March 13
James Theodore Holly
Bishop, 1911
art by Rev. Kirsten Kohr of UHRICHSVILLE, OHIO Most gracious God, whose servant James Theodore Holly labored to build a church in which all might be free: Grant that we might overcome our prejudice, and honor those whom you call from every family, language, people, and nation; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
James Theodore Augustus Holly was born a free African American in Washington, D.C., on October 3, 1829. Baptized and confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church, he later became an Episcopalian. Holly was ordained as a deacon at St. Matthew's Church in Detroit on June 17, 1855, and ordained as a priest by the bishop of Connecticut on January 2, 1856. He was then appointed rector of St. Luke's in New Haven. In the same year, he founded the Protestant Episcopal Society for Promoting the Extension of the Church among Colored People, an antecedent of the Union of Black Episcopalians. He became a friend of Frederick Douglass, and the two men worked together on many programs.
In 1861, Holly resigned as rector of St. Luke's to lead a group of African Americans settling in Haiti. Although his wife, his mother, and two of his children died during the first year, along with other settlers, Holly stayed on with two small sons, proclaiming that just "as the last surviving apostle of Jesus was in tribulation … on the forlorn isle of Patmos, so, by His Divine Providence, [Christ] had brought this tribulation upon me for a similar end on this isle in the Caribbean Sea.” He welcomed the opportunity to speak of God's love to a people who needed to hear it.
Through an agreement between the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church and the Orthodox Apostolic Church of Haiti, Holly was consecrated a missionary bishop to build the church in Haiti on November 8, 1874, making him the first African American to be raised to the office of bishop in the Episcopal Church. In 1878, Bishop Holly attended the Lambeth Conference, the first African American to do so, and he preached at Westminster Abbey on St. James' Day of that year.
In the course of his ministry, he doubled the size of his diocese and established medical clinics where none had been before.
Bishop Holly served the Diocese of Haiti until his death in Haiti on March 13, 1911. He had charge of the Diocese of the Dominican Republic as well, from 1897 until he died. He is buried on the grounds of St. Vincent's School for Handicapped Children in Port-au-Prince.
Excerpted directly from “Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2022,” p. 134-135.
Lessons and PsalmDeuteronomy 6:20-25
Psalm 86:11-17
John 4:31-38
Preface of Apostles and Ordinations
