Lectionary Calendar
Friday, April 26th, 2024
the Fourth Week after Easter
the Fourth Week after Easter
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Historical Writings
Today in Christian History
Friday, June 5
303
Felix, Bishop of Tibiuca in North Africa, is hauled before the magistrate of his city and ordered to hand over Christian books in compliance with an imperial decree, but staunchly refuses.
1409
The Council of Pisa declares that the rival popes Gregory XII and Benedict XIII are "notorious schismatics, promoters of schism, and notorious heretics, errant from the faith, and guilty of the notorious and enormous crimes of perjury and violated oaths."
1568
Counts Egmont and Hoorn are beheaded at Brussels by Spanish overlords, rousing a furious resistance which will free the Netherlands from Spain and embed Calvinism as the principal form of Christianity.
1724
Death of Rev. Henry Sacheverell, a Church of England priest whose politically charged oratory led the Whig government to impeach him. Anglicans rose in his defense, riots followed, and the Whig government was swept from power.
1801
A Turkish tribunal condemns Mark of Smyrna to die by the sword after torturing him. He had previously betrayed his Christian faith but, ashamed of his behavior, renounced Islam and testified to the gospel although it meant sure death.
1831
Rafaravavy Rasalama is one of the Christians who takes part in the first observance of the Lord's Supper on Madagascar at the Ambatonakanga church. She will also become the island's first martyr under the persecutions initiated by Queen Ranavalona I.
1851
The first episode of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin is published in serial form in National Era magazine.
1860
The Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Augsburg Synod in North America was founded in Wisconsin. In 1962, the Augsburg Synod became one of four branches in American Lutheranism that merged to form the Lutheran Church in America (LCA).
1865
Pastor Sabine Baring-Gould pens the hymn “Onward Christian Soldiers” as a marching song for some children he must keep together as they walk between two villages during a Whit-Monday festival (i.e., the day after Pentecost) in Yorkshire, England.
1900
Chinese revolutionists, known as Boxers, behead lay preacher Chen Dayong at Yanqing, and hack his wife and daughter to death.
1944
German Lutheran theologian and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in a letter from prison: 'Certainly one must try everything, but only to become more certain what God's way is.'
1960
John XXIII published his motu proprio, 'Superno Dei Nutu,' which created the necessary committees and organizational structure for the upcoming Vatican II Ecumenical Council (1962-65).
1961
English apologist C.S. Lewis wrote in a letter: 'Any fixing of the mind on old evils beyond what is absolutely necessary for repenting of our own sins and forgiving those of others is...usually bad for us.'
1965
Death in London, England, of Eleanor Farjeon. She authored the popular hymn "Morning Has Broken."
1967
The Arab-Israeli Six-Day War began, during which Israel took control of the Sinai Desert, the city of Jerusalem and the west bank of the Jordan River. A cease-fire arranged by the U.N. ended the conflict on June 10th.
1995
Steve Saint and some of his family head for the Ecuador jungle with plans to train the Waodani Indians to handle their own lives in the modern world.
Copyright Statement
© 1987-2020, William D. Blake. Portions used by permission of the author, from "Almanac of the Christian Church"
© 1987-2020, William D. Blake. Portions used by permission of the author, from "Almanac of the Christian Church"
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