AUGUST 20
FAITHFUL GROOTE SOUGHT SOULS IN SPITE OF JEALOUS CLERGY (1384)
“This day relenting God Hath placed within my hand A wondrous thing and God Be praised. At His command, Seeking His secret deeds With tears and toiling...”
Kruif, Paul de. Microbe Hunters. New York: Pocket Books, 1943.
A family Is of Great Value
What a humble, what a modest sphere for the exercise of faith! One would have said that the purpose was quite disproport...
Events
651
Murder of King Oswin, who had renounced his throne to save bloodshed, but was betrayed.
Authority for the date: Parker, Anselm. “St. Oswin.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911.684
Death of St. Philibert of France, abbot and monastic founder, particularly associated with Jumiéges Abbey.
Authority for the date: Probable date.1153
Death of Bernard of Clairvaux, French theologian, monastic reformer, and hymn writer.
Authority for the date: New Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967.1384
Death of Gerhard Groot, founder of the Brethren of the Common Life. This movement invited laymen to a life of spirituality and simplicity.
Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.1527
Diet of Odense allows Lutherans in Denmark.
Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.1580
Death of Jerome Osorio, a Portuguese prelate and author, respected for his piety and charity and famed for his elegant Latin.
Authority for the date: Chalmers’ Biography.1740
Martyrdom of Theocharis of Neopolis, an Orthodox Christian. The governor of Nevsehir in the Ottoman Empire had offered him his daughter in marriage on condition he convert to Islam. Offended by Theocharis’ refusal, he tortures and executes him.
Authority for the date: Wikipedia.1804
Death of Pitambara Singha from an asthmatic complaint. He had first read about salvation in a Baptist tract printed at Serampore and had immediately visited the mission there, becoming a faithful convert, Christian author, and evangelist.
Authority for the date: Carey, W.H. Oriental Christian Biography. Calcutta: J. Thomas, 1850.1843
Death from cholera of Ganga Narayan Sil, a learned convert from Hinduism, who had become a street preacher to Hindus and Muslims.
Authority for the date: Carey, W.H. Oriental Christian Biography. Calcutta: J. Thomas, 1850.1855
The first World’s Conference of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) takes place in Paris under the title Conference Universelle des Unions Chrétiennes de Jeunes Gens, and will adopt the historic Paris “basis,” which seeks to unite in common effort all members who believe in and serve Christ, adding “Any differences of opinion on other subjects, however important in themselves, shall not interfere with the harmonious relations of the constituent members and associates of the World Alliance.”
Authority for the date: Leete, Frederick DeLand. Christian Brotherhoods. Cincinnati: Jennings & Graham, 1912.1902
Althea Brown, African-American, sails for Africa as a missionary where she will die of malaria and sleeping sickness after years of useful work which will include study of African languages.
Authority for the date: Jacobs, Sylvia M. Black Americans & the Missionary Movement in Africa. Greenwood, 1982.1913
Death in Winnipeg of Robert McDonald, who had been an Anglican missionary and gifted linguist, evangelizing among First Nation peoples of Canada, particularly in the northwest Arctic.
Authority for the date: Wikipedia.1935
Kenneth Pike crosses into Mexico for the first time as a missionary. Later he will become a trail-blazing linguist and a founder of the Summer Institute of Linguistics.
Authority for the date: Pike, Eunice. Ken Pike: Scholar and Christian. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1981.1952
Death in Jacksonville, Florida, of J. Frank Norris, a controversial fundamentalist Baptist pastor, radio speaker, and editor, who at various times had been charged with arson, perjury, libel, and murder—the last for killing an opponent in his church office, claiming self defense.
Authority for the date: Wikipedia.1965
Jonathan Myrick Daniels, a theological student in the Episcopal Church, is killed by a shotgun blast. Released from jail just that morning (he had been locked up for participation in a march against segregation), he died while shielding an African-American woman from the gunman.
Authority for the date: Episcopal Church. Holy Women, Holy Men.