The Liturgical Calendar: The Church Remembers

Today the church remembers James Lloyd Breck, Priest, 1876.

James Breck was a pioneer in several ways. He was a pioneer in the revival of monasticism in our church. He was a pioneer missionary to the Northwest and to California. He was a pioneer in theological education, being instrumental in the founding of both Nashotah House and Seabury theological seminaries.

Breck was a native of Philadelphia and a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the General Theological Seminary in New York. He joined two classmates in forming an experimental religious community under the direction of Bishop Kemper (see May 24) in the great wilderness of Wisconsin. There he lived in utmost simplicity and spent virtually every waking hour in religious work.

Indefatigable, Breck founded numerous churches, missions, and schools. He prayed, taught, traveled, and worked tirelessly to initiate and keep going the work of the church. Himself an ardent Anglo-Catholic, Breck rejoiced in the renewed emphasis on catholic doctrine and worship in his day. He preached and exemplified the extension of Christian discipline into every aspect of living.

In later years, with the church firmly established in Wisconsin and Minnesota, James Breck sought sunnier climes. He went to California and vanished into legend, a veritable “Johnny Appleseed” of the church.

Strengthen us for your work, O God, that we follow where you lead us. Amen.

Read the Wikipedia article here.

Teach your Church, O Lord, we pray, to value and support pioneering and courageous missionaries, whom you call, as you called your servant James Lloyd Breck, to preach, and teach, and plant your Church on new frontiers; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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