Theologian's Almanac for Week of September 11, 2022
Welcome to SALT’s “Theologian’s Almanac,” a weekly selection of important birthdays, holidays, and other upcoming milestones worth marking — specially created for a) writing sermons and prayers, b) creating content for social media channels, and c) enriching your devotional life.
For the week of Sunday, September 11:
September 14 is the day George Frideric Handel completed the Messiah oratorio in 1741. He wrote virtually nonstop, morning and night, completing the score in just 24 days. It was originally written for the Easter season, but eventually became associated with Christmastime. Even Mozart, when he supervised a new arrangement in 1789, was reluctant to change a thing: “Handel knows better than any of us what will make an effect,” Mozart declared. “When he chooses, he strikes like a thunderbolt!”
September 15 is the day in 1963 that a bomb went off in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. One of the most segregated cities in the country, Birmingham was a key battleground in the Civil Rights Movement, and the church was a common meeting place for movement leaders. Four schoolgirls — Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, Addie Mae Collins, and Denise McNair — were killed in the terrorist blast, and more than 20 other church members were injured. The press reports were vivid: “Dozens of survivors, their faces dripping blood from the glass that flew out of the church’s stained glass windows, staggered around the building in a cloud of white dust raised by the explosion. The blast crushed two nearby cars like toys and blew out windows blocks away... Parts of brightly painted children’s furniture were strewn about in one Sunday school room, and blood stained the floors.”
A member of the Ku Klux Klan, Robert Chambliss, was convicted of dynamite possession without a permit, and so was sentenced to a $100 fine and six months in jail — but was found not guilty in the murders of the four girls. A subsequent investigation revealed that the FBI, at J. Edgar Hoover’s direction, had suppressed key evidence against Chambliss. He was retried in 1973, found guilty, and sentenced to life in prison. Two of his accomplices were tried and convicted in 2001 and 2002.
September 15 is the beginning of National Hispanic Heritage Month in the United States; the month runs from September 15 to October 15. Its predecessor, Hispanic Heritage Week, was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1968, having been originally proposed by Rep. Edward R. Roybal of Los Angeles, California. September 15 was chosen as the date to begin because it’s the eve of “The Cry of Delores” (also known as “El Grito de Independencia,” The Cry of Independence), the day in 1810 when Roman Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla rang his church bell in Delores, Mexico, beginning the Mexican War of Independence from Spain. Today, Mexico, most Central American countries, and Chile all commemorate their independence from Spain on September 15 or shortly thereafter.
September 17 is the day in 1849 Harriet Tubman first escaped enslavement in Maryland, along with two of her brothers. In a letter to Ednah Dow Cheney, circa 1859, Tubman wrote: “God’s time [Emancipation] is always near. He set the North Star in the heavens; He gave me the strength in my limbs; He meant I should be free.”
September 17 is also the feast day of Hildegard of Bingen, abbess of Rupertsberg, Germany (1098-1179). A visionary from childhood, she wrote three mystical works, along with many other books — though today she is primarily remembered for her poetic and musical achievements. Her remarkable lyrical collection, Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum (“Symphony of the Harmony of Celestial Revelations”) includes seventy-seven songs full of vivid, striking imagery, preserved with musical notation. Have a listen here.