Historical Writings

According to tradition St. Sixtus II, the Bishop of Rome, is seized while holding an illegal service in a cemetery and is executed sitting in his own chair. The emperor Valerian's soldiers kill several deacons that same day.

After an eight-day seige, Saladin captures Beirut from the Crusaders.

Death of Dominic, founder of the Dominican order. His love of people was so genuine, he once offered himself as a slave to a Moor in exchange for the son of a widow.

Birth of Francois Fanelon, French priest and scholar. His 1697 writing, "Christian Perfection," provided a reasoned defense of mystical spirituality, though it afterward brought him into disfavor with the pope.

French Ursuline nuns first arrived at New Orleans, where they set up the first Catholic charitable institution in America. It comprised an orphanage, a girl's school and a hospital.

English religious leader Ann Lee (1736-1784) and a small band of followers first arrived in America. Her sect called itself the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Coming, but to the rest of the world her followers came to be known as the "Shakers."

The Great Religious Revival of the American West began at a Presbyterian camp meeting in Cane Ridge, Kentucky.

Birth of Edward H. Plumptre, Anglican theologian. He served on the Old Testament committee for the 1881 English Revised Version of the Bible. Today, he is better remembered as author of the hymn, "Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart."

Death of John Mason Neale, hymnologist and hymnwriter. Two of his best known hymns are the Christmas carols "Good Christian Men, Rejoice" and "Good King Wenceslaus."

Death of James Springer White, an early leader of the Seventh-day Adventists, three times president of their General Conference, and an evangelist and editor for the movement.

An extensive service is held in Atlanta's West Mitchell Street Colored Methodist Episcopal Church for the burial of Bishop L. H. Holsey who had been a great builder and orator in the denomination.

The Orthodox priest Tikhon Fyodorovich Yeroshkin, serving in the Bulayev region of Kazakhstan, is sentenced to death by the Communists and will subsequently be shot.

The Papacy condemns parts of Liberation Theology.