Why is Thomas a’Kempis Feast Day July 25th? Maybe July 26th? Maybe May 3? Or how about October 9th? Do I add or subtract 10 days to this?

On the Feast Day of St. James the Less, 1471, Thomas a’Kempis (a.k.a. Thomas Hemerken) died at the monastery of Mount St. Agnes. He was 92.

Thomas was born in what is now Kempen, Germany, County of Cleves ca. 1380. His parents were Johan and Gertrude Hemerken (little hammer). Johan was a silversmith and Gertrude was a teacher. His brother, Jan, was also a priest and the Prior of several monasteries associated with the Modern Devotion.

The Chronicles of Mt. St. Agnes say that Thomas died on the Feast of St. James the Less, which is May 3rd on the Roman calendar and October 9th on the Eastern calendar. And of course, the calendar changed Some scholars think that the Chronicler made an error and peg it with James the Greater (July 25), based on other notes in the life of Thomas.

And then there is the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries starting in 1582. So you can add 10 days to any of the dates above.

In the end, does it matter? No. You can celebrate all four if you want! A feast day is meant to be a calendar rekoning of the day the person entered Heaven.  The idea of celebration is that we pray to become like that holy person: set apart, Christ-like, sanctified, blessed. A tall order. For now, I’m sticking with July 24th or 25th or 26th (because some times the monks counted evening as part of the beginning of the next day: like we have Christmas Eve and Easter Vigil.

While Thomas is not officially a canonized Saint of the Roman Catholic Church, he is held in great esteem. You can read up on why Thomas is not a Saint here.

Of course, to me, the man is a Saint and worthy of emulation. Perhaps one day, I’ll take up his cause again.

Thomas a’Kempis, pray for us!

Here’s the passage about Thomas from Chapter XXIX (29) of

THE CHRONICLE OF THE CANONS REGULAR OF MOUNT ST AGNES.

Thomas’ Reliquary

Skull of Thomas a’Kempis

“In the same year, on the Feast of St. James the Less, and after Compline (end of the day, beginning of night), died our most beloved Brother Thomas Hemerken, who was born in the city of Kempen, in the diocese of Cologne. He was in the ninety-second year of his age, and this was the sixty-third year after his investiture; likewise he had been a Priest for above fifty-seven years.

In the days of his youth he was an hearer of Florentius (Radewyns) at Deventer, by whom he was also sent, when twenty years old, to his own brother (Jan), who at that time was Prior of Mount St. Agnes. From this same brother he received his investiture after six years of probation, and from the early days of the monastery he endured great poverty and many labors and temptations.

Moreover, he wrote that complete copy of the Bible which we use, and also many other books for the use of the House, and for sale. Likewise he composed many little books for the edification of the young, which books were plain and simple in style, but mighty in the matter thereof and in their effectual operation.

Monument Dedicated to Thomas at the Cemetery Near Zwolle, NL

The thought of the Lord’s passion filled his heart with love, and he was wondrous comfortable to the troubled and the tempted; but as age grew upon him he was vexed with a dropsy in the legs, and so fell asleep in the Lord and was buried in the eastern cloister by the side of Brother Peter Herbort. “