Remembering a Modern Martyr: Jonathan Daniels (1939-1965)

“A Christian martyrdom is never an accident,

for saints are not made by accident.

Still less is a Christian martyrdom

the effect of a man’s will to become a saint,

as a man by willing and contriving may become a ruler of men.

A martyrdom is always the design of God, for his love of men,

to warn them and to lead them, to bring them back to his ways.”

(T. S. Eliot, "Murder in the Cathedral")

O God of justice and compassion, you put down the proud and mighty from their place and lift up the poor and the afflicted: We give you thanks for your faithful witness Jonathan Myrick Daniels, who, in the midst of injustice and violence, risked and gave his life for another; and we pray that we, following his example, may make no peace with oppression; through Jesus Christ the just One...