Phillips Brooks

Phillips Brooks (December 13, 1835 – January 23, 1893) was an American Episcopal clergyman and author, long the Rector of Boston's Trinity Church and briefly Bishop of Massachusetts.

He wrote the lyrics of the Christmas hymn, "O Little Town of Bethlehem".

He is honored on the Episcopal Church liturgical calendar on January 23.

Born in Boston, Brooks was descended through his father, William Gray Brooks, from the Rev. John Cotton; through his mother, Mary Ann Phillips, he was a great-grandson of Samuel Phillips, Jr., founder of Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.

Three of Brooks' five brothers – Frederic, Arthur, and John Cotton – were eventually ordained in the Episcopal Church.

Phillips Brooks prepared for college at the Boston Latin School and graduated from Harvard University in 1855 at the age of 20, where he was elected to the A.D. Club.

He worked briefly as a school teacher at Boston Latin, but, upon being fired, felt that he had failed miserably.

He wrote, "I do not know what will become of me and I do not care much.… I wish I were fifteen years old again. I believe I might become a stunning man: but somehow or other I do not seem in the way to come to much now."

In 1856, he began to study for ordination in the Episcopal Church in the Virginia Theological Seminary at Alexandria, Virginia.

While a seminarian there, he preached at Sharon Chapel (now All Saints Episcopal Church, Sharon Chapel) in nearby Fairfax County.

In 1859, he graduated from Virginia Theological Seminary, was ordained deacon by Bishop William Meade of Virginia, and became rector of the Church of the Advent in Philadelphia.

In 1860, he was ordained priest, and in 1862, became rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia, where he remained seven years, gaining an increasing name as a Broad churchman, preacher, and patriot.

In addition to his moral stature, he was a man of great physical bearing as well, standing 6 ft tall.

During the American Civil War he upheld the cause of the North and opposed slavery, and his sermon on the death of Abraham Lincoln was an eloquent expression of the character of both men.

His sermon at Harvard's commemoration of the Civil War dead in 1865 likewise attracted attention nationwide.

In 1869 he became rector of Trinity Church, Boston; today, his statue is located on the left exterior of the church.

Brooks wrote that his only ambition was "to be a parish priest and, though not much of one, [I] would as a college president be still less".

Under his inspiration, architect Henry Hobson Richardson, muralist John LaFarge, and stained glass artists William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones created an architectural masterpiece in Trinity Church, Boston.

Among the building's notable features was the first freestanding 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 synthronon for priests that 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 to elaborate carved screens.

The building of Trinity was completed in 1877, but the Venetian mosaics that Brooks and Richardson wanted could not be afforded.

In 1877, Brooks published a course of lectures upon preaching that he had delivered at the theological school of Yale University, and which are an expression of his own experience.

In 1881, he declined an invitation to be the sole preacher to the university and professor of Christian ethics.

He had previously declined an election as assistant bishop of Pennsylvania in 1886.

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

Until 1888, there was also 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: 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 during 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 commodious white surplice and priest's stole when he officiated at the office or Eucharist.

Brooks preached there Sunday after Sunday to large congregations until he was consecrated Bishop of Massachusetts in 1891.

On April 30, 1891, he was elected sixth Bishop of Massachusetts, and on October 14 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."

It was not until the magnificent new altar and sanctuary of Maginnis & Walsh were completed in 1938 that Trinity's chancel reflected that aspect of their dreams for Trinity, which Brooks called "America's glory forever".