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Thursday, July 06, 2006

Jan Hus

On July 6, 1415 John Hus was martyred at the Council of Constance.

Protestants have a funny relationship to saints, I guess. So, for example, this from a sermon by Johannes Bugenhagen:

"one hundred years after the death of the holy John Hus (who was killed for the sake of the truth in the year 1415), just as John Hus himself prophesied before his death about a future swan. Hus means "goose" in the Bohemian language. "You are now roasting a goose," (says John Hus), "but God will awaken a swan whom you will not burn or roast." And as they shouted much against him, which he could not answer, he supposedly said: "After one hundred years I will answer you." He has done that uprightly through our dear father, Dr. Luther, and has begun it precisely in the one-hundred-and-first year." (A Christian sermon over the body and at the funeral of the venerable Dr. Martin Luther, preached by Mr. Johann Bugenhagen Pomeranus, doctor and pastor of the churches in Wittenberg. Printed in Wittenberg by Georg Rhau, in the year 1546)

As a former missionary in Slovakia, and a died in the wool Lutheran, there is a special place in my heart for Jan Hus. His witness is remembered.

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