Commontide
Anglican Commemoration
Priest & Poet
February 27 · d. 1633
also known as George Herbert of Bemerton
Priest of Bemerton and author of The Temple, a collection of sacred poetry that ranks among the greatest spiritual verse in English. His A Priest to the Temple sketches a vision of humble, learned pastoral care that shaped Anglican pastoral theology, while his poetry combines theological precision, emotional honesty, and formal innovation to express the full spectrum of Christian experience from doubt to joy.
Herbert had no formal cult or canonization. His influence developed entirely through his published works (first The Temple in 1633, then A Priest to the Temple in 1652). He was relatively obscure in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries but was recovered as a major poet and spiritual figure during the nineteenth-century Anglo-Catholic revival. Modern hymnody owes much to Herbert; many of his poems appear as hymns in contemporary hymnals (e.g., 'The King of Love My Shepherd Is,' 'Come, My Way, My Truth, My Life'). A Priest to the Temple remains a foundational text in Anglican pastoral theology and seminary curricula. His reputation grew steadily through the twentieth century as literary critics recognized his metrical innovation and theological depth. Contemporary evangelical and Anglo-Catholic traditions both claim him as an exemplar of faith and poetry. His modest life in a country parish made him particularly attractive to an ideology of humble faithfulness.
Herbert had every prospect of advancement: Orator of Cambridge, a seat in Parliament, a prominent family behind him. He laid it down for a small parish near Salisbury, and served it barely three years before tuberculosis took him at thirty-nine. Out of that hidden life came poems honest enough to bring doubt and even anger at God into prayer, and a vision of pastoral care the church still reads. Nothing he did looked large while he was doing it. What small, faithful work has God set in front of you that matters more than the advancement you could win?
George Herbert was born in 1593 into a prominent Welsh gentry family; his mother Magdalen was a patron of John Donne and a woman of deep piety. Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, Herbert excelled in classics and divinity, and became Fellow and later Orator of Cambridge University—a prestigious position involving responsibility for ceremonial and diplomatic Latin prose. He was elected to Parliament in 1624 and had prospects for secular advancement.
However, following a serious illness around 1624, Herbert underwent spiritual reorientation. He gradually withdrew from worldly ambition and entered into preparation for orders. He was ordained deacon around 1626 and priest in 1630, serving as vicar of Bemerton (a small parish near Salisbury) from 1630 until his death. His tenure as vicar was brief—only about three years—but profoundly influential.
During his Cambridge and Bemerton years, Herbert wrote the poems that constitute The Temple (not published until 1633, posthumously). These 177 poems, arranged as a progress through the spiritual life (from entrance through growth to conclusion), combine intellectual rigor with emotional vulnerability. Themes include inner struggle, doubt, anger at God, grace, and mystical union. His forms are varied—some witty and metaphysical, others spare and direct.
Alongside his poetry, Herbert wrote A Priest to the Temple (The Country Parson), a manual of pastoral practice describing the ideal priest as scholar, physician, counselor, and model of humility and charity to his parish. This work became foundational to Anglican pastoral theology. Herbert died of tuberculosis on March 1, 1633, at age thirty-nine. His friend Nicholas Ferrar (also in this batch) prepared The Temple for publication after his death.
Readings for a Teacher of the Faith
Proverbs 3:13–26Psalm 119:89–1061 John 1:1–10Matthew 13:47–52
Almighty God, you gave your servant George Herbert special gifts of grace to understand and teach the truth revealed in Christ Jesus: Grant that by this teaching we may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.