“That was the year when Lisbon town /Saw the earth open and gulp her down.” Oliver Wendell Holmes
The following is an eyewitness testimony of one of Europe’s greatest natural tragedies, the Great Lisbon Earthquake. It was given by an Anglican clergyman, Rev. Charles Davy, who was there when the quake struck. I had never read about this earthquake that literally leveled Lisbon in 1755 by the combined forces of earth, sea, and fire. 60,000 people perished. It was a holy day, All Saint’s Day, 9:00 am, and the many churches of the city were filled with the faithful. Voltaire used the occasion to attack the Faith in his sarcastic poem, Candide. The Church used the occasion to stress vigilance and holy fear of sin and also to turn people to God who allows such catastrophes to keep before the eyes of all the four last things. Whether it is cancer or a fire we must all die and death is always violent in whatever form it comes.
THERE never was a finer morning seen than the 1st of November; the sun shone out in its full luster; the whole face of the sky was perfectly serene and clear; and not the least signal of warning of that approaching event, which has made this once flourishing, opulent, and, populous city, a scene of the utmost horror and desolation, except only such as served to alarm, but scarcely left a moment’s time to fly from the general destruction. Read the full account here.
