Samuel Johnson, Moralist
13 December -- Commemoration
If celebrated as a Lesser Festival,
Common of any Saint, page 531
Samuel Johnson was born in 1709 and is best known as a
writer of dictionaries and a literary editor. Yet in his
lifetime he was renowned for his religious beliefs and as a
firm supporter of the practice and order of the Church of
England. He had been converted to Christianity as young man
after reading William Law's
A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, and
his support of the High Church party was unstinting.
Amongst his other writings, his essays entitled the Rambler,
which appeared twice-weekly between 1750 and 1752, earned
him the nickname 'The Great Moralist', then a term of
affection and honour. He died on this day in 1784.