Historical Writings

Death of Jan Van Ruysbroek, "the Ecstatic Doctor," so called because of his mysticism. He had written The Spiritual Espousals (1350), a commentary on Matthew 25:6: "Behold, the bridegroom comes," which will influence later Christian leaders such as John Tauler and Gerard Groote.

Dedication of St. Paul's Cathedral in London, designed by Christopher Wren. It replaces a medieval cathedral that had burned in the Great Fire of 1666. The Right Reverend Henry Compton, Bishop of London, preaches the dedication sermon based on Psalm 122: "I was glad when they said unto me: Let us go into the house of the Lord."

A Consistory of the Dutch Reformed Church writes with frustration from Colombo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), complaining that Roman Catholicism has greatly increased, despite severe penalties meted out by Dutch governors.

The Touro Synagogue opened in Newport, RI. Sephardic Jews in Jamaica, Surinam, London and Amsterdam sponsored the building of this first major center of Jewish culture in America.

Birth of Francis N. Peloubet, American Congregational clergyman. A promoter of the Sunday School, he penned 44 annual volumes of "Select Notes on the International Sunday School Lessons" between 1875 and his death in 1920. They were known afterward as "Peloubet's Notes."

The Reformed Episcopal Church was organized in New York City when 8 clergymen and 20 laymen broke from the Protestant Episcopal Church over a debate regarding proper church ritual.

The first of Paulo Mwamribwa's pupils are baptized in Digoland, Tanzania (formerly Tanganyika). He had founded the first indigenous Protestant mission school in the Gombero area.

The Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America was founded in Philadelphia. (In 1950 this ecumenical organization was replaced by the National Council of Churches.)

Death in Richmond, Virginia, of Bishop Channing Moore Williams, who had served as an Episcopal missionary in the Far East, founding a divinity school in Japan.

The Suwa Maru docks at Kobe carrying missionary Irene "Sensei" Webster-Smith, who will later rescue Geisha children and convert Japanese war criminals.

Rev. E.V. Steele founded the European Christian Orphanage and Mission Society in Alberta, Canada. Its name was changed in 1953 to World Missions Fellowship and has been headquartered since 1961 in Grants Pass. OR.

Death of Father Alexis Kabaliuk, Apostle of Carpatho-Russia, who had played a major role in reviving the Orthodox Church in Transcarpathia (a region on the western edge of the Ukraine) in the early twentieth century despite persecution by Austrian-Hungarian authorities.

Romania's Official Gazette #281 publishes a decree transferring Uniate church property to the Romanian State without compensation.

Death of Sir James Norman Dalrymple Anderson, a legal scholar and missionary to Islamic regions.