Historical Writings

Procopius of Sycthopolis is martyred as the first of the Palestine victims in the Diocletian persecutions.

[or 787] Death of St. Willibald, a pupil of St. Boniface.

Dedication of a golden shrine to display the effigy of Thomas à Becket. It had been created by famed goldsmith Walter of Colchester.

The Pragmatic Sanctions of Bourges, issued by King Charles VII of France, asserts Gallican liberties against the papacy.

The Zurich council summons Conrad Grebel and three of his friends and forbids them to speak out against monks during their sermons.

Birth of Thomas Hooker, colonial American pastor and an originator of the earliest system of federal government in America.

John Berridge is admitted to the vicarage of Everton, an obscure village on the edge of Bedfordshire, England. He will retain the position for the rest of his life, even after he becomes a famous evangelist.

The cornerstone is laid for the United States' first Catholic cathedral, the Cathedral of the Assumption (now called the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary) in Baltimore, Maryland. The design is by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, architect of the United States Capitol. Archbishop John Carroll is behind the project but will not live to see its completion.

Walter Scott arrives in New York from Scotland, and soon will become a leader and educator in the growing Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement.

Birth of Charles A. Tindley, African-American Methodist preacher and songwriter. His most enduring gospel hymns include 'Stand By Me,' 'Nothing Between,' 'Leave It There' and 'By and By.'

Archbishop Hughes of New York approves the rules drawn up by Isaac Hecker and his companions for the Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle (the Paulists) to convert Americans to Roman Catholicism.

Episcopalian bishop William Jones Boone the elder consecrates Samuel Schereschewsky with deacon's orders in St. George's Church, New York. Schereschewsky will become a notable missionary to China and a bishop.

Lottie Moon is appointed to China by the Foreign Mission Board, Southern Baptist Convention.

Francis J. Grimké is ordained a Presbyterian minister. He will emphasize honesty, hard work, thrift, and eternal values. "It is only what is written upon the soul of man that will survive the wreck of time," he declares. He will also join in organizing the American Negro Academy in 1897.

The Gospel Missionary Union becomes the first “faith mission” to enter Ecuador in the persons of J. A. Strain, F. W. Farnol, and George Fisher.

Death of Anna Louisa Walker Coghill at Bath, England. She had authored many poems and the popular hymn "Work, for the Night Is Coming."

Death in Alexandria, Egypt, of Orthodox patriarch Meletius Metaxakis, a zealous reformer who had also taken steps to create a Greek Archdiocese in North America. He was the only man successively to lead three autocephalous (independent) Orthodox Churches. He had also sought to bridge the gap between Orthodoxy and the Anglican Church.

Death of George Washington Truett, who had pastored the largest Baptist church in the world - the First Baptist Church of Dallas.

Italian-American educator, Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850-1917) became the first American citizen to be made a saint in the Catholic Church. She arrived in the U.S. in 1889, and was naturalized in 1909.

Six churches met to form the Southern Baptist Association of Colorado, the first organization of this denomination in the state.

English apologist C.S. Lewis wrote in a letter: 'I "believed" theoretically in the divine forgiveness for years before it really came home to me. It is a wonderful thing when it does.'