The Epiphany of Sherlock Holmes

Greetings,

In addition to being Epiphany, today is also the 158^th anniversary of the birth of Sherlock Holmes on  Friday, January 6, 1854, and the 55^th anniversary of his death on Sunday, January 6, 1957.  

Most of you will remember that he was the third son of Siger and Violet Holmes, born at their farmstead of Mycroft in the North Riding of Yorkshire, England, a district known for its horse-breeding stables and its wind-swept—”wuthering”—heights. 

Siger was the Squire of Mycroft, his elder brother, named Mycroft, having died in 1844.  That was the year he married Violet Sherrinford, daughter of the celebrated soldier, naturalist, and explorer, Sir Edward Sherrinford, and one of four daughters in a family distinguished in many directions.  Her mother was the daughter of Antoine Charles Horace Vernet (1785-1835), commonly called Carle, and the sister of Émile Jean Horace Vernet (1789-1863), called Horace, both French artists of distinction.  [I especially like Horace Vernet’s L’Atelier.]

Siger Holmes married Violet Sherrinford at St. Sidwell’s, Exeter, on May 7, 1844.  Their first-born, Sherrinford, named of course for his mother’s family, was born in 1845.  Their second son, Mycroft, named for Siger’s brother and for the place of his birth, in 1847.

When their third son arrived seven years later, Siger insisted that the boy should be named William Sherlock, for he had long been an admirer of that seventeenth-century theologian and author (1641-1707), and quoted often from his famous Practical Discourse Concerning Death.

The boy’s mother favored calling him Scott—Sir Walter was her favorite author.  As a compromise the boy was baptized William Sherlock Scott Holmes.  He soon came to be called just Sherlock Holmes.

That is the name we know him by today.  It is a name that has spread to every corner of the globe.  To millions, he is the master detective of all time.  We know him best through the writings of his friend and devoted companion, Dr. John Hamish Watson (August 7, 1852 - July 24, 1929).

Even today the present occupant of his former home in London at 221B Baker Street, an insurance company, receives hundreds of letters a month seeking Holmes’ assistance.  When we were in London, it was our pleasure to climb the stairs to the top floor of the venerable old building of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, which had been designed by James Gibbs.  There the room where Sherlock Holmes and John H. Watson, M.D. met for the first time is preserved and noted with a suitable plaque and guest book.

I write about this because there is much to be revealed and uplifted in ourselves as we read and contemplate the life and work of Sherlock Holmes.  Throughout history God has used the accounts of great people as an example and inspiration for our lives.  We humans, especially at the end of the 20th Century, often become overly concerned about the evidence and proofs of such accounts, insisting that they must either be “factual” or “legend.”  Just as there is no empirical evidence for much which is in the Scriptures, nor for much of the history of the saints of the Church, there are great truths which we are not able to “prove” scientifically.

The late Edgar W. Smith wrote editorials about the significance of Sherlock Holmes in our lives.  In part he writes:

“But there is more than time and space and the yearning for things gone by to account for what we feel toward Sherlock Holmes.  Not only there and then, but here and now, he stands before us as a symbol—a symbol, if you please, of all that we are not, but ever would be...We see him as the fine expression of our urge to trample evil and set aright the wrongs with which the world is plagued.  He is Galahad and Socrates, bringing high adventure to our dull existences and calm, judicial logic to our biased minds.”

God has always revealed Truth through accounts which we are invited to enter into, to see as being our stories, our experiences, our fears and hopes, hates and loves.  From the earliest accounts in Genesis to the teaching stories of Jesus to the lives of the saints, God is the master storyteller, drawing us into the experiences described until they become our own experience, until they inspire us to act in the highest, noblest, purest way possible.

Smith concludes:

“And the time and place and all the great events [of the Holmes accounts] are near and dear to us not because our memories call them forth in pure nostalgia, but because they are a part of us today.

“That is the Sherlock Holmes we love—the Holmes implicit and eternal in ourselves.”

For those who would grow spiritually, I recommend reading over again the stories of the Bible, the stories of the saints, the inspired excellent fiction from all ages, and the great mystery stories which God gives to us for our enlightenment.

Yours & His,

DED