Curated playlist

Anglican saints

Thomas AquinasThomas Aquinas's family held him prisoner for nearly a year. At nineteen he chose to join the Dominican preachers.
Nicolaus CopernicusThe first attacks on Copernicus came from Protestants, not the Catholic Church.
John the ApostleJohn the Apostle, tradition says, was the only one of the Twelve who died peacefully.
Martin Luther King Jr.Martin Luther King Jr. died at the age of 39, yet his autopsy showed the heart of a 60 year old, according to his biographer Taylor Branch. Branch attributed the damage to stress. The causes were many. King was jailed repeatedly, attacked…
IrenaeusWhy did a bishop in Gaul insist on exactly four gospels? Irenaeus is the earliest witness to that claim.
OrigenIn 543, Emperor Justinian I declared Origen a heretic and ordered his writings burned.
Augustine of HippoAugustine of Hippo once prayed, "Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet."
John CalvinJohn Calvin called his own central teaching a decree dreadful indeed. He preached it anyway.
Ignatius of LoyolaA cannonball broke Ignatius of Loyola's leg and ended his soldiering. The Spanish knight later founded the Jesuits.
John ChrysostomThree places claim to hold the skull of John Chrysostom. Vatopedi, Florence and Pisa all say they have it.
Samuel JohnsonSamuel Johnson told his publishers he could write an English dictionary in three years, and it took eight.
Basil of CaesareaBasil of Caesarea told an emperor's official, "Perhaps you have never yet had to deal with a bishop."
Francis of AssisiFrancis of Assisi crossed enemy lines during a crusade to meet a sultan. He returned unharmed.
Gregory of NyssaGregory of Nyssa, a fourth-century bishop, argued that slavery itself was sinful.
Gregory of NazianzusGregory of Nazianzus offered to be thrown overboard like Jonah. He told a council of 150 bishops in 381 to seize him.
John WesleyJohn Wesley thought saving souls outside a church was almost a sin. In 1739 he preached in a brickyard anyway.
Thomas the ApostleThomas the Apostle, one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament, has bones that came close to being sold. In late December 1943, the Italian town of Ortona became a battlefield. The basilica there was blown up…
Mary MagdaleneThe English word maudlin, meaning sickeningly sentimental, comes from the way painters showed Mary Magdalene weeping. The woman behind that word left no writings of her own. She is never mentioned in any of the letters of Paul or in the…
Andrew the ApostleAndrew the Apostle was one of the Twelve chosen by Jesus, yet his most visible legacy is a pattern of color. The white diagonal cross on a blue field that flies over Scotland carries his name. The same cross sits inside the Union Flag, on…
Thomas CranmerThomas Cranmer thrust his right hand into the flames first. He said it was punishment for signing his recantations.
John of the CrossJohn of the Cross wrote poetry on scraps of paper in a Toledo prison cell. Fellow Carmelites had seized him in 1577.
Edward the ConfessorEdward the Confessor spent roughly a quarter of a century in exile before ruling England.
Martin LutherMartin Luther married a nun who had been smuggled out of her convent in herring barrels.
Francis XavierFrancis Xavier died within sight of China, a country he never reached. He had once been a high-jumper in Paris.
Teresa of ÁvilaAt age seven, Teresa of Ávila ran away to seek martyrdom fighting the Moors.
JeromeJerome translated the Old Testament from Hebrew, against most Christians' advice. He finished the project by 405.
Charles I of EnglandCharles I wore two shirts to his own execution. It was bitter cold, and he feared shivering would look like fear.
Saint NicholasIn May 2017, over a million people queued in Moscow to glimpse a gilded ark holding a rib of Saint Nicholas of Myra. The rib was lent from Bari in Italy after talks between Pope Francis and the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill. It was…
Thomas MoreThomas More taught his daughters Greek when almost no one did. He also approved burning heretics.
John WycliffeIn 1428, church officials dug up John Wycliffe's remains and burned them. They threw the ashes into the River Swift.
Thurgood MarshallThurgood Marshall won 29 of the 32 cases he argued before the Supreme Court. He later became a justice there.
Bartolomé de las CasasBartolomé de las Casas began as a slave owner with a gold-rich estate on Hispaniola.
Lazarus of BethanyLazarus of Bethany was already in his tomb when Jesus asked for the stone to be rolled away, and his sister Martha objected on practical grounds. There would be a smell, she warned. Her brother had been dead four days. Jesus had the stone…
William TyndaleWilliam Tyndale's last words asked God to open the King of England's eyes.
John FisherBishop John Fisher kept a human skull beside his plate at every meal. Henry VIII later had him beheaded in 1535.
Søren KierkegaardSøren Kierkegaard invited a satirical newspaper to attack him, and it did.
Saint PatrickSaint Patrick, the fifth-century Romano-British missionary and bishop known as the Apostle of Ireland, left behind two short Latin texts that scholars trust. Nearly everything else said about him was written down by people who lived long…
Harriet TubmanHarriet Tubman, born Araminta Ross, never forgot the moment she first felt free. Years later she described it this way: "When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory…
Florence NightingaleFlorence Nightingale broke into locked storage with a hammer to reach medicine for the wounded.
Sergius of RadonezhSergius of Radonezh turned down the chance to lead the whole Russian church.