A day late, almost two. I'm going to stop apologizing for posting late. Life is just late these days!August 14 is the commemoration of Jonathan Myrick Daniels, seminarian and Civil Rights martyr.
Instead of the usual bio from the lectionary or the Daily Office, I thought you'd be interested in the bio from Virginia Military Institute (VMI), from which Daniels received his undergraduate degree.
Daniels died while a seminarian at ETS (now EDS, the Episcopal Divinity School), killed in Alabama, a young White man protecting a young Black woman from being shot.
You'll see some interesting documentation at the VMI site.
O God of justice and compassion,
who put down the proud and the mighty from their place,
and lift up the poor and afflicted:
We give you thanks for your faithful witness
Jonathan Myrick Daniels,
who, in the midst of injustice and violence,
risked and gave his life for another;
and we pray that we, following his example,
may make no peace with oppression;
through Jesus Christ the just one:
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
I had heard of him; with the other martyrs of those years, he was a hero of mine. Only now do I see the human detail that was missing in the heat of the struggle. Another reason to be glad I'm in a church where memory is cultivated, and not denigrated.
ReplyDeleteThe late Fr. Peter Hayn (diocese of Calif.) knew Jon back in Keene NH and always saw that we remembered his feast. Gave me one of those personal links in the communion of saints.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to do a post on Daniels, because I very much admire him, but I did not have time. Thanks for this one. According to James Kiefer at the Lectionary, he was fond of the Magnificat.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this post. As a non-Episcopalian, I wasn't aware of this story from the church side, but I have met Ruby Sales, the woman he saved, and heard the story through her. I'm glad the church remembers him.
ReplyDeleteWe need more saints like this.
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