The first – and so far the last – lunar communion service was celebrated today in 1969. Buzz Aldrin (above) had brought bread and wine to the moon in a plastic container from his Presbyterian church in Houston, where he served as an elder. After reading a passage from John’s Gospel, Aldrin ate and drank before Neil Armstrong and he climbed down the ladder to walk on the moon’s surface for the first time. NASA didn’t publicise the story at the time, as they were in legal hot water after a previous Apollo mission during which astronauts read Genesis chapter 1 while orbiting the moon. Aldrin’s church still has the chalice he used, and celebrate the anniversary every July as ‘Lunar Communion Sunday’.
‘I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon the wine curled slowly and gracefully up the side of the cup. It was interesting to think that the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the first food eaten there, were communion elements.’ Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11
Germany and the future Pope Pius XII signed the Reichskonkordat today in 1933. This concordat between the Vatican and the Third Reich supposedly guaranteed religious freedom to the German Catholic Church, but only four years later Pius published a fiery encyclical, Mit brennender Sorge (‘With burning concern’) after noticing that Hitler was blatantly disregarding it. The concordat was unpopular among German Catholics, and has been controversial ever since for handing the Nazi regime the huge propaganda gift of legitimacy on the world stage.
It the feast of St Wilgefortis the Bearded, a fictitious saint of folk tales. The daughter of a pagan king, her father pressed her to marry the King of Sicily, despite her vow of celibacy. She prayed for the Lord to make her unattractive, and he responded by giving her a big beard. This impressive miracle successfully put off her suitor. In devotional paintings, she is often shown on the cross, looking exactly like Jesus wearing a dress. She is understandably popular among Christians of non-binary genders.
Pope Leo XIII died today in 1903, the oldest reigning Pope ever at the age of 93. He was known as the ‘Rosary Pope’ on account of rather obsessively issuing 11 encyclicals on the subject.
Elijah also has his feast day today. Unusual in being an Old Testament character celebrated in the Christian calendar, he rose to prominence thanks to being the spiritual father of the Carmelite monastic order, who number Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross among their saints. Mt Carmel was the place where Elijah famously called down fire from heaven in an interfaith meeting with 450 Canaanite priests, which ended badly for them. He killed the lot.
Image: NASA