Curated playlist
Lutheran saints
- Thomas AquinasThomas Aquinas's family held him prisoner for nearly a year. At nineteen he chose to join the Dominican preachers.
- John WesleyJohn Wesley thought saving souls outside a church was almost a sin. In 1739 he preached in a brickyard anyway.
- Gregory of NyssaGregory of Nyssa, a fourth-century bishop, argued that slavery itself was sinful.
- 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.
- 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.
- BedeBede, an English monk of the Early Middle Ages, asked for a small box on the last afternoon of his life. His disciple Cuthbert later wrote that Bede shared out "a few treasures" among the priests of his monastery. The contents were "some…
- 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…
- Jan HusJan Hus, a Czech priest and philosopher born to peasant parents, was voted the greatest hero of the Czech nation in a 2015 survey by Czech Radio. That is a striking honor for a man the Catholic Church burned at the stake as a heretic. He…