An exceedingly rare case of a saint of both the lefthand and righthand kingdoms: civic wonderworker and mystic alike. Proposed date of commemoration: September 18.

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“For all that has been—Thanks! To all that shall be—Yes!”

With these words Dag Hammarskjöld greeted the new year of 1953 in the private journal that later became known to the world as Markings. They are not the words one would have expected from him at this point in his life. The years had been painful. He was lonely, deeply lonely. His thoughts recurred to duty and not infrequently to sacrifice. He wondered if life held any meeting at all. Suicide was a temptation all the way until 1952 when, it seems, he made the final decision against it: “No! Death must be your final gift to life, not an act of treachery against it.”

Those words were prophetic. His death would be a gift to life, but taken by another’s treachery, not his own…