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Quote of the day

“This is not the God whom you worship he is above in heaven, even in the majesty of the Father.”

Smith, Preserved. The Age of the Reformation. New York: Henry Holt, 1920.

Devotional

We are commanded to come to Christ (1887)

“[B]ring your father and your families back to me. I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and you can enjoy...

Events

347

The proconsul of Africa proclaims unity of the African church under Gratus after years of conflict between the Catholic Church and the stricter Donatists. Donatus withdraws into exile.

Authority for the date: Frend, W. H. C. The Early Church. Philadelphia: Fortress Pr., 1965.

718

Saracen leader Moslemah raises his siege of Constantinople, after a brilliant defense by Emperor Leo III, who thereby becomes the first Christian ruler to significantly thwart the advance of Islam. Because it is the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, the Byzantines ascribe their victory to the mother of Christ. After forsaking the siege, many of the Arab ships involved will be destroyed by a storm and others will burn when ashes from the volcano of Santorini fall on them.

Authority for the date: Finlay, George. A History of Greece from its Conquest by the Romans to the Present Time. Volume II, The Byzantine E

1038

Death in Esztergom, Hungary, of St. Stephen, first king of Hungary. Baptized and reared a Christian, he had founded many monasteries and churches and sent Christian missionaries throughout his realm.

Authority for the date: Britannica.

1534

Ignatius of Loyola founds “the company of Jesus,” describing their organization as similar to that of fur traders but focused on God’s will, not beaver skins. In 1540 it will gain the approval of the pope, who will name it the Society of Jesus. More often they will be known as “Jesuits.”

Authority for the date: Vincent, Benjamin. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates. Putnam, 1911.

1557

Agnes Prest is burned to death at Southern Hay by Queen Mary’s government because of her rejection of the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation.

Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.

1579

Repose (death) of the venerable Gerasimus, a much-traveled ascetic, priest, and abbot of the Orthodox church.

Authority for the date: http://oca.org.

1790

Father John Carroll is ordained by Bishop Charles Walmesley in Dorset, England, as the first Roman Catholic bishop of the United States. Eighteen years later he will become the nation’s first archbishop.

Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.

1853

Death, from inflammation of the brain, of Frederick W. Robertson, a prominent Anglican clergyman. His ministry had been mainly among the working classes but his writings were widely read and especially cherished by evangelicals. He had been ordained bishop of Winchester in 1840.

Authority for the date: Dictionary of National Biography.

1901

Death of poet Julie Katharina von Hausmann near Wösso, Estonia. She was the author of the hymn “So nimm denn meine Hände” (“O Take My Hand, Dear Father”).

Authority for the date: Cyberymnal.

1917

An All-Russian Church Council convenes in Moscow. It will restore the Patriarchial form of church government abolished by Peter the Great almost two hundred years earlier in 1721.

Authority for the date: Ware, Timothy. The Orthodox Church.

1964

A truck-load of rebel soldiers takes over the hospital compound at Nobobongo, Congo, which they will occupy for five months. Among the women held by them is medical missionary Dr. Helen Roseveare who will live to tell a tale of severe abuse and terror. (For example, she will be repeatedly raped and a local chief will be found “guilty” by a “people’s court” and flayed alive and eaten.)

Authority for the date: Roseveare, Helen. Give Me This Mountain. InterVarsity Press, 1995.

1967

Latin American bishops issue the “Message of the Bishops of the Third World” denouncing structural oppression in society. It is part of the development of what is called “liberation theology.”

Authority for the date: History of Christianity in Asia, Africa, and Latin America

1988

Pope John Paul II addresses the role and importance of women in an apostolic letter, but reaffirms the male-only priesthood for certain church rituals such as the mass.

Authority for the date: APOSTOLIC LETTER MULIERIS DIGNITATEM

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Containing today’s events, devotional, quote and stories