The Reverend Thomas Worcester

Hiram Powers, born Woodstock, VT 1805-died Florence, Italy 1873 · 1851

The Reverend Thomas Worcester was the first clergyman in Massachusetts to be ordained in the “New Church.” This church was founded on the theology of the philosopher and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, who saw a strong relationship between nature and the spiritual world. Worcester met Hiram Powers in 1850 while touring Europe with his family. Powers had been a follower of Swedenborgianism since his early days in Cincinnati, and while visiting Florence, Worcester baptized Powers and his children as members of the church. The Powers home became a center of this faith for Americans in Florence, and Worcester donated a great deal of literature for the artist to distribute among his friends.