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February 28 (and 29)
Linus Pauling, John Cassian, and Patrick Hamilton
David Barnhart
February 28, 2025
Stourhead Garden Lake, England, 2011. Own photo.
Today is the birthday of Linus Pauling, who won Nobel prizes in both Chemistry and Peace. His work overlapped the fields of molecular physics and biological chemistry, and his contributions allowed other researchers to discover DNA. He was also a passionate advocate for peace and nuclear disarmament. He was an atheist, though not a militant one, and I’m including him in my list of saints because I have far more in common with an atheist who seeks knowledge, peace, and justice than I do with a Christian who does not seek those things.
This isn’t a leap year, but I’m including some saints and events from February 29, so we don’t forget the history of those who have worked with divine consciousness for our collective liberation:
On February 29, 1988, 100 clergy were arrested at a Cape Town protest. Among them was Desmond Tutu.
In the Eastern Churches, leap years include the Feast Day of John Cassian, who died in 435. Like Robert of Arbrissel, who I mentioned just a few days ago, he also founded an abbey which included both men and women. He was a major influence on the development of monastic traditions. Cassian was controversial because he believed the human will counts for something in God’s salvation, and so he has sometimes been accused of “semi-pelagianism” (works-righteousness).
Today also marks the martyrdom of Patrick Hamilton, a Scottish Protestant Reformer who was burned at the stake in 1528. His martyrdom catalyzed more resistance and actually accelerated the Reformation that the authorities were trying to stamp out.
Reflection:
Linus Pauling said:
There is, of course, always a threat to academic freedom – as there is to the other aspects of the freedom and rights of the individual, in the continued attacks which are made on this freedom, these rights, by the selfish, the overly ambitious, the misguided, the unscrupulous, who seek to oppress the great body of mankind in order that they themselves may profit – and we must always be on the alert against this threat, and must fight it with vigor when it becomes dangerous.
Since we are in a time when the current administration has declared war on climate science, on vaccines, on public health, and on any knowledge that doesn’t align with their fascist ideology, I believe Linus Pauling’s words are more important than ever. This administration certainly fits his description of the selfish, the overly ambitious, the misguided, the unscrupulous who seek to oppress the great body of humankind in order that they themselves might profit.
He also said:
Is it not more realistic, more practical to use the gifts of nature, as discovered by science, for the good of all the people of the world, considering them as brothers, than for death and destruction? I believe that the discovery of atomic power will be recognized as necessitating world unity, and that the goal of a continually peaceful and happy world, which a few years ago was hardly visible in the greatly distant future, will be achieved within our generation.
In this moment, Pauling’s words may sound overly optimistic. This world peace did not happen within his generation, but it does sometimes happen that great peril galvanizes our better angels. May it be so.
I also want to include Patrick Hamilton’s defiant last words, because they galvanized Protestants in Scotland. When he was sentenced to death by burning, he replied:
As to my confession, I will not deny it for the fear of your fire, for my confession and belief is in Christ Jesus. Therefore I will not deny it. I will rather be content that my body burn in this fire for the confession of my faith in Christ, than my soul should burn in the fire of hell for denying the same.
Even as he was burning and the crowd was shouting at him to repent, he shouted:
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit! How long shall darkness overwhelm this realm? How long wilt thou suffer this tyranny of men?
How long, indeed?
I want to be clear that I include Roman Catholics murdered by the Protestant church as well as Protestants murdered by the Roman Catholic church in this list of saints, because those who stand up to oppression belong to all of us who believe in liberation. I connect the atheist Linus Pauling with Patrick Hamilton because I believe all truth is God’s truth, and therefore both are saints and both holy.
Prayer: God in heaven, how long shall the bleakness of ignorance overwhelm this realm? How long will you suffer this tyranny of men? May the gifts of nature and of science inspire us to pursue justice and peace. Amen.