Wikipedia:Today's featured article/April 21, 2013

Reginald Heber (1783–1826) was an English clergyman, traveller, man of letters and hymn-writer, who served as the Anglican Bishop of Calcutta. After graduating from Oxford University, where he gained a reputation as a poet, he undertook an extended tour of Scandinavia, Russia and central Europe at the height of the Napoleonic Wars. After ordination in 1807 he took over his father's old parish of Hodnet in Shropshire, where he combined his pastoral duties with other church offices and literary work. He was consecrated Bishop of Calcutta in October 1823. During his short episcopate he worked hard to improve the spiritual and general living conditions of his flock, before a combination of arduous duties, hostile climate and indifferent health brought about his collapse and death at the age of 42. Monuments were erected to his memory in India and in St Paul's Cathedral, London. Several of his hymns have survived into the 21st century; one of these, "Holy, Holy, Holy", is a popular and widely known hymn for Trinity Sunday. Some recent commentators have asserted that the paternalism and imperial assumptions expressed in his hymns are outdated and generally unacceptable in the modern world. (Full article...)

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