The Liturgical Calendar: The Church Remembers

Today the church remembers Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Down, Connor, and Dromore, 1667.

When the times are very troubled, learning and moderation are rarely regarded as virtues. Jeremy Taylor was a superb scholar and a man of deep spiritual insight. His learning, piety, and good advice gained him little popularity or peace in seventeenth-century Britain. Taylor"s writings, however, have stood the test of time. His Holy Living and Holy Dying is a masterpiece of devotional prose and a gem of Christian wisdom, characteristic of the finest in Anglican spirituality. It stresses balance and moderation and insists on the discipline and good order in religion.

Taylor was a graduate of Cambridge University, a professor at Oxford, and a close friend of many of the religious and political leaders of his day. He served for a time as a chaplain to King Charles I. When the Puritan revolution erupted he was loyal to his king and church. For this he was imprisoned and forced into seclusion for a time. It was then that he did much of his writing. When the kingdom and church were restored in 1660, Taylor"s loyalty was lavishly rewarded. He was made Bishop of Down and Connor and vice-chancellor of Dublin University.

Keep us steadfast in your faith, O God, that we may not waver among the changes and chances of this life. Amen.

Read the Wikipedia article here.

O God, whose days are without end, and whose mercies cannot be numbered: Make us, like your servant Jeremy Taylor, deeply aware of the shortness and uncertainty of human life; and let your Holy Spirit lead us in holiness and righteousness all our days, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, oner God, now and for ever. Amen.

Back to the Calendar page.