Maundy Thursday commemorates the events of the night before Christ's crucifixion: the Last Supper, the institution of the Eucharist, the washing of the disciples' feet, and the agony in Gethsemane. The name 'Maundy' derives from the Latin mandatum novum — 'a new commandment' — from John 13:34, spoken after Jesus washed his disciples' feet. The earliest evidence of a distinct liturgical observance on this day comes from the late fourth century. The pilgrim Egeria, writing around 384, describes elaborate Jerusalem services including an afternoon Eucharist at the Martyrium basilica and an evening station at the Imbomon (the traditional site of Jesus's teaching on the Mount of Olives), concluding with a nighttime procession to Gethsemane. By the time of the Apostolic Constitutions (c. 380), the day was established as a fast day. Augustine of Hippo (Ep. 54, to Januarius) attests that by around 400 the day was celebrated with both a morning and evening Eucharist — the evening celebration deliberately recalling the hour of the Last Supper. The foot-washing ceremony (mandatum or pedilavium) became a standard Western liturgical practice by the early medieval period. The seventh-century Ordo Romanus documents the stripping of altars, and the Gelasian Sacramentary provides proper prayers for the day. The Eastern churches developed the day under the name 'Holy and Great Thursday,' with emphasis on both the Last Supper and the Passion beginning at Gethsemane.

The liturgical customs of Maundy Thursday are among the richest in the Christian year. The stripping of the altar after the evening Eucharist — removing cloths, candles, and ornaments to leave the sanctuary bare — dramatically enacts the desolation of Gethsemane and the abandonment of Christ by his disciples. This practice is attested from at least the seventh century (Ordo Romanus) and may be older. The washing of feet, whether performed by the presider on members of the congregation or as a mutual act, recovers the dominical command of John 13 and has been practiced in both East and West, though with varying emphasis — in England, the monarch's participation in the Royal Maundy is documented from the thirteenth century. The reservation of the Blessed Sacrament and the watch before the altar of repose recall Christ's words in Gethsemane: 'Could you not watch with me one hour?' (Matthew 26:40). The Tenebrae office — a service of progressive darkness in which candles are extinguished one by one — is historically associated with the Triduum evenings, and the BCP 2019 provides for it on this night. The evening marks the beginning of the Paschal Triduum — the three-day liturgy spanning Thursday evening through Easter Day that forms the single most important liturgical event of the Christian year. The collect focuses on the institution of the Eucharist specifically, grounding the day's devotion in sacramental theology: what was given on this night continues to be received at every celebration of the Lord's Supper.

John Donne was born in 1572 into a prominent Catholic family during the Elizabethan penal period. His mother was descended from the More family (John More's niece); his uncle was a Jesuit missionary. This Catholic inheritance—intellectual, spiritual, and dangerous—shaped his entire life. He was educated at Hart Hall, Oxford, and Lincoln's Inn, London, studying law and languages. In his youth he was a courtier, wit, and writer of erotic poetry (songs, satires) that circulated in manuscript among the literary elite.

At age nineteen he may have secretly married Ann More, ward of Sir George More; the marriage was acknowledged around 1601 and sundered his legal prospects. His most productive years (1600s–1610s) saw him in poverty and professional limbo, dependent on patronage. During this period he composed many of his Holy Sonnets (c. 1609–1611)—wrestling with faith, guilt, sexuality, and death—and his metaphysical love poetry.

In 1610 he published Pseudodoxia (a theological treatise) and began to secure patronage. A turning point came in 1615 when, at age forty-two and in financial desperation, he sought ordination in the Church of England. King James I, impressed by Donne's learning, encouraged him. He was ordained and rapidly rose in the Church: appointed chaplain to the king, then (1621) Dean of St. Paul's, one of the most prestigious ecclesiastical posts in England.

As dean (1621–1631), Donne preached an estimated 160 sermons, many surviving in print. These sermons—delivered from the famous Paul's Cross pulpit and in the Cathedral—combined learning (biblical, patristic, legal), innovation (vivid imagery, dramatic rhetoric), and theological depth. In 1624, seriously ill, he wrote his Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, a sequence of twenty-three meditations, expostulations, and prayers following the course of a grave fever. This work, published posthumously in 1624, stands with the Preces Privatae as a masterpiece of Stuart devotional literature. Donne died on March 31, 1631, and was buried in St. Paul's; his last sermon, 'Death's Duel,' was preached the month before his death.

Donne had no medieval cult or formal canonization. His reputation rested entirely on his literary achievement and preaching fame during his lifetime. After his death, his works went through cycles of recovery and eclipse. The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries valued his sermons more than his poetry; the poetry was largely forgotten until nineteenth-century revival (T.S. Eliot's 1921 essays on metaphysical poetry resurrected Donne's literary reputation). Modern Anglo-Catholicism reclaimed him as a figure of integration—poet-priest, wit and saint, passionate and learned. His Devotions has been continuously reprinted and remains a standard spiritual text. His inclusion in Anglican calendars dates to nineteenth-century revival of saint commemoration and reflects modern rather than unbroken tradition. The Holy Sonnets, published posthumously (1633) and long attributed to his youth, are now recognized as written in middle age during spiritual crisis, making them central to understanding his conversion and faith.