Note: If joining “Saintly Influencers” for the first time today, please read the footnote, explaining its context, purpose, and aim.
By the eight century Anno Domini, the so-called Dark Ages had waned and social order was returning to Europe, primarily through the work of the Benedictines. The social order fostered the development of a common culture called Christendom, for it was built to glorify Jesus Christ, who had crystalized the principles by which humans and communities could flourish best. The event that inaugurated Christendom was the coronation of Charles the Great (Charlemagne) and the establishment of the Holy Roman Empire in A.D. 800. As the Christian culture solidified and expanded, a set of important questions arose regarding the relationship of the Church and state. These questions are, perhaps, the most important questions of the whole age because both religion and governance have a deep and lasting impact on the ability of individuals, families, and communities to flourish.
As Christendom developed, three men in particular, the saintly influencers of this period, offered their answers to the crucial questions as they addressed situations in their respective nations. In the case of the first influencer, the relationship between Church and state was misunderstood by the monarch, and the outcome was tragic. In the latter two situations, the kings proposed and exhibited the life of virtue as the surest avenue to individual, social, ecclesial, and political flourishing. In every case, the influencers were clear in their messages and stalwart in their commitment to virtuous leadership.
Our first influencer hailed from the English-speaking world. Thomas Becket (A.D. 1118-1170) was a pious man who entered civil service, quickly rising to Lord Chancellor of England before he was forty years old. In that role, Becket illustrated the way that virtuous men can engage in civic stewardship for the glory of God and to build the eternal kingdom. Thomas’s virtuous stewardship as citizen and leader was also marked by loyalty to King Henry II. This caused the monarch to believe he could control the Catholic Church in England by naming Thomas the Archbishop of Canterbury. This was where Becket’s loyalty and virtue were seriously tested.
Ultimately, St. Thomas Becket believed his heavenly obligations held sway over his earthly ones. His refusal to bow to King Henry’s whims led to his murder in Canterbury Cathedral. One of Becket’s biographers assessed:
This then . . . was the cause for which Thomas lived and died; it was that the Church of Christ in England might be free from earthly tyranny, and subject only, in matters that concern her life and word, to that authority which Christ Himself placed over her. (Benson, 2011, p. 69)
St. Thomas has spoken a silent message to the generations since: a person can be both Catholic and a competent civil servant, but his or her loyalties must remain with the eternal kingdom, no matter the cost.
A second aspect of St. Thomas’s influence on our culture emanates from his martyrdom. He was buried in Canterbury Cathedral, and, within a couple centuries, his tomb became a destination for pilgrims from around the nation. Thomas is the “holy blessed martyr” who assisted the fictional pilgrims of the Canterbury Tales; it is his tomb they venture to visit, telling tales along the journey. Without his martyrdom and the pious devotion that sprang forth from it, we would not have Chaucer’s contribution to the great western canon of literature.
The last two influencers of this age ruled earthly kingdoms. The first of these was Stephen of Hungary (A.D. 977-1038), who was baptized at roughly ten years old, when his parents converted to Christianity; and he was named after the first Christian martyr. Stephen apparently had great zeal for sharing the Christian Faith with his native people, the Huns, who had migrated into central Europe a century earlier. When he succeeded his father as chief of the tribe, he began to promulgate laws that favored Christianity. Both his zeal for souls and his strategy of governance eventually led to the conversion of the whole tribe. Soon after, he requested that Pope Sylvester II proclaim him King of Hungary, and his reign began in about A.D. 1000.
Still, St. Stephen knew that neither political savvy nor military might would ever provide the most stable foundation for a national culture. He knew instead that a culture must be built on virtuous habits among leaders. Near his death, he wrote a letter to his son, the future king, which would serve as guidance for continuing the cultural project. The very last sentence of Admonitions, as the letter became known, reads: “All these virtues, touched on above, constitute the royal crown, without which no man can hope to rule here nor reach the heavenly kingdom.” St. Stephen’s zeal for the Faith and his ability to hand on a vision for Christian culture ensured that Hungary would remain a stalwart public witness to the rest of secular Europe, even to our own era of history, with a brief interlude under a Communist regime.
St. Stephen’s influence is also seen in Budapest, Hungary, and Vienna, Austria, two great cities that house cathedrals named in his honor. Both cathedrals are iconic examples of the glories of European architecture. In our own age, many assert that the reversion of Europe to an authentically Christian culture will be led by aesthetic beauty. Because of their magnificence, these two cathedrals certainly have potential to assist that reversion, and surely St. Stephen is interceding for it.
The final influencer of the Age of Christendom was St. Louis IX (A.D. 1214-1270). Louis was crowned King of France when he was but twelve years old. The oath he took upon coronation impelled him to live and act in such a way that he became one of France’s most beloved kings. King Louis’s influence on Catholic culture encompasses patterns of leadership and governance, as well as piety and devotion.
He spent an abundance of time and resources feeding the poor of the kingdom. He founded hospitals and visited the sick. He eventually took vows as a Franciscan tertiary (now known as Secular Franciscans). His love for the people of France and his commitment to protecting them and the Church of Jesus Christ caused him to go on two crusades, during the latter of which he met his death at fifty-six years old.
Before he rode in that final crusade, Louis, already beloved as a saint among the French people, began preparing his son, Philip, to ascend to the throne. Louis’s letter of advice to his son is truly one of the great expressions of piety and virtuous leadership we have in the western tradition. The letter begins from the understanding that a leader must place his spiritual well-being as the priority in his programme of governance. Specifically, prayer and sacraments must be the primary fuel for stewardship of the office. From there, a leader must exhibit gratitude, humility, and even frugality; and he must exercise a preferential option for the poor of the kingdom. The leader must never forget, according to Louis, that the civil law is connected to, indeed it proceeds from, the revealed Divine Law. Maintaining that right order is the recipe for achieving and maintaining peaceful justice. Louis reminded Philip, finally: “freely give power to persons of good character . . . and strive to have wickednesses expelled from your land . . . Further the right with all your strength.” This letter provided an excellent standard for monarchs—indeed, all Christians—to follow in their quest for the common good.
St. Louis also left an enduring influence through architecture. During his kingly reign, Louis commissioned the building of a chapel to house the Crown of Thorns, which had supposedly been reclaimed during a recent crusade to the Holy Land. The Sainte-Chapelle remains one of the most glorious examples of Gothic architecture, serving to direct visitors’ eyes and hearts heavenward. St. Louis’ legacy resides in stone and stained glass as much as it resides in lessons of virtuous kingship.
While there certainly are many other medieval saints who exercised influence on our culture, we ought to be able to see clearly how the influence of these three remains even into our present culture in the west. As we still debate questions about the relationship of Church and state, and as we survey the effects of governance without religion, we especially need to examine these men’s examples. More importantly, we must ask their intercession as we engage in public life. This is especially true as we live and work within a culture that expects, at the very least, a separation of Church and state and, at worst, is openly hostile to Christianity and its mission of spreading the Faith.
[1] Learning about the lives of holy men and women is a common and helpful spiritual practice. But while we might take some time to consider saints in their historical contexts, it’s easy to look past the ways their lives and actions influence our own present culture. Saints are made within specific cultural, historical circumstances and, just as importantly, they have borne deep impact on this current age of history.
Thus, this series seeks to identify the saints from the history of our Church who have borne the greatest influence on our present culture, that is, the way we think about and experience the Christian life in our current era, and in our segment of geography (i.e., the West and, in particular, the United States). This series delineates Christian history into eight ages: the Apostolic Age (A.D. 35-100); the Early Patristic Age (A.D. 100-480); the Later Patristic Age (A.D. 480-800); The Age of Early Christendom (A.D. 800-1200); the Age of Later Christendom (A.D. 1200-1400); the Renaissance and Baroque Age (A.D. 1400-1660); the Modern Age (A.D. 1660-1900); and the Post-Modern Age (the twentieth century). Each essay within this series will examine a handful of saints who sought and found holiness within their historical epochs and who, in turn, have borne an outsized influence on the ways Catholic-Christians in the third millennium understand and live the Catholic Faith. These few in each essay are chosen from among many, many other saints whose influence could be included in this series as well.
The great hope is that learning these influences gives us inspiration and stamina as we seek to answer the call to holiness in the world and the culture of the twenty-first century.
Photo from Wikimedia Commons
