Christian feast day: George Herbert (Anglicanism)

George Herbert was an English poet, orator, and priest of the Church of England. His poetry is associated with the writings of the metaphysical poets, and he is recognised as "one of the foremost British devotional lyricists." He was born in Wales into an artistic and wealthy family and largely raised in England. He received a good education that led to his admission to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1609. He went there with the intention of becoming a priest, but he became the University's Public Orator and attracted the attention of King James I. He sat in the Parliament of England in 1624 and briefly in 1625.

Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the largest branches of Christianity, with around 110 million adherents worldwide as of 2024. Most are members of national or regional ecclesiastical provinces of the international Anglican Communion, one of the largest Christian bodies in the world, and the world's third-largest Christian communion. Research from the Center for the Study of Worldwide Christianity, based at Gordon Conwell, found that there were nearly 91 million Anglicans worldwide in 2015, not including the United "churches on the Indian Sub-Continent" as they "are ecumenical federations." In 2025, the Church Times reported that, according to research conducted by researchers at Durham University and Gordon Conwell, using 2020 data provided by member churches and not counting the United churches, there were nearly 95 million Anglicans worldwide within the Anglican Communion. When united churches in the Anglican Communion and the breakaway Continuing Anglican movement were not counted, there were an estimated 97.4 million Anglicans worldwide in 2020.