The news of President Jeffrey R. Holland’s death immediately sparked tributes and devotional reactions from around the world for the influence and impact of a man who served for 31 years as an apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
President Dallin H. Oaks, his predecessor as BYU president and the current church president, issued a statement on social media:
“I grieve the passing of President Jeffrey R. Holland,” he wrote. “Our relationship in education and church service began more than 50 years ago. It was a long and loving relationship in the work of the Lord.
“During my service as president of Brigham Young University, I had the privilege of inviting him — then a young scholar in his early 30s — to serve as dean of Religious Education.
“From the beginning, his influence strengthened the university’s sacred mission to unite spiritual purpose with academic excellence.
“Over the last three decades as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, he lifted the weary, encouraged the faithful and bore a powerful witness of the Savior — even through seasons of significant personal trials.
“We honor his unwavering devotion, his steadfast witness of the Savior, and his inspired ability to strengthen faith and deepen understanding.
“We thank our Father in Heaven for the blessing of shared service and for our united witness that Jesus Christ lives and directs his church today.”
Utah Gov. Spencer J. Cox wrote on social media that President Holland “was a teacher of souls, a friend to the weary, and a steadfast voice of hope in our church and across the world. For decades, he lifted hearts with his powerful testimony of Jesus Christ. We will miss him greatly.
“His legacy lives on in the countless lives he touched and the example he set. We take comfort in knowing that Elder Holland is reunited with his beloved Pat. Our prayers are with their family and all who loved them.”
U.S. Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, who is a Latter-day Saint, shared his sadness over President Holland’s death.
“His decades of spiritual guidance, commitment to community and compassionate leadership touched countless lives,” the senator wrote on X.com.
U.S. Senator Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, said in a statement that he joined other church members in mourning President Holland’s loss.
“Known for his empathetic love and care for others, President Holland embodied a Christ-like spirit of generosity,” the senator wrote. “His more than 30 years of service in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spread the gospel far and wide, inviting others to know the unrelenting love of Christ here on earth.”
Robbie George, a Catholic intellectual and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, called President Holland “a towering figure in every way.”
A Nigerian church member recalled President Holland’s final general conference address in October, when he humbly sang a piece of the iconic Christian hymn “Amazing Grace.”
Thomas Griffith, a church member who was the general counsel at BYU before serving as a judge on the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, shared his reaction with the Deseret News.
“President Holland insisted that I tell him every time I would be in Utah so that we could visit,” Griffith said. “Those visits in his office were some of the most profound experiences of my life. He had a burning desire to make the church a place that more fully reflects the love of Christ, and in our discussions everything was on the table in thinking how best to improve the church except the truthfulness of the claim that God had intervened in history in the life of Jesus and the Restoration of his gospel.
“He gave me permission by his example to be always thinking how we can do a better job of getting the gospel into the hearts of our people. He had the critical and searching mind of a scholar (Ph.D. from Yale), the heart of a teacher (the classroom was his favorite place on earth), and the faith of a person whose entire life was dedicated to responding to the love he experienced from Jesus by helping others experience that love. ”
The author and Latter-day Saint intellectual Terryl Givens also knew President Holland personally. He noted that President Holland shared his own struggles with mental health and gave a landmark talk on the warm, kind and loving grandeur of Heavenly Father.
“His personal compassion for those who struggle set in motion the entire current of changes that decriminalized doubt, diagnosed scrupulosity, and replaced the paradigm of legalism with the simplicity of Christ’s tenderness,” Givens said. “He was the first to bring together the weeping God of Enoch and the grieving gardener of the vineyard.”
A church member named Thomas Stevenson shared one of the moments when President Holland testified of Jesus Christ.
Jon Cheney said President Holland influenced the way he lives his life.
“I will and have lived my life better because of this man. Until we meet again!” he said.
Another Latter-day Saint, Eric Meadows, noted President Holland’s oratorical power and his determination to serve Jesus Christ and his fellow man.
“He faced trials that would have broken lesser men—health challenges that brought him to the very brink,“ Meadows wrote, ”yet he rose, again and again, to declare that there is help and happiness ahead, that blessings come, some soon, some late, but for those who embrace the gospel, they come. He was our teacher, our defender, our friend who loved the Lord with every fiber of his being."
A Nigerian member called President Holland the greatest orator, and shared a clip of him speaking boldly and tenderly about obtaining forgiveness and turning to help the poor.