November 19

Jean-Antoine Nollet, Tony Campolo, and Raphael of St. Joseph Kalinowski

Author

David Barnhart
November 19, 2025

Blue Mist, 2025. Own photo.

Today is the birthday, in 1700, of Jean-Antoine Nollet, a French priest who discovered osmosis, and, with the help of other monks, illustrated various principles of electricity. He was one of the religious leaders who were also scientists during the Enlightenment, when many believed that since God is both the Creator of the cosmos and Author of truth, religious people shouldn’t fear scientific discovery. 

Today marks the death, in 2024, of Tony Campolo, sociologist and pastor, whose writing and public speaking gave a voice to progressive evangelicals. 

Today is a feast day for Raphael of St. Joseph Kalinowski, who died on November 15, 1907. He was a friar, engineer, and teacher, and continued to establish Carmelite convents in Poland in opposition to the Russian authorities. He survived arrest and brutal exile to Siberia, and eventually returned to Poland to continue his work.  

Reflection:

Speaking at the National Baptist Convention, Tony Campolo said, 

“I have three things I'd like to say today. First, while you were sleeping last night, 30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. Second, most of you don't give a shit. What's worse is that you're more upset with the fact that I said shit than the fact that 30,000 kids died last night.”

He was not invited back. 

He also wrote: 

“Jesus never says to the poor: ‘come find the church’, but he says to those of us in the church: ‘go into the world and find the poor, hungry, homeless, imprisoned.”

Prayer: Creator of the Cosmos, make us more outraged by manufactured poverty than by violations of propriety. Amen.