Abstract
A “homeless vagrant” was the term used by Protestant clergy of the first half of the twentieth century for a man without name, family or history who died on the street. Clergy were asked to perform a funeral for him, but as his religious status was unknown, his funeral posed a problem for them. How could one preach a hopeful Christian message, for one who may not have had faith in Christ? This paper uses pastors’ manuals and sermon collections to understand how this kind of “problem funeral” was interpreted as an example of a marginal death both religiously and socially. Although there were no mourners, the purpose of the funeral was worship of God, who was always ready to receive us. The homeless vagrant’s funeral was also an occasion for reproach, against the anonymity, impersonality and moral danger of urban life. The homeless vagrant’s extreme isolation and abandonment made him a warning to all. The paper closes with the contrast between this view of death on the street, and that conveyed in recent Homeless Persons Memorial Day services, organized by activists for the homeless. The latter see the homeless as persons with names and stories, part of a counter-community in cities. The tone of reproach is much more prominent here, too. Society has failed these people.
Highlights
There were no mourners, the purpose of the funeral was worship of God, who was always ready to receive us
The city authorities thought it necessary to have a religious functionary present, to do something right before the burial. Was this even a funeral, with no mourners, and the only congregation the gravediggers? What were the problems posed by this melancholy situation? How were these problems defined, against what norms of how a death should be ritually marked? And why should we, care about this lonely and miserable situation?
God’s center is everywhere and God has no edges or boundaries: probably even the stodgiest and most conservative of those older clergymen would have accepted that. Their role was to witness that truth in situations where state and family had centers, boundaries and margins
Summary
In the twentieth century and undoubtedly before that a sad scene would take place. It was not until later in the twentieth century, with the introduction of psychological perspectives on mental illness and depression, that this interpretation of suicide was replaced, at least for many clergy The message of these two sermons was to ask for God’s mercy, to warn against wasting one’s life, and to urge those who could listen to accept the offer of salvation while it was still available God and God alone knows the identity of the homeless vagrant; no one is anonymous before God. It was important to remind those at the homeless man’s funeral that what remained unknown to us was known by God. In contrast, and perhaps in keeping with “every human deserves a funeral,” a method of dealing with a newer set of “homeless vagrants” was practiced recently by an Italian town where the bodies of drowned migrants washed up on the nearby shore. American homeless vagrants were the test case of this fundamental religious truth
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