This Week in Christian History: John Donne, Roman Empire, America a 'Christian Nation'

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, February 25, 2018

John Donne Preaches His Last Sermon - February 25, 1631

A portrait of John Donne (1572-1631), English poet and clergyman. | (Photo: Public Domain)

This week marks the anniversary of the last sermon preached by famed English poet and cleric of the Church of England, John Donne.

Titled "Death's Duel," it was Donne's last sermon as Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral in London, with the notable literary figure passing away the following month.

"He starts with the bleak suggestion that, from its very start, life is a constant process of dying: 'wee have a winding sheete in our Mothers wombe ... for wee come to seeke a grave,'" noted the website British Library.

"Donne dwells on the horror of being eaten by worms, which he calls 'vermiculation'. At the sermon's end, however, he offers us an image of Jesus dying on the Cross to grant us resurrection."