John Huss
Today is a remembrance day for a number of groups, the Anglicans, Episcopalians and the folks at Common Prayer. John Huss, Priest and Martyr from the 15th century is on the calendar. He should be on United Methodist calendars as well, since after his death, his followers, would become what we know as the Moravian Church, and we would never be the same without John Wesley’s encounters with Moravians.
A biography from Common Prayer:
Jan Hus (1372?–?1415)
Jan Hus was born in Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic). He helped launch a vigorous reform of the church in a particularly difficult time in our history known as the Great Schism. Amid highly politicized divisions of God’s -people, Hus pursued a mystical and evangelical approach, insisting that Christ alone is head of the church. To partisans on both sides, his views seemed idealistic at best, and at worst a dreamy anarchism or heresy. Hus maintained a creative loyalty to the church while challenging its pathologies. He was burned at the stake during the Council of Constance in 1415, and his death helped give birth to the Moravian Church. As he died, he said this: “It is better to die well than to live wickedly.?.?.?. Truth conquers all things.”
Prayer
Almighty God, who gave to your servant John Huss boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
- Posted in: General ♦ Spirituality