On This Day — September 17

Karl Popper

Austrian-British philosopher who revolutionized the philosophy of science with the criterion of falsifiability in The Logic of Scientific Discovery and defended democracy in The Open Society and Its Enemies.

Adnan Menderes

Ninth Prime Minister of Turkey (1950–1960) who ended twenty-seven years of one-party rule by founding the Democrat Party, mechanized Turkish agriculture with Marshall Plan tractors, built thousands of mosques, and brought Turkey into NATO.

Alfred de Vigny

Stoic French Romantic poet, novelist, and playwright whose drama Chatterton, novel Servitude et grandeur militaires, and philosophical poem La Mort du loup exalted stoic solitude.

Roberto Francesco Romolo Bellarmino

Italian Jesuit cardinal, Doctor of the Church, and master apologist whose 'Disputationes' systematic defense of the Catholic faith against Protestant theology defined Counter-Reformation dogma.

Judah Loew ben Bezalel

Towering Central European talmudist, philosopher, and mystic legendary for the creation of the Golem and celebrated for his profound dialectical philosophy of Torah and nature.

Heinrich Bullinger

Successor to Zwingli as Antistes of Zurich for forty-four years whose 'Second Helvetic Confession' unified the Reformed churches across Europe and whose 12,000 letters guided kings.

Hildegard of Bingen (Sibyl of the Rhine)

Twelfth-century visionary abbess, composer, naturalist, and Doctor of the Church. Authored Scivias detailing luminous cosmic revelations, composed transcendent liturgical music, and articulated the theology of Viriditas (divine greening power).

Saint Hildegard of Bingen

Benedictine abbess, mystic, polymath, and composer whose luminous liturgical chants in Symphonia armoniae celestium revelationum and allegorical morality play Ordo Virtutum mark the summit of medieval sacred music.