Anglican clergyman and hymn writer John Newton marries Mary Catlett. Their marriage lasts forty years, until Mary’s death in 1790. John Newton, author of the hymn “Amazing Grace”, died in 1807.
From This Day in Christian History, published by Barbour Publishing, Inc. Used by permission.
American missionary Jim Elliot concludes in his journal, “One does not surrender a life in an instant – that which is lifelong can only be surrendered in a lifetime”.
From This Day in Christian History, published by Barbour Publishing, Inc. Used by permission.
Parish priest Menno Simons leaves the Catholic Church over his doubts about transubstantiation. He converts to the Anabaptist faith and leads a group of followers who eventually come to be call Mennonites.
From This Day in Christian History, published by Barbour Publishing, Inc. Used by permission.
1972 – The historic separation of white and black Methodist conferences in South Carolina ends when the two bodies meet together for the first time and vote to accept a plan of union.
1499 – Birth of Katherine von Bora, the former German nun who married Martin Luther. Born into a noble family, Katherine became a Cistercian nun in 1515 but ran away from the convent in 1523 and married Luther in 1525.
From This Day in Christian History, published by Barbour Publishing, Inc. Used by permission.
Pelagius, a British monk whose teachings are declared heretical, is excommunicated by Pope Innocent I. Pelagius’s doctine denies original sin and teaches that one could become righteous by the exercise of free will.
From This Day in Christian History, published by Barbour Publishing, Inc. Used by permission
1776 – The Reverend Louis Eustace Lotbinière becomes the first chaplin of the American Continental Army when he is appointed to the regiment of Colonel James Livingston by General Benedict Arnold.
1905 – Birth of Maria Augusta con Trapp, Austrian-American musician, who fled Nazi-occupied Austria in the 1930s and formed the workds-famous Trapp Family Singers. Her story is the subject of the award-winning 1965 film The Sound of Music.
From This Day in Christian History, published by Barbour Publishing, Inc. Used by permission.
Death of Peter Marshall, Scottish-born American Presbyterian minister. He pastored New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington DC (1937-49) and served as U.S. Senate chaplin (1947-49).
From This Day in Christian History, published by Barbour Publishing, Inc. Used by permission.
Birth of John Donne, renowned English metaphysical poet and dean of St. Paul’s Church, London (1621-24). Donne is known for such memorable lines as “Death be not proud”; “No man is an island”; and “Send not to know for whom the bell tolls. It rolls for thee”.
From This Day in Christian History, published by Barbour Publishing, Inc. Used by permission.
At a secret (and illegal) gathering of six men in Zurich, Switzerland, Conrad Grebel (a former protégé of Ulrich Zwingli) rebaptizes George Blaurock, a former monk. This meeting is considered the birth of the German Anabaptist movement.
From This Day in Christian History, published by Barbour Publishing, Inc. Used by permission.
The Heidelberg Catechism is published in the palatinate in southwest Germany where the holy Roman emperor resides. Composed b Peter Ursinus and Caspar Olevianus, the catechism comprises a statement of Calvinist tradition designed to unify conflicting Protestant ideologies. Accepted by nearly all of the Reformed churches in Europe, it is still in use in some Dutch and German Reformed churches.
From This Day in Christian History, published by Barbour Publishing, Inc. Used by permission.
