Reginald Heber, the second bishop of Calcutta, passed away on this day. He was 42.
Heber was a man of letters, a poet and a writer of hymns.
He was educated at Oxford. He spent most of his time in India travelling, also keeping in mind the welfare of the common people. Ordained an Anglican priest in 1807, he was serving the Shropshire parish when in 1823 he was appointed bishop of Calcutta. His diocese included British India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Mauritius and Australia.
In Calcutta, Heber immersed himself in his ecclesiastical duties and worked hard to strengthen the foundations of Bishop’s College, which was the brainchild of his predecessor, the first bishop of Calcutta, Thomas Middleton. After a few months in Calcutta, Heber began his travels in 1824. He visited Varanasi, Allahabad and Delhi, where he met the Mughal emperor Akbar Shah II. Heber described the emperor, unfailingly courteous despite his ruin, in his tragic glory. In the last leg of his journey, Heber would visit Bombay and Ceylon. He took a keen interest in Indian languages.
He set out again in 1826, this time for southern India. He suddenly died after attending an early-morning service on April 3 in Trichinopoly, where he is buried. His death was mourned widely. His book Narrative of a Journey Through the Upper Provinces of India: 1824–25 was published posthumously. Today he is remembered most for his hymns, such as Holy, Holy, Holy, From Greenland’s Icy Mountains and Brightest and Best’, still sung everywhere in the Christian world where the English language is spoken.