prev Today in Christian History next

Quote of the day

“Saturday. As it has often been the case on Saturdays, so it was this day in particular. We began the day in very great poverty, as only seven shilling...”

Mueller, George. The Life of Trust: Being a Narrative of the Lord’s Dealings With George Mueller. Boston: Gould and Lincoln; New York: Sheldon and Company; Cincinnati: George S. Blanchard, 1861.

Devotional

Blessed Is the Gift of Drawing Others Out (1907)

I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some—1 Corinthians 9:22 (NIV). S...

Events

412

The Roman Emperor declares that children abandoned to the church may not be reclaimed. A bishop’s signature is necessary to witness that the church has taken in the child. 

Authority for the date: Wisconsin Lutheran College,Imperial Laws and Lett

1222

On order of a superior, Anthony of Padua (Fernando de Bouillon), preaches his first, powerful sermon, the fruit of much reflection.

Authority for the date: Stoddard, Charles Warren. The Wonder Worker of Padua. Notre Dame, IN: The Ave Maria, 1896.

1563

The Edict of Amboise grants a narrow permission for the exercise of the Protestant religion in France.

Authority for the date: Great Men and Famous Women.

1587

William Allen, exiled head of England’s Roman Catholics, exhorts King Philip II of Spain by letter to undertake an invasion of England and declares that the Catholics there are clamoring for him to punish Queen Elizabeth, “hated by God and man.”

Authority for the date: “Allen, William.” The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. www.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios1587.htm

1612

Sophia Olelkovich Raziwell died, the last descendent of the Olelkovich-Slutsk dynasty. Passionate for Orthodoxy, she had refused to convert to Catholicism and had obtained a law allowing landowners of the region (modern-day Belarus) to remain Orthodox. Because of her efforts, the region around Slutsk will become a bastion of Orthodoxy, and in 1983 she will be canonized by the Orthodox Church.

Authority for the date: http://womenshistory.about.com/

1656

Death in Helmstadt, Germany, of Georg Calixtus who had been the most influential perpetuator of Melanchthon’s Lutheran theology in the seventeenth century.

Authority for the date: Schaff, Philip. The Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge.

1711

Death at Longleat, England, of Thomas Ken, notable in his generation as one of seven bishops who had been sent to the Tower of London for refusing to publish King James II’s Declaration of Indulgence. He will be remembered by succeeding generations as the author of the doxology “Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow.”

Authority for the date: http://www.hymnary.org/person/Ken_Thomas

1730

Philip Doddridge is ordained as a nonconformist minister in England. His book The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul will be influential in converting English statesman William Wilberforce and many others to evangelical Christianity.

Authority for the date: Hatfield, Edwin. The Poets of the Church. New York: Anson Randolph & Company, 1884.

1797

Henry Nott and fellow missionaries conduct the first Christian service ever held in Tahiti. The meeting takes place under cover of some enormous trees with the king of Tahiti and many other Tahitians present.

Authority for the date: Harrison, Eugene Myers. "Herald of the Love of God in Tahiti." Giants of the Missionary Trail.

1799

In Vienna, the first public performance of Franz Joseph Haydn’s oratorio Creation takes place. Tickets have been sold out long in advance. A public rehearsal and a private performance for the elite had taken place almost a year earlier, also in Vienna.

Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.

1875

American poet William Cullen Bryant writes his Christmas hymn “Look from Thy Sphere of Endless Day” for the fiftieth anniversary of the Church of the Messiah in Boston.

Authority for the date: Wells, Amos R. A Treasury of Hymn Stories. Baker, 1992.

1879

Death in Racine, Wisconsin, of James De Koven, an Episcopal priest and a leader of Anglican ritualism.

Authority for the date: Pope, William C. Life of the Reverent James de Koven. http://anglicanhistory.org/bios/dekoven/dekoven8.html

1907

Charles Harrison Mason experiences baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. An African-American, he will become founder and head of the Church of God in Christ, Inc.

Authority for the date: Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals.

1937

In the encyclical Divini redemptoris Pope Pius XI declares “There would be neither socialism nor communism today if the rulers of the nations had not scorned the teachings and material warnings of the Church.”

Authority for the date: Divini redemptoris. www.vatican.va.

1972

Lithunians establish The Chronicle, an underground newspaper, to expose Soviet cruelty toward Catholic Christians.

Authority for the date: Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania. Brooklyn, New York.

1987

Following disclosures of a 1980 sexual liaison with church secretary Jessica Hahn, Jim Bakker steps down as head of the PTL ministry. He will later go to prison on charges of financial fraud.

Authority for the date: Wikipedia.

Subscribe to daily emails

Containing today’s events, devotional, quote and stories