Theologian's Almanac for August 18 - 30, 2025
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 August 18 - 30, 2025:
August 18 is the 105th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, recognizing that women have the right to vote. The amendment’s initial version was officially proposed in 1878 — and in every congressional session since — and finally (and narrowly!) passed both the House and the Senate over 40 years later, in 1919, whereupon it was sent to the states to be ratified. Most states in the South stood against the amendment, but on this date 105 years ago, it was clear that if Tennessee passed it, it would be ratified nationally. As the state legislature gathered to vote, the atmosphere was electric.
Those in favor of the amendment wore yellow roses in their lapels; those opposed, red roses. With the vote tied at 48-48, all eyes turned to 24-year-old Harry Burn, the youngest legislator in the chamber. He was widely expected to vote against the amendment (he reportedly was wearing a red rose), but his mother had written him a letter, which he carried that day in his pocket. She wrote: “Dear Son: Hurrah, and vote for suffrage! Don't keep them in doubt. I noticed some of the speeches against. They were bitter. I have been watching to see how you stood, but have not noticed anything yet. Don't forget to be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt put the 'rat' in ratification. Your Mother." Harry Burn voted in favor. And so, as we stand up for democracy today, the moral of the story is: Every vote (and every letter) counts!
August 18 is also the Holy Day of Helena, mother of Constantine (c.255-c.330), the emperor whose conversion to Christianity marked a new age in the religion’s history. At the spry age of 70, Helena made pilgrimage to the Holy Land, founding basilicas at Bethlehem and on the Mount of Olives. As of the late fourth century, legend had it that she discovered the crosses on which Jesus and the two thieves beside him were crucified. And ever since, St. Helena has been thought especially able when it comes to discovering thieves!
August 20 is the Holy Day of Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153). He was a fierce theological advocate, an eloquent writer — and, unlike many of his contemporaries, a strong critic of Christian persecution of Jews. He is widely considered a Doctor (that is, a preeminent teacher) of the Church. He wrote: “There are those who seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge; that is curiosity. There are those who seek knowledge to be known by others; that is vanity. There are those who seek knowledge in order to serve; that is Love.”
More Bernard: “What we love we shall grow to resemble.” And: “Believe me, you will find more lessons in the woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you what you cannot learn from masters.” And: “‘My burden is light,’ said the blessed Redeemer, a light burden indeed, which carries him that bears it. I have looked through all nature for a resemblance of this, and seem to find a shadow of it in the wings of a bird, which are indeed borne by the creature, and yet support her flight towards heaven.”
And finally, this: “Who loves me, loves my dog.”
August 22 is the day in 1864 that twelve European nations signed the First Geneva Convention, in effect launching the international humanitarian law movement. The gathering was the brainchild of Henri Dunant, the founder of the International Committee for the Relief of the Wounded (later the International Red Cross), who had witnessed death and suffering during the war for the unification of Italy, in which many wounded soldiers were simply left on the battlefield to die. The convention focussed primarily on establishing ground rules for fair treatment of combatants; the obligation to treat sick and wounded, regardless of which side they were on; and the protection of medical personnel and equipment. The twelve attending nations signed the treaty on August 22; all major European countries ratified it by 1867. In the United States, Clara Barton, a nurse in the American Civil War, led the fight for ratification — which came, at last, in 1882.
August 24 is the day in 1456 the first Gutenberg Bible was completed in Mainz, Germany. It was the first volume printed with moveable metal type, and the press produced 180 copies. Gutenberg didn’t invent moveable type; rather, his innovation was to streamline and synthesize already-existing techniques (assembling the type, folding the pages into folios, binding the volume) into an efficient printing process, the basic contours of which were subsequently used widely for hundreds of years. The publication of the Gutenberg Bible was therefore a breakthrough in the history of the dissemination of knowledge to ordinary people.
August 24 is also the birthday of American writer John Green, born in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1977. His blockbuster novel, The Fault in Our Stars, is inspired by Green’s experiences as a student chaplain at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Chicago.
Here’s a taste of Green: “There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1. There's .1 and .12 and .112 and an infinite collection of others. Of course, there is a bigger infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2, or between 0 and a million. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities… [But] my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful.”
August 25 is the day President Woodrow Wilson signed into law the 1916 act that established the National Park Service. A few national parks had been established (Yellowstone was the first, in 1872), but Congress hadn’t yet assigned a part of the government to run them. The idea was spreading that the parks were not only spectacular sites but also sanctuaries for flora and fauna worth protecting — but there was no-one on the ground at the parks with the authority and wherewithal to implement this emerging vision. Developers and poachers went largely unchecked. The National Park Service did a great deal to change all that, and still does today.
On one hand, then, at their best, the NPS is as vivid an expression as any of humanity’s sacred vocation to protect and care for creation’s many creatures (Gen 1-2; Gen 6-9). And yet, at the same time, a shadow side of this history is that the NPS often treated Native American people unjustly: usurping land, obscuring histories, and cracking down on “poachers” who were actually carrying on subsistence and traditional hunting practices as their ancestors had for generations. For more on this latter aspect of NPS history, check out this fascinating podcast episode: Outside/In’s “The Problem with ‘Fortress Conservation.’”
August 27 is the anniversary of the first successful oil well, inaugurating the modern petroleum age. Oil had long been known to seep up out of the ground in certain places, and was sometimes collected and used for medicinal purposes, or for lamps, or to lubricate farm machinery — but it was George Bissell, a New York lawyer, who had the idea to intentionally drill for the stuff, refine it, and sell it commercially. That first oil well was drilled in Titusville, Pennsylvania, in 1859 — and consequently, that state dominated the oil market for decades (which is where “Pennzoil” and “Quaker State” come from). Modern petroleum revolutionized human society, from home heating to asphalt to automobiles to all manner of plastics — and at the same time, in less than a couple of centuries, helped create the current climate crisis, widespread air pollution, ubiquitous microplastics, and a range of other health challenges.
August 28 is the 60th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Organizers A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin worked tirelessly for nearly two years, eventually convincing the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to set aside their differences and join the effort.
When the day came, thousands poured into the city from all over the country, coming in by bus, train, car, and plane. Chicago and New York officially declared August 28 “Freedom Day,” and gave workers the day off. On the other hand, many feared the march would become violent; the Pentagon put 19,000 troops in the suburbs, just in case.
But in the end there was no violence (there wasn’t a single arrest!). The marchers peacefully sang and chanted all the way to the Lincoln Memorial, where the 16th speaker that day, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., delivered what would become one of the most celebrated pieces of oratory in American history, part sermon, part rallying cry. Most of the speech revolved around the idea that America has not yet made good on the many promises it has given African Americans; the country has thus far defaulted, King declared, on that “promissory note.”
The renowned gospel singer Mahalia Jackson had sung “How I Got Over” just before King spoke, and earlier that summer, she had heard him deliver a speech in Detroit that featured the stirring “I have a dream!” refrain. And so that day in August on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, as the young preacher neared the end of his remarks, Jackson called out to him, “Tell them about the dream, Martin!” — and King responded, extemporaneously delivering the words many Americans now know by heart, ending with these:
“When we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
Here’s SALT’s short film in tribute to that powerful day in American history.