Born in 1945–Barry Lopez, American writer.

“We cannot, of course, save the world because we do not have authority over its parts. We can serve the world though. That is everyone’s calling, to lead a life that helps.”

thenumeral5:

Born in 1923: René Girard, French literary critic, philosopher, and anthropologist.

“No doubt the virgin birth of Jesus still resorts to the same ‘code’ as do the monstrous births of mythology. But precisely because the codes are parallel, we should be able to appreciate what is unique to it – what makes it radically different from the messages of mythology:

The various episodes around the birth of Christ, make palpable the humble beginnings of the revelation, its complete insignificance from the standpoint of the mighty. Right from the start the child Jesus is excluded and dismissed – he is a wanderer who does not even have a stone on which to lay his head. The inn has no room for him. Informed by the Magi, Herod searches everywhere for him in order to put him to death.

Throughout these episodes, the Gospels and the Christian tradition…place in the foreground beings foredoomed to play the part of victim – the child, the woman, the pauper and domestic animals.”

thenumeral5:

It’s the Feast of Saint Lucy.

Lucy was a martyr in Syracuse during the Diocletianic Persecution of 304 AD. Her name is found in the Greek inscriptions from the catacombs of St. John in Syracuse.

“For Saint Lucy, even when her persecutors lit a fire around her she still would not burn. They gouged out her eyes, yet she still would not die. They attempted to kidnap her for nefarious means, but they could not move her. After her death it was found that her eyes had been miraculously restored.”

Above: An icon of Saint Lucy by Raphael Winters.

Born in 1918 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian novelist and historian.

“If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”

Born in 1830 – Emily Dickinson, American poet.

“If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.”

thenumeral5:

Born in 1928 – Noam Chomsky, American linguist and political theorist.

“If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.”

Previously: Tom Waits

Born in 1956 – Peter Buck, American guitarist and songwriter.

It’s the Feast Day of Barbara, the early Christian Greek saint and martyr.

She was tortured and condemned to death because of her conversion to Christianity. Her father, who had just carried out the beheading, was struck by lightning on his way home and his body was consumed by flame.

Barbara is therefore known as the patron saint of those who work with explosives.

Above: Shrine to Santa Barbara in the German mine, Schacht Konrad.

Born in 1960 – Julianne Moore, American actress.

Above: Moore, with Wallace Shawn, in Louis Malle’s 1994 film, Vanya on 42nd Street.

Born in 1835 – Mark Twain, American novelist, humorist, and critic.

“Look at the tyranny of party– at what is called party allegiance, party loyalty– a snare invented by designing men for selfish purposes– and which turns voters into chattels, slaves, rabbits; and all the while, their masters, and they themselves are shouting rubbish about liberty, independence, freedom of opinion, freedom of speech, honestly unconscious of the fantastic contradiction…”