Lectionary Calendar
Sunday, May 11th, 2025
the Fourth Sunday after Easter
the Fourth Sunday after Easter
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Historical Writings
Today in Christian History
Sunday, December 5
532
Death of St. Sabas, a hermit who had become the leader of an early monastic movement and traveled widely preaching against heresy. He founded a monastery in Palestine, Mar Saba, that will still be standing in the twenty-first century.
1484
Innocent VIII issued his famous "Witch Bull," ordering an inquisition to systematically discover, torture and execute witches throughout Europe. It led to the ease with which witchcraft was charged and punished, even in the American colonies two centuries later.
1525
Anabaptist leader Hans Schlaffer is arrested by persecutors in Austria. Refusing to recant his opposition to infant baptism, he will subsequently be burned alive.
1784
Death of Phillis Wheatley, the first published African American poet and a Christian. She had written brilliantly in English as a second language.
1804
Missionary Wilhelm Tobias Ringeltaube lands at Tranquebar, India, serving under the auspices of the London Missionary Society, and will labor there and at Travencore with much success until 1816, when he will move on to Ceylon.
1837
The first public performance of Hector Berlioz's Requiem takes place in a church in Paris in honor of General Damremont and other soldiers who had died during a siege in Algeria.
1848
Death of Joseph Mohr, 56, Austrian Roman Catholic vicar and author in 1818 of the enduring Christmas hymn, "Stille Nacht" ("Silent Night").
1903
James C. Sheafe, African American pastor, organizes a new congregation of 51 members, mostly African American, into the People's SDA [Seventh-day Adventist] Church, in Washington, DC.
1907
Death of Priscilla Jane Owens, who had been an American Methodist school teacher and author of several popular hymns, including "Jesus Saves" and "We Have an Anchor."
1943
German theologian and Nazi martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in a letter: 'It is only when one loves life and the earth so much that without them everything seems to be over that one may believe in the resurrection and a new world.'
1951
American missionary martyr Jim Elliot wrote in his journal: 'How sadly and how slowly I am learning that loud preaching and long preaching are not substitutes for inspired preaching.'
1988
Televangelist Jim Bakker was charged by a federal grand jury with mail fraud and conspiracy to defraud the public through the sale of thousands of lifetime memberships to PTL theme park, Heritage U.S.A. (Bakker was convicted the following year and sentenced to prison.)