Honoring Rector Dr. Carl E. Grammer

On March 17, 1944 died The Rev. Dr. Carl E. Grammer, rector of St. Stephen’s from 1905 to 1936, then rector emeritus until his death. His views differ strikingly from those of Rev. Montgomery, with whom he shares a death date. 

Dr. Grammer was a liberal, low-churchman who steadily resisted Anglo-Catholicism. A probing scholar, professor of church history and canon law at Virginia Theological Seminary, he nonetheless argued the validity of miracles and sought to reconcile the findings of the new criticism of the Bible, religion and science. He was a vocal progressive political activist as well who supported women’s suffrage in the critical years. He also masterminded the radical remodeling of the sanctuary by Louis Comfort Tiffany that is visible today. Obituaries claim his ashes are buried within the sanctuary at St. Stephen’s, possibly behind his lifesize memorial relief by Louis Milione on the east wall. However they are more likely in his grave in Holy Trinity Cemetery, Bowie (Prince George’s County), Maryland.

—Suzanne Glover Lindsay, St. Stephen’s historian and curator