Lectionary Calendar
Monday, June 5th, 2023
the Week of Proper 4 / Ordinary 9
the Week of Proper 4 / Ordinary 9
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Historical Writings
Today in Christian History
Monday, December 29
1170
Archbishop Thomas à Becket is murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights of King Henry II. Authority for the date: Thurston, Herbert. "St. Thomas Becket." The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1
1223
Pope Honorius III formally approved the Franciscan religious order. Properly called the Order of the Friars Minor, this Catholic order was founded in 1209 by St. Francis of Assisi.
1563
Death of Sebastian Castellio at Basle, Switzerland. He will be remembered for his book Concerning Heretics, calling for religious tolerance. Authority for the date: Zweig, Stefan. The Right to Heresy or, How J
1824
Death of Basiliscus, a founder of monasticism in Siberia. Authority for the date: Russian Wikipedia.
1841
Howard College was chartered in Marion, Alabama, under Baptist sponsorship. The campus relocated to Birmingham in 1887.
1849
The Christmas hymn by Edmund Sears, "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear," was first published in "The Christian Register." Sears' carol features the American emphasis in Christian living, that is, the social message of "peace on earth, good will toward men."
1876
Popular American hymnwriter Philip P. Bliss, 38, died when the train in which he and his wife were riding plunged off a bridge into a ravine 60 feet below. Bliss had penned such enduring hymns as: "Wonderful Words of Life, "Let the Lower Lights Be Burning," "I Will Sing of My Redeemer" and "I Gave My Life for Thee."
1899
Sidney Brooks becomes the first victim of the Boxer Rebellion. Assaulted near Tai’an, China, he is beaten and pricked with knives, led about with a rope through his nose, forced to stand in his underwear in freezing conditions, and finally beheaded after he manages to flee to a nearby ravine. The following year, tens of thousands of Chinese Christians and foreign missionaries will perish in massacres by the Boxers. Authority for the date: Paul Hattaway, China’s Christian Martyrs. p. 137
1903
Death in Vineland, New Jersey, of Thomas B. Welch. A fervent Methodist, he had entered the ministry at nineteen but left because of problems with his voice. He had then become a physician and a dentist who sold alloys on the side until that became his main business. A temperance man, he had promised a recovering alcoholic that he would find a way to make a non-alcoholic communion drink. He did so but didn’t succeed in marketing the product. His son Charles will be more successful with Welch’s grape juice. Authority for the date: Chazanof, William. Welch’s Grape Juice; From Corporation to Co-Operative. Syracuse, N.Y. : Syracuse University P
1932
Conversion of Allen Yuan, who will become a Chinese evangelist. Authority for the date: Personal letter.
1938
In Tambaram, South India, the second world meeting of the International Missionary Council closed at Madras Christian College (having opened Dec. 12th). It was afterward called the IMC's Tambaram Conference.
2000
Argentina declares the Anglican Cathedral of St. John the Baptist (said to be the oldest Protestant church building in South America) a National Historic and Artistic Monument. The declaration also establishes a Russian Orthodox church and a Jewish synagogue as historic and artistic monuments. Authority for the date: http://servicios.infoleg.gob.
Copyright Statement
© 1987-2020, William D. Blake. Portions used by permission of the author, from "Almanac of the Christian Church"
© 1987-2020, William D. Blake. Portions used by permission of the author, from "Almanac of the Christian Church"
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