Historical Writings

Raymond Lull sails to evangelize Islamic countries.

William Penn is arrested for preaching in the streets. The jurors will refuse to convict him, although a judge will imprison, starve, and abuse them. As a consequence, Penn's case will set a precedent that Englishmen may not be coerced to return a desired verdict, and rights of religious expression will be extended.

English revivalist George Whitefield wrote in a letter: 'Our extremity is God's opportunity.'

Death of Benjamin Abbott, American revivalist.

Birth of Samuel S. Wesley, grandson of Methodist hymnwriter Charles Wesley. Himself a sacred composer, Samuel Wesley penned over 130 original hymn tunes. The best remembered of these today is AURELIA, to which is sung "The Church's One Foundation."

During the American Revolution, American patriot Francis Scott Key (1779-1843) was held overnight as a British prisoner during their shelling of Fort McHenry in Baltimore. In the morning, Key penned what later became our national anthem "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Death of English devotional writer Sarah Flower Adams, 43. In 1845 she published The Flock at the Fountain, a catechism containing hymns for children. One of those hymns remains popular to this day: "Nearer, My God, To Thee."

Clara Maass, a Lutheran nurse, allows herself to be bitten by a mosquito to test a theory about Yellow Fever. She will contract the disease and die ten days later.

Peter Ignatyevich Podkorytov (later known as Hierodeacon Micah) is accepted as a monk in the Belogorsk monastery. Thirteen years later the Red Army will arrest him at Iveron monastery and shoot him in Perm.

Martyrdom of Maximilian Kolbe who volunteered to die in place of a stranger in the German concentration camp at Auschwitz, Poland.

German Lutheran theologian and Nazi martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in a letter from prison: 'God does not give us everything we want, but He does fulfill all His promises ... leading us along the best and straightest paths to Himself.'

Death of Samuel Olaniran Fadeji, who had served as the fourth African head of the Nigerian Baptist Convention. He had been an outstanding educator, revival leader, pastor, and author.