Today the Church celebrates the lives and ministries of John of Damascus and Nicholas Ferrar:
John of Damascus was born in Damascus in about the year 657. Although the city by this date was Muslim, John’s father, a Christian, was Chief of the Revenue, and the principal representative of the Christians in the city. In 716, John, well-educated in science and theology, became a monk at the monastic settlement at Mar Saba near to Jerusalem and later was ordained priest there.
He became a prolific writer of theological works and of hymns. His summary of the teachings of the Greek Fathers, called De Fide Orthodoxa, proved an immense influence in the Church in the following centuries, in both east and west. He died on this day in about the year 749.
Nicholas Ferrar was born in London in 1592 and was educated at Clare Hall (now Clare College), Cambridge, and elected a fellow there in 1610. From 1613, he travelled on the continent for five years, and on his return worked with the Virginia Company, and was briefly elected to parliament.
In 1625, he moved to Little Gidding in Huntingdonshire, where he was joined by his brother and sister and their families and by his mother. They established together a community life of prayer, using the Book of Common Prayer, and a life of charitable works in the locality He was ordained to the diaconate by William Laud the year after they arrived.
He wrote to his niece in 1631, ‘I purpose and hope by God’s grace to be to you not as a master but as a partner and fellow student.’ This indicates the depth and feeling of the community life Nicholas and his family strove to maintain.
Despite difficulties with the Puritans, who were suspicious and referred to them as the ‘Arminian Nunnery’, the community continued after the death of Nicholas on this day in 1637, until his brother John and sister Susanna died twenty years later. The memory of Nicholas Ferrar and his family has continued to inspire Christians to lives of prayer, service and community.
