This week in Christian history: Third Crusade ends, first Anglican service in Canada, first US Senate chaplain dies

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, September 01, 2024

Samuel Provoost dies – Sept 6, 1815

Samuel Provoost (1742-1815), a former bishop of The Episcopal Church and the first United States Senate chaplain. | Wikimedia Commons

This week marks the anniversary of when the Rev. Samuel Provoost, a former presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church and the first United States Senate chaplain, died at the age of 73.

A native of New York City and a bishop of New York who briefly led The Episcopal Church in 1795, Provoost had been a supporter of the American Revolution, serving as chaplain to the Articles of Confederation Congress in 1785.

In 1789, one of the first actions of the U.S. Senate under the newly implemented federal Constitution was to select a chaplain, and they chose Provoost.

“Bishop Provoost suffered occasional attacks of an apoplectic character, in one of which he died very suddenly,” noted Project Canterbury.

“His Funeral was numerously and respectably attended in Trinity Church [of New York], where an appropriate Sermon was delivered by the Rev. William Harris, Rector of St. Mark's Church.”