Tuesday, March 31, 2026

It is the 31st of March 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

Links: https://www.1517.org/podcast-overview/2025-07-12 and https://www.1517.org/podcast-overview/2023-03-25 

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: As we prepare for Easter, there is a struggle in the Middle East and the Holy Lands in particular. To what extent is war supported by Christians? How do we square the messiah riding into Jerusalem on a Donkey as the Prince of Peace and the call for war in his name, in that place?

 

It could be today, but it was also the issue during Holy Week in 1149- let me give you the background and the sermon preached on this, the 31st of March in 1149, by the famous Bernard of Clairvaux.

 

The first crusade began in 1095- not called “a Crusade” but rather a pilgrimage- it began in part to help the Byzantines against the Turks, to open access for Christians to go to the Holy Lands, and to help funnel the knightly impulse into something, perhaps, more pious.

 

The armed pilgrimage, as it was initially called, was something of a success- Western/Latin states were created at Jerusalem, Tripoli, Antioch, and Edessa.

 

But in 1144, Edessa fell to the Turks, setting off an existential crisis- was God behind the movement or not? And there was a Papal crisis going on as well- a quick succession of Popes, as well as the Roman Commune movement, led to the ascension of the first Cistercian Pope- Eugene III. The Cistercians were a reform movement within the Benedictine movement centered in Burgundy. Eugene’s spiritual father was Bernard of Clairvaux (a man who has his own weekend edition- check out the transcript at 1517 for a link). Eugene’s papacy was marked by division in the West and his having to flee from Rome- and so despite issuing the papal Bull calling for what we call the Second Crusade, he wouldn’t be the man to publicize the new call for armed pilgrims to the East. He would instead call on his spiritual father, Bernard.

 

And so we have the stage set for one of the most famous sermons in history. Like many medieval sermons, we don’t have a direct source but the recollections of various chroniclers. The scene takes us to Vezelay- a town in the Burgundy region in Eastern France near the reforming center of Citeaux. Vezelay had long been a pilgrimage site known for its relics of Mary Magdalene on the route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. The crowd was so large that a platform was set up on the side of a hill where thousands gathered, including King Louis VII and his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine.

 

The sermon, perhaps Bernard’s most famous, highlights one of the great paradoxes of the age and in Bernard himself. He was the great mystic, the theologian of love, and yet here he is calling for Christians to take up the sword- the irony on that day, to call for entering the Holy Lands with swords in “defense” of the Prince of Peace. Bernard diagnosed the age as particularly wicked- and calls for solidarity amongst Christians and for a duty of penance for Christians, and, in the words of Jeremiah: ‘Cursed be he who does not stain his sword with blood!’

 

It is worth noting that Bernard made special claims here, and elsewhere in this context that the jewish population was not to be harmed- the killing of Jews marred the first Crusade and Bernard made clear that they must be protected as he was expecting, in the words of Paul “the veil to be lifted from their eyes” and for them to come to faith in Jesus.

 

Cloth crosses were handed out after the sermon for those who would “take up the cross” (this is where “Crusader” comes from), but there were not enough. According to the story, Bernard himself ripped his vestments and made crosses from the torn fabric.

 

This first “royal Crusade”- supported by Louis VII and Conrad of Germany was a failure by most measures. Edessa was never recaptured, and the stage was set for a long series of battles that we might say were never resolved, and the tension in the region has been almost perennial. Today we remember the famous sermon at Vezelay by Bernard- but perhaps, this week especially, we recall the suffering of Christ and the cross as the definitive response by God to the problem of warfare and evil.

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and 1 Corinthians 1:

18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written:

 

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;

the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” l

 

20 Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 31st of March 2026, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a Lutheran who still giggles when he hears “Papal Bull”- he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man applauding the UCONN men's and women's teams, who this weekend defeated both the Pope and the Devil- Notre Dame and Duke- I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.