Vincent Van Gogh, who was an evangelist before he became a painter, walked into a wheatfield in the village of Auvers-sur-Oise, near Paris, today in 1890, and shot himself in the chest with a pistol. He had been painting the wheatfields earlier in the month (above), and wrote to his brother Theo to say they spoke of his ‘sadness and extreme loneliness’. The bullet was deflected by a rib, and Vincent was able to get back to his rented room. Two doctors came to see him, and his brother Theo rushed from Paris to be with him, but Vincent died from infection of his wound two days later.
‘For my part, I’m wholly absorbed in the vast expanse of wheatfields against the hills, large as a sea, delicate yellow, delicate pale green, delicate purple of a ploughed and weeded piece of land, regularly speckled with the green of flowering potato plants, all under a sky with delicate blue, white, pink, violet tones. I’m wholly in a mood of almost too much calm, in a mood to paint that.’ Vincent Van Gogh, letter to Willemien and Anna, 10-14 July 1890
Hilaire Belloc, the Catholic author and poet, was born today in 1870. He is best loved for his comic poetry book, Cautionary Tales for Children, which satirised Victorian stories in which naughty children come to a bad end. The titles of two of his poems give the flavour of the book (warning: plot spoilers). ‘Rebecca: Who Slammed Doors For Fun And Perished Miserably’, and ‘Matilda: Who told Lies, and was Burned to Death’.
Today is National Sleepy Head Day in Finland, when the last person to get up in the morning in your household can be roused with a splash of water. The day is linked to the ancient Christian legend of the seven sleepers of Ephesus, which tells a story of persecution in Roman times. Seven young men went into a cave rather than deny their faith, where they fell asleep. The emperor ordered the cave sealed with rocks, and when it was unsealed by a farmer 300 years later, the sleepers woke and thought they’d slept for a single night. The story was included in The Golden Legend, a popular collection of pious tall tales which was enjoyed in medieval Europe. The seven sleepers also have their own icon and feast day in the Eastern Church.
The Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier arrived on the coast of Japan tiday in 1549, accompanied by Anjirō, the first known Japanese Christian. His ship was not allowed into a Japanese port for almost three weeks, but he was then given a friendly welcome. Xavier found Japanese hard to learn, so he preached with the help of paintings of the Madonna and child, while Anjirō interpreted.
Donald Cargill, the Scottish Covenanter, was hanged in Edinburgh today in 1681. He was an activist in a movement which wanted the King to be subject to the Church, for which he got into a lot of danger and trouble. When he issued a personal excommunication against King Charles II, he was arrested and sentenced to death. The magnificent contempt he had shown all his life did not desert him on the scaffold. He put even his own death in its place by saying, ‘The Lord knows I go on this ladder with less fear and perturbation of mind, than ever I entered the pulpit to preach.’
Image: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)