JULY 22
BLIND CHANG DIED SO THAT FIFTY HOSTAGES MIGHT LIVE (1900)
“I will not wear a crown of gold in the city where Our Lord Jesus Christ wore a crown of thorns.”
Mathews, Basil. The Book of Missionary Heroes. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1922.
Rise higher (1904)
And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus —Ephesians 2:6 (NIV...
Events
259
Dionysius is elected bishop of Rome. His commentaries had won many to faith, and his labors helped restore a church decimated by severe persecution.
Authority for the date: Brusher, Joseph. Popes Through the Ages, Third Edition. Neff-Kane, 1980.601
(Probable date) Mellitus and associates leave Rome to travel to England by way of France, carrying letters from the pope and utensils for the church at Canterbury. Mellitus will become the first bishop of London and the third Archbishop of Canterbury.
Authority for the date: Wace, Henry. A Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature...1505
Vasco da Gama and his sailors capture Kilwa, an African city state, granting the lives only of those Moors who do not resist. After marching through the city singing a Te Deum, they loot its wealth.
Authority for the date: A History of Christianity in Asia, Africa, and Latin America1517
Don Fr. Francisco de Cisneros, archbishop of Toledo and general inquisitor of Spain, issues an order empowering all bishops in New Spain to investigate, imprison, prosecute, and punish heretics.
Authority for the date: Dr. Yitzchok Levine. “The Inquisition In Mexico.”1525
An executioner in Metz cuts off Jean Leclerc’s right hand, tears his arms and chest with pincers, and encircles his head with a red-hot band of iron before consigning his body to flames. A wool-carder and Protestant, Leclerc had smashed Catholic images. His last words are, “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.”
Authority for the date: Baird, Henry Martyn. The Rise of the Hugenots.1680
Richard Cameron, Scots Covenanter leader, is ambushed and killed.
Authority for the date: Dictionary of National Biography.1680
French mystic Madame Guyon claims she has achieved union with God on this, St. Mary Magdalene’s Day.
Authority for the date: Guyon, Jeanne Marie Bouvier de La Motte. Autobiography.1827
Death of James Varick, first Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.
Authority for the date: Biography Resource Center. Gale Group, Inc, 2001.1895
Ordination of Vladimir Nikolsky to the Orthodox priesthood. Under the name Andronicus he will serve the church faithfully both as a missionary and as an archbishop. The Soviets will execute him in 1918 because of his uncompromising defense of the fallen Czars and opposition to the atheistic teachings of communism.
Authority for the date: Moss, Vladimir. Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of the Urals, Siberia and Central Asia.1900
Boxers martyr “Blind Chang” at Chaoyang, China. Formerly an alcoholic, thief, gambler, and gangster, he had become blind after abandoning his wife and forcing his daughter into prostitution. He made his way to a mission station where he heard the gospel and was transformed. He returned home to preach, braving thrown rocks and the dogs that villagers sicced on him. When missionaries checked on him, they found he had won 200 souls for Christ. After he learned Braille, he memorized Scriptures and won even more souls. When the Boxers came, Christians hid Chang. The Boxers rounded up fifty Christians in Chaoyang, but were told that as long as Chang lived, Christians would continue to multiply. The Boxers offered to free their captives in exchange for Chang. When told this, Chang volunteered to die in their place. The Boxers tried to force him to sacrifice to Buddha. When he refused, they beheaded him, then fled in terror, saying they had killed a righteous man.
Authority for the date: Paul Hattaway, China’s Christian Martyrs. p. 2311945
Forty-two delegates meet at Winona Lake, Indiana, to found Youth for Christ International. Torrey Johnson is elected president and recruits Billy Graham as the first full-time evangelist for the movement.
Authority for the date: Shelley, Bruce L. “The Young and the Zealous.” Christian History 92 (2006).