probably the one that is most true to her appearance. It is a copy of an original painting of her in 1576 at the age of 61.

Previously married to Catalina del Peso y Henao with whom he had three children, in 1509, Alonso Sánchez de Cepeda married Teresa's mother, Beatriz de Ahumada y Cuevas, with whom they had another nine children together, including Teresa.

Teresa's mother was especially keen to raise her daughter as a pious Christian. Teresa was fascinated by accounts of the lives of the saints and at the age of 7 with her brother Rodrigo she run away to convert the Moors. They hoped to achieve early martyrdom when the infidels cut off their heads. Their uncle stopped them as he was returning to the town, having spotted the pair outside the town walls.

Teresa was in her twelfth year when her mother died, leaving her grief-stricken. This prompted her to embrace a deeper devotion to the Virgin Mary as her spiritual mother.

However these holy aspirations were counteracted by what Teresa later referred to as her great sins, that is to say; flirtations, frivolous chatter and reading popular novels, which, at the time was primarily medieval tales of knighthood and works about caring for one's appearance.

At 16 Teresa was sent to board at an Augustine convent in her native town where she remained for 18 months. She then spent a few days at the house of an uncle whose pious conversation caused her to become a nun.

Teresa entered a Carmelite Monastery of the Incarnation in Ávila on November 2, 1535. There, the nuns could receive visits in the parlor and even in their cells. For some twenty years Teresa tried to enjoy both of the delights of prayer and the pleasures of secular conversation. However, she found herself increasingly in disharmony with the spiritual malaise prevailing at the monastery.

In 1554 Teresa experienced a religious awakening involving visions of Jesus Christ, angels and demons. From that time her life consisted in prayer, aberrations of Christ, sufferings, and ecstasies.

She described in her autobiography (The Life of Teresa of Jesus), written before 1567, under the direction of her confessor, Fr. Pedro Ibáñez an ecstasy in which a Seraphim drove a golden spear tipped with fire repeatedly into her heart so that it got through to her innermost being. The experience, though greatly painful, left Teresa with such a great love for God that for the rest of her life it helped to sustain her through all the suffering she had to endure.

The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa by Bernini, Basilica of Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome. By Alvesgaspar1

Troubled by the increasing lack of piety of the Carmelites, Teresa gained papal authorization to open St Joseph's of Avila, the first convent of reformed Carmelite nuns in 1562, where she insisted their main role is to pray for souls in danger and intercede for others. She became known as Teresa of Ávila.

In 1567, Teresa received a patent from the Carmelite general, Rubeo de Ravenna, to establish new houses of her order. Between 1567 and 1571, at a cost of innumerable persecutions and difficulties, she established poor and austere convents at Medina del Campo, Malagón, Valladolid, Toledo, Pastrana, Salamanca, and Alba de Tormes.

Saint Teresa of Ávila by Peter Paul Rubens

As part of her original patent, Teresa was given permission to set up houses for men who wished to adopt the reforms; she convinced the deeply mystical John of the Cross and Father Jerónimo Gracián to help with this. They founded the first convent of Discalced Carmelite Brethren in November 1568 at Duruello and the pair went on to help Teresa extend her reform to all branches of the Carmelite order.

Teresa traveled the length and breadth of Spain inspecting and encouraging monastics and preaching reform. She and St John of the Cross, revitalized a large part of the country's spiritual life  through their practical mysticism. 

The Carmelites started manufacturing macaroons as a result of Teresa of Ávila's principle that "almonds are good for girls who do not eat meat."

Teresa of Ávila died on October 4, 1582 or October 15, 1582, on the night of Spain's transition from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. She was on her way back from the opening of the sixteenth Carmelite Reformed convent. Teresa passed away in ecstasy at the Convent of Alba, her head supported by Mother Anne of St Bartholomew, her eyes fixed on a crucifix.

In 1622, forty years after her death, Teresa of Avila was canonized by Pope Gregory XV. Her feast day is October 15th.

Teresa was familiar with the great religious literature and epics of the Spanish Golden Age. Her books, which include her autobiography and her seminal work El Castillo Interior (The Interior Castle) are an integral part of Spanish Renaissance literature as well as Christian mysticism and Christian meditation practices. 

Source The Lives of the Saints by Omer Englebert

Jonathan Swift

EARLY LIFE 

Jonathan Swift was born on November 30, 1667 in Dublin, Ireland. 

Portrait by Charles Jervas

He was the second child and only son of Jonathan Swift (1640–1667) and his wife Abigail Erick (or Herrick).

Jonathan was born seven months after his father's death from syphilis.

His grandfather was a well-known royalist vicar at Goodrich, Thomas Swift who had lost all he owned during the English Civil War.

The house in which Swift was born; 1865 illustration

His mother abandoned Jonathan at the age of 6 when she returned to England. She left him in the care of his Uncle Godwin, a close friend and confidant of Sir John Temple whose son later employed Swift as his secretary.

Jonathan was educated at Kilkenny Grammer School. The future poet and playwright William Congreve was there the same time.

In 1682, Swift started attending Trinity College, Dublin, where he was censured for offences against discipline, obtaining his degree only by "special grace”. He remained at college for three more years not quite long enough for a higher degree. 

Swift spent much of his time at Trinity College reading for pleasure. He stayed away from lectures and hang around with friends in town.

After his not very successful career at Trinity College, Dublin, Swift went to stay with his mother, Abigail Erick, at Leicester.

POLITICAL AND CLERICAL CAREER 

In 1689 Swift went to live at Moor Park, Farnham, Surrey, where he joined the Household of Sir William Temple, a diplomat. He read to Temple, wrote for him, and kept his accounts. Growing into confidence with his employer, he "was often trusted with matters of great importance." 

Within three years of their acquaintance, Temple had introduced his secretary to William III, and sent him to London to urge the king to consent to a bill for triennial Parliaments.

By 1694 Swift had grown tired of his position, and finding that Temple, who valued his services, was slow in finding him preferment, he left Moor Park in order to carry out his resolve to go into the Church. He was ordained on January 13, 1695, and obtained the prebend of Kilroot, near Belfast. 

Swift was bored by his rural parish and in May 1696 Temple induced Swift to return to Moor Park, where he was employed in preparing Temple's memoirs and correspondence for publication. He remained there until Temple's death in 1699.

Between 1701- 1705 Jonathan Swift was the Vicar of Laracor in County Meath. At Laracor, Swift ministered to a congregation of about fifteen persons, and had abundant leisure for cultivating his garden, making a canal (after the Dutch fashion of Moor Park), planting willows, and rebuilding the vicarage.

Jonathan Swift switched allegiance from the Whigs to the Conservatives (Tories) in 1710, chiefly as he felt they showed more concern for the church. The following year he published the political pamphlet The Conduct of the Allies, attacking the Whig government for its inability to end the prolonged war with France.

By 1713, Swift was acknowledged as the greatest of pamphleteers of his era and as a reward, he was given the Deanery of St Patrick's Dublin. He remained there until 1747. 

Jonathan Swift at the Deanery of St Patrick's, illus. from 1905 Temple Scott edition of Works

On one occasion, Swift was admonished for preaching a charity sermon of such an excessive length that by its conclusion the congregation felt totally uninclined to contribute to the cause concerned. The next time the Dean determined to keep it brief and he proceeded to announce his text from Proverbs 19 v 17. "He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord and he will reward him for what he has done." He repeated this twice more then continued, "You, have heard the terms of the loan. If you like the security, put down your money." Then he sat down and watched the congregation donate in a much more generous manner.

WRITING CAREER 

During his visits to England in 1704 Swift published A Tale of a Tub, where he attacked corruption in religion and education and The Battle of the Books, a response to critics of Temple's Essay upon Ancient and Modern Learning. It was with those works that he began to gain a reputation as a satirical writer. 

Cover, 1704.

Swift published most of his works under pseudonyms — such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M.B. Drapier — or anonymously.

Swift also published poetry, for which he is less known. His cousin, John Dryden commented on his early work "Cousin Swift, you will never be a poet."

During the 1720s, Swift turned his pamphleteering skills to the support of Irish causes, producing some of his most memorable works. His series of pamphlets, Drapier's Letters, published between April 1 - October 13, 1724, where he attacked the English for debasing the Irish policy, earned him the status of an Irish patriot.

The first edition of Gulliver's Travels was published in two volumes on October 26, 1726, priced at 8s. 6d. Though it’s vulgarness provoked much critical opinion it was a runaway best seller and sold out its first run in less than a week.

Gulliver's Travels was the only book for which Swift made much money. His friend Alexander Pope had negotiated a copyright fee of £200.

Swift described in Gulliver's Travels the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos. He did this more than a hundred years before either moon was officially discovered. As the Earth has one moon and Jupiter he mistakenly thought four, Swift formulated the geometrical progression that Mars would have two. Because of this, Swift Crater on the Martian Moon Deimos is named after him.

First edition of Gulliver's Travels

In 1729, Swift published A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland Being a Burden on Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick. The book was a satire written in a mock public spirited way in which the narrator, with intentionally grotesque arguments, recommends that Ireland's poor escape their poverty by selling their offspring to the rich who could fatten the children before eating them.

Having got the idea for A Modest Proposal from meetings at the Scriblerus club, Swift had first started working on the book in 1720. It was an immediate success from the cradle to the cabinet. 

The phrase 'Land of Nod' originally referred to the place where Cain was exiled to after murdering his brother. Swift birthed its alternative meaning in his A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation, by relating going to the land of Nod as falling asleep.

At times, Swift was abusive in his satire. In 1731 he wrote Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift, his own obituary, which was published eight years later. His poem about his own death was just as cutting about himself as his attacks on others. Swift had pre-empted his critics. 

BELIEFS 

Swift used the name Isaac Bickerstaff to discredit a certain astrologer named John Partridge. In January 1708, he wrote "Predictions for the ensuing year by Issac Bickerstaff" asserting that on March 29, 1708 Partridge would die. Swift followed up with a pamphlet issued on March 30th claiming that Partridge had in fact died, which was widely believed despite Partridge's statements to the contrary. In asserting that he was still alive, Partridge covered himself with ridicule and Swift wrote in April 1709 his vindication of Isaac Bickerstaff.

One of the episodes Gulliver founds himself in was being shipwrecked on a land of little people called Lilliput. The book's protagonist ended up in the middle of a dispute where the Lilliputians were arguing whether to break eggs at the broad or narrow end. Swift was satirizing religious disputes between Protestants and Catholics.

Swift once advised a young man about to enter Holy Orders that it was the duty of a clergyman to "Preach and practice the contempt of human beings."

CHARACTER AND APPEARANCE 

Dean Swift was a tall, powerful man with large unemotional face and flashing eyes.

Swift

To save money Swift wore his clerical gown when attending the court of Queen Anne.

Swift was gifted in conversation and was enormous fun to be with. Once Lady Cateret, wife of the English Viceroy in Ireland remarked how good the air was in Ireland. Swift fell on his knees and besought her "For Gods Sake, madam, don't say that in England for if you do they will surely tax it."

Swift was generous with his money. He gave one third of his income on charity and another third he saved up to found St Patrick's Hospital for imbeciles. 

Swift showed many kindnesses to people who needed help. He seems to have given Mrs. Dingley fifty guineas a year, pretending that it came from a fund for which he was trustee.

RELATIONSHIPS 

When the 22-year-old Swift took up his residence at Moor Park, he found there a sickly eight-year-old little girl. Esther (later known as Stella) was the daughter of a merchant named Edward Johnson, who had died young. 

Stella (1868). John Everett Millais 

On his return to Temple's house, Swift found his old playmate had grown into a girl of fifteen, in perfect health. 

When he returned to Ireland in September 1702 from a stay in England, he was accompanied by Stella — now twenty years old — and her friend Rebecca Dingley. 

There's a great deal of mystery and controversy over Swift's relationship with Stella. Many hold that they were secretly married in 1716, though they never lived together as man and wife.

Swift wrote in an embarrassing baby language to Esther Johnson, which later became The Journal to Stella.

Stella's relationship with Swift became fraught after 1707 when he met in England Esther Vanhomrigh, daughter of the Dutch-born Lord Mayor of Dublin. She was 22 years younger than Swift, and for a time they he served as her tutor. Swift nicknamed her "Vanessa".

Vanessa became infatuated with Swift and after his return to Ireland followed him there. When her father died she inherited Celbridge Abbey 12 miles from Dublin and Stella. The uneasy triangle between Swift, Stella and Vanessa continued until 1723 when Vanessa (who was by now seriously ill from tuberculosis) apparently asked Swift not to see Stella again. This led to a violent quarrel between them, and Vanessa before her death in June 1723 she cut him out of her will.

Imaginary portrait of Vanessa by John Everett Millais

Although there has never been definite proof of this, there is no doubt that Stella was dearer to Swift than anyone else, and that his feelings for her did not change throughout his life.

On January 28, 1728, Stella died. Swift was too ill to be present at the funeral at St. Patrick's, but afterwards, a lock of her hair was found in his desk, wrapped in a paper bearing the words, "Only a woman's hair."

Swift was a member of the Scriblerus Club with Alexander Pope and John Gay. He gave Gay the idea for his well known work "The Beggars Opera" when he mentioned to him "A Newgate Pastoral might make a pretty sort of thing."

HEALTH 

Swift contracted Ménière's syndrome as a young man and was harassed all his life by attacks of deafness, ringing in the ears and dizziness.

LAST YEARS AND DEATH 

The mental decay which Swift had always feared — "I shall be like that tree," he once said, "I shall die at the top" — became marked about 1738. Paralysis was followed by aphasia and acute pain, followed by a long period of apathy, during which he went a whole year without uttering a word. Finally death relieved him on October 19, 1745. His last words were: "I am dying like a poisoned rat in a hole. I am what I am. I am what I am."

Swift was buried in St Patrick's Cathedral next to Stella. The epitaph he wrote for himself inscribed on his tomb is "Here he lies, where savage indignation can longer lacerate his heart."

Bust in St Patrick's Cathedral. By Wknight94 - Own work

Swift left £12,000 in his will to found the St Patrick's Hospital for idiots and lunatics in Dublin along with his second best beaver hat and his horses.