February 23

Born Pietro Barbo in Venice in 1417, Paul II was elected pope in 1464 and served until his death in 1471. He focused on strengthening the Church’s spiritual authority and reorganizing the Papal States. He expanded the Vatican Library and patronized leading Renaissance artists and scholars. His pontificate was also marked by controversies over nepotism and tensions with the Roman nobility. Paul II introduced administrative reforms that impacted the governance of the Church. His legacy reflects the complex cultural and political currents of the Renaissance papacy.

Richard Price (1723–1791) was a Welsh moral philosopher, preacher, and mathematician. As a dissenting minister in Newington Green, he championed civil liberties and political reform, supporting the American and French revolutions. His writings on probability and finance contributed to the development of actuarial science and demographic study. Price engaged in intellectual debates with Benjamin Franklin and Edmund Burke, shaping Enlightenment thought on ethics and government. He emphasized the importance of reason and virtue in both personal conduct and public policy. Price's legacy includes his influence on modern philosophy and his role as an early advocate for human rights.

Born Alexei Ridiger, he became Metropolitan of Tallinn before being elected Patriarch Alexy II in 1990. He led the Russian Orthodox Church through the fall of the Soviet Union, restoring churches and religious freedoms. Under his leadership, the Church expanded its influence domestically and internationally, rebuilding its clerical infrastructure. Alexy II engaged in interfaith dialogue, fostered relations with other Christian denominations, and advocated for social issues. Despite controversies and health challenges, he remained a central figure in Russian religious life until his death in 2008. His tenure marked a renaissance for Orthodoxy in Russia after decades of state atheism.

Born on February 23, 1945, Allan Boesak is a South African theologian and former Dutch Reformed Church pastor. He became an outspoken critic of apartheid, co-founding the World Alliance for Reformed Churches' anti-apartheid office. In the 1980s, Boesak led the United Democratic Front, uniting diverse groups against apartheid. After the end of apartheid, he served in the National Assembly and influenced post-apartheid policy. Boesak's writings on liberation theology have had a lasting impact on religious and social thought.