AUGUST 4
NEW YORK SEIZED MAKEMIE FOR BREAKING THE LAW TO PREACH (1708)
“Refer everything that you do to God strive to offer Him all the good you find in yourself, acknowledging that this comes from God, and thank Him for i...”
The Autobiography of St. Ignatius, by Saint Ignatius Loyola. New York: Benziger Brothers, 1900.
What is in a blessing?
The Lord bless you and keep you —Numbers 6:24 (KJV). This first clause of the high priest’s benediction is s...
Events
1538
At the order of King Henry VIII of England, the rich priory at Walsingham is surrendered to the royal commissioner William Petre to be dissolved. Dedicated to the Virgin, the place had been a favorite destination of pilgrims, including Erasmus (who later lampooned such pilgrimages). King Henry VIII himself had once made a pilgrimage there, supposedly walking barefoot from Bareham, with his first wife, Catherine.
Authority for the date: A History of the County of Norfolk, volume 2. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/norf/vol2/pp394–4011642
Dutch minister Johannes Megapolensis arrives with wife and family to pastor in America.
Authority for the date: nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Megapolensis1708
Death in Accomack, Virginia, of Francis Makemie, an Irish missionary who established the first Presbyterian church in America. His acquital in New York for preaching without a license, obtained with the help of leading New England Congregationalists, is viewed as a landmark in freedom of religion in America.
Authority for the date: https://www.geni.com/people/Rev-Francis-Makemie/60000000070778108561713
Death in Windsor, Berkshire, England, of William Cave, an eminent scholar and churchman, who wrote Apostolici: or, The History of the Lives, Acts, Death, and Martyrdoms of Those Who Were Contemporary with or Immediately Succeeded the Apostles. As Also the Most Eminent of the Primitive Fathers for the First Three Hundred Years. To Which Is Added, a Chronology of the First Three Ages of the Church.
Authority for the date: http://nehushtanantiques.homestead.com/Product156_Apostolici_Willian_Cave.html1789
In an attempt to appease the anger of French revolutionary masses, the clergy of France renounce their titles and many customary fees. Despite these concessions, France will soon begin to pass laws stripping religious institutions of privileges and property.
Authority for the date: Cunningham, Francis Aloysius. The War Upon Religion... Boston: Pilot Publishing, 1911.1821
Reverend William C. Blair, the first Sunday school missionary of the United States, begins his work. In his first year, he will travel twenty-five hundred miles, mostly on horseback, visiting six states, founding sixty-one Sunday schools, inspecting thirty-five others, establishing four adult schools and six tract societies. When later giving his report, he will apologize that illness hindered him from doing more. The Sunday and Adult School Union will be so impressed, however, that they will hire additional missionaries.
Authority for the date: Rice, Edwin Wilbur. The Sunday School Movement 1780-1917 and the American Sunday-School Union 1817-1917. Philadelph1888
In a blinding rain, Mary Slessor boards the canoe of a friendly chief who is to take her up river to a new work among Nigeria’s people.
Authority for the date: Christian, Carol and Gladys Plummer. God and One Redhead. Hodder and Stoughton, 1970.1892
Dr. Wilfred T. Grenfell arrives in Labrador to work with colonists who have little medical attention, live in poverty, and are deeply in debt to company stores. The twenty-six-year-old English medical missionary will ply the Labrador shores in his mission boat or ski to where he is needed. Not only does he open hospitals and orphanages but he builds churches and teaches the people practical methods of management. He will work among them for forty-two years, raising funds and recruiting many other doctors, nurses, and clergymen to join him.
Authority for the date: Morgan, Robert J. On This Day. Nelson, 1997.1930
Nicholas Frolovich Blazhnov, a reader in the Russian Orthodox Church, is arrested by Communist authorities. Five months later, he will be sentenced to death and executed within a few weeks.
Authority for the date: Moss, Vladimir. Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of the Urals, Siberia and Central Asia.