Phillips Brooks was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 clergyman and author, who briefly served as Bishop

Bishop

A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

 of Massachusetts

Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts

Episcopal Diocese of MassachusettsThe Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts is one of the nine original dioceses of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America....

 in the Episcopal Church during the early 1890s. In the Episcopal liturgical calendar he is remembered on January 23. He is known for being the lyricist

Lyricist

A lyricist is a songwriter who specializes in lyrics. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-composer, who composes the song's melody.-Collaboration:...

 of "O Little Town of Bethlehem

O Little Town of Bethlehem

"O Little Town of Bethlehem" is a popular Christmas carol. The text was written by Phillips Brooks , an Episcopal priest, Rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia. He was inspired by visiting the Palestinian city of Bethlehem in 1865. Three years later, he wrote the poem for his...

".

Early life and education

Brooks was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1835. Through his father, William Gray Brooks, he was descended from the Rev. John Cotton; through his mother, Mary Ann Phillips, a very devout woman, he was a great-grandson of Samuel Phillips, Jr.

Samuel Phillips, Jr.

Samuel Phillips, Jr. . Merchant, manufacturer and patriot, Phillips is considered a pioneer in American education.Samuel Phillips Jr. was born in North Andover, Massachusetts...

, the founder of Phillips Academy

Phillips Academy

Phillips Academy is a selective, co-educational independent boarding high school for boarding and day students in grades 9–12, along with a post-graduate year...

, Andover, Massachusetts

Andover, Massachusetts

Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It was incorporated in 1646 and as of the 2010 census, the population was 33,201...

. Four of the couple's six sons – Phillips, Frederic, Arthur and John Cotton – were ordained in the Episcopal Church.

Phillips Brooks prepared for college at the Boston Latin School

Boston Latin School

The Boston Latin School is a public exam school founded on April 23, 1635, in Boston, Massachusetts. It is both the first public school and oldest existing school in the United States....

 and graduated from Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 in 1855 at the age of 20, where he was elected to the Alpha Delta Phi

Alpha Delta Phi

Alpha Delta Phi is a Greek-letter social college fraternity and the fourth-oldest continuous Greek-letter fraternity in the United States and Canada. Alpha Delta Phi was founded on October 29, 1832 by Samuel Eells at Hamilton College and includes former U.S. Presidents, Chief Justices of the U.S....

. After a brief period as a teacher at Boston Latin, he began in 1856 to study for ordination in the Episcopal Church in the Virginia Theological Seminary

Virginia Theological Seminary

Virginia Theological Seminary , formally called the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in Virginia, is the largest accredited Episcopal seminary in the United States. Founded in 1818, VTS is situated on an campus in Alexandria, Virginia, just a few miles from downtown Washington, DC. VTS...

 at Alexandria, Virginia

Alexandria, Virginia

Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2009, the city had a total population of 139,966. Located along the Western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.Like the rest of northern Virginia, as well as...

.

Pastoral career

In 1859 he graduated from Virginia Theological Seminary

Virginia Theological Seminary

Virginia Theological Seminary , formally called the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in Virginia, is the largest accredited Episcopal seminary in the United States. Founded in 1818, VTS is situated on an campus in Alexandria, Virginia, just a few miles from downtown Washington, DC. VTS...

, was ordained deacon by Bishop William Meade

William Meade

William Meade , was a United States Episcopal bishop.The son of Richard Kidder Meade , one of George Washington's aides during the War of Independence, he was born near Millwood, in what is now Clarke County, Virginia. He graduated as valedictorian in 1808 at the college of New Jersey ; studied...

 of Virginia, and became rector of the Church of the Advent, Philadelphia

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

. In 1860 he was ordained priest, and in 1862 became rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia

Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia

Church of the Holy Trinity is an Episcopal church on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The first service in the church building, designed by Scottish architect John Notman, was held on March 27, 1859. The corner tower was added in 1867 and was designed by George W...

, where he remained seven years, gaining an increasing name as preacher and patriot. In addition to his moral stature, he was a man of great physical bearing as well, standing six feet four inches tall.

During the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 he upheld the cause of the North and opposed slavery, and his sermon on the death of Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

 was an eloquent expression of the character of both men. In 1869 he became rector of Trinity Church, Boston

Trinity Church, Boston

Trinity Church in the City of Boston, located in the Back Bay of Boston, Massachusetts, is a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. The congregation, currently standing at approximately 3,000 households, was founded in 1733. The current rector is The Reverend Anne Bonnyman...

; today, his statue is located on the left exterior of the church.

"{My only ambition}", Brooks once wrote "is to be a parish priest and, though not much of one, would as a college president be still less". Under his inspiration, architect Henry Hobson Richardson

Henry Hobson Richardson

Henry Hobson Richardson was a prominent American architect who designed buildings in Albany, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and other cities. The style he popularized is named for him: Richardsonian Romanesque...

, muralist John La Farge, and stained glass artists William Morris

William Morris

William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...

 and Edward Burne Jones created an architectural masterpiece in Trinity Church, Boston, among the notable features of which was the first free standing liturgical altar in the United States in an overall chancel design that attracted attention for its Liturgical Movement influence even in British architectural magazines. Behind the free standing altar there was another revival from the early church chancel, a great synthranon for priests which surrounded the apse. Because Massachusetts had two bishops then the bishops chairs were placed within the altar rail to either side of the holy table. There were no choir stalls to distract from the central altar, which was hardly recognized as an altar in a period when most altars were backed up on to elaborate carved screens. There was also, until 1888, no pulpit. Brooks preferred to preach his legendary sermons from a modest lectern near the rector's stall on the south side of the chancel. There was also an eagle lectern on a balustraded ambo in the center at the chancel steps.

Such was the magnificence of Trinity Church that, in his chapter on Phillips Brooks' chancel in Ralph Adams Cram

Ralph Adams Cram

Ralph Adams Cram FAIA, , was a prolific and influential American architect of collegiate and ecclesiastical buildings, often in the Gothic style. Cram & Ferguson and Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson are partnerships in which he worked.-Early life:Cram was born on December 16, 1863 at Hampton Falls, New...

: An Architect's Four Quests, Douglass Shand-Tucci calls it "an American Hagia Sophia", a reflection of Brooks' architectural and liturgical tastes, disclosed in his travel writings, where in Germany for instance he referred to "thrilling music" and "thrilling incense" in respect to a liturgy he attended there in the Roman Catholic cathedral. Holy Week in Rome also greatly moved him, especially the papal high mass on Easter. Although he despaired of Anglo-Catholic ritualism, he championed many aspects of the liturgical movement including congregational singing at the liturgy. At the eucharist, for instance, he would preach, not from the pulpit, but from the chancel steps, and although he liked to preach in a black academic gown he never failed to appear in a comodious white surplice and priests stole when he officiated at the office or eucharist.

In 1877 the building of Trinity was completed, but the Venetian mosaics Brooks and Richardson wanted they could not then afford. It was not until the magnificent new altar and sanctuary of Maginnis and Walsh in 1938 that Trinity's chancel reflected that aspect of their dreams for Trinity, which Brooks called "America's glory forever". Here Phillips Brooks preached Sunday after Sunday to great congregations, until he was consecrated Bishop

Bishop

A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

 of Massachusetts

Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts

Episcopal Diocese of MassachusettsThe Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts is one of the nine original dioceses of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America....

 in 1891. In 1886 he had declined an election as assistant bishop of Pennsylvania

Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania

The Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America encompassing the counties of Philadelphia, Montgomery, Bucks, Chester and Delaware in the state of Pennsylvania....

. He was for many years an overseer and preacher of Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

. In 1881 he declined an invitation to be the sole preacher to the university and professor of Christian ethics. On April 30, 1891 he was elected sixth Bishop of Massachusetts, and on the 14 October was consecrated to that office in Trinity Church.

He died unmarried in 1893, after an episcopate of only 15 months. His death was a major event in the history of Boston. One observer reported: "They buried him like a king. Harvard students carried his body on their shoulders. All barriers of denomination were down. Roman Catholics and Unitarians felt that a great man had fallen in Israel."

Publications

In 1877 Brooks published a course of lectures upon preaching, which he had delivered at the theological school of Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

, and which are an expression of his own experience. In 1879 appeared the Bohlen Lectures on The Influence of Jesus. In 1878 he published his first volume of sermons, and from time to time issued other volumes, including Sermons Preached in English Churches (1883).

Today, he is probably best known for authoring the Christmas carol

Christmas carol

A Christmas carol is a carol whose lyrics are on the theme of Christmas or the winter season in general and which are traditionally sung in the period before Christmas.-History:...

 "O Little Town of Bethlehem

O Little Town of Bethlehem

"O Little Town of Bethlehem" is a popular Christmas carol. The text was written by Phillips Brooks , an Episcopal priest, Rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia. He was inspired by visiting the Palestinian city of Bethlehem in 1865. Three years later, he wrote the poem for his...

".

Awards and historical monuments

He is remembered in the Episcopal Church with a feast day on 23 January. Phillips Brooks is also a school in Menlo Park, California.

Brooks's understanding of individuals of other ways and thought, and of other religious traditions, gained a following across a broad segment of society, and was thus a great factor in gaining increasing support for the Episcopal Church. His influence as a religious leader was unique. The degree of STD had been conferred upon him by Harvard (1877) and Columbia

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 (1887), and the Doctor of Divinity

Doctor of Divinity

Doctor of Divinity is an advanced academic degree in divinity. Historically, it identified one who had been licensed by a university to teach Christian theology or related religious subjects....

 degree by the University of Oxford

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

, England (1885).

The Rev. A.V.G. Allen

Alexander Viets Griswold Allen

Alexander Viets Griswold Allen, D.D. was an Episcopal theologian, born at Otis, Massachusetts, United States of America. He graduated from Kenyon College in 1862 and Andover Theological Seminary in 1865...

, an Episcopal clergyman and professor of ecclesiastical history at the Episcopal Theological School

Episcopal Divinity School

The Episcopal Divinity School is a seminary of the Episcopal Church based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Known throughout the Anglican Communion for prophetic teaching and action on issues of civil rights and social justice, its faculty and students have been directly involved in many of the social...

 in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...

, published several biographical works on Brooks. These included Phillips Brooks, Life and Letters (1901), a two-volume biography published at New York; and the one-volume Phillips Brooks (1907), also published at New York, an abbreviation and revision of the earlier work. Another and excellent biography of Brooks was written in 1961 by Raymond W. Albright and published by Macmillan: Focus on Infinity. The latest work on Brooks is the chapter on the Ecumenical Quest in Douglass Shand-Tucci's Ralph Adams Cram: an Architects Four Quests, published by the University of Massachusetts Press in 2005. In 2009 Shand-Tucci's "Saint Phillips Brooks" was published on the website of Back Bay Historical/The Global Boston Perspective (visit www.backbayhistorical.org/Blog), from which derived Shand-Tucci's "The Saint Bishop and the American Hagia Sophia", one of adick series of lectures given in October 2009 at the New England Historical Genealogical Society in Boston as part of "The Gods of Copley Square."

In addition, Brooks's close ties with Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 led to the creation of Phillips Brooks House in Harvard Yard

Harvard Yard

Harvard Yard is a grassy area of about , adjacent to Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that constitutes the oldest part and the center of the campus of Harvard University...

, built 7 years after his death. On January 23, 1900, it was dedicated to serve "the ideal of piety, charity, and hospitality." The Phillips Brooks House originally housed a Social Service Committee, which became the Phillips Brooks House Association

Phillips Brooks House Association

Phillips Brooks House Association is a student-run, staff supported public service/social action organization at Harvard College providing a variety of services to the Greater Boston community...

 in 1904. It ceased formal religious affiliation in the 1920s, but to this day remains in operation as a student-run consortium of volunteer organizations.

A private elementary school in Menlo Park, CA—Phillips Brooks School

Phillips Brooks School

The Phillips Brooks School is an independent, coeducational, day school, preschool-grade 5, located in Menlo Park, California. The school is commonly known as PBS and was founded in 1978 by a group of teachers and administrators who split off from the nearby Trinity School. Class size ranges from...

—is named for him. So is Brooks School

Brooks School

Brooks School is a private, co-educational, preparatory, secondary school in North Andover, Massachusetts on the shores of Lake Cochichewick.-History:...

 in his hometown of North Andover, Massachusetts, named for him by Endicott Peabody, founder of both Brooks School and Groton School

Groton School

Groton School is a private, Episcopal, college preparatory boarding school located in Groton, Massachusetts, U.S. It enrolls approximately 375 boys and girls, from the eighth through twelfth grades...

. The Brooks family founded a Brooks Memorial School in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1874 in memory of Phillips' brother, the Rev. Frederic Brooks, who died in an accident in Cambridge. That school was sponsored in part by John D. Rockefeller and operated under the Brooks name until 1891 and exists to this day under the name of the Hathaway Brown School. John S. White, first headmaster of the school in Cleveland, also founded a Phillips Brooks School in Philadelphia in 1904 that operated there until 1919.

Brooks has been canonized; his feast day in the calendar of the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church is January 23. For a discussion of Brooks from this perspective, and particularly of the sculpture and stained glass which document the development of his cult, see Douglass Shand-Tucci, "Saint Phillips Brooks", published in 2009 on the website of the Back Bay Historical Society, www.backbayhistorical.org, which enlarges on Shand-Tucci's last published work on Brooks in the second volume of his biographical study of the work of Ralph Adams Cram, cited in this article.

External links

• Texts and bibliography of works by and about Brooks