Today in Christian History
Today is Monday, January 10th, the 10th day of 2019. There are 355 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
236: Fabian, a farmer visiting Rome, is elected pope (tradition says after a dove descends on him). He will serve until 250, when he will become one of the first martyrs under Decius, an emperor hostile to the Christian faith.
1514: Funded by Cardinal Francesco Jiminez de Cisneros, a New Testament polyglot translation is completed, combining Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and Aramaic texts.
1604: Death of Juliana of Lazarevo (or Juliana of Murom), considered a saint by the Orthodox Church because as a layperson in Russia she lived a righteous life, helping the poor and needy, amidst her care for her children and others.
1645: Archbishop of Canterbury William Laud is beheaded under a bill of attainder from Parliament. He had been very cruel to Puritans and other dissenters.
1858: Frances Havergal, visiting Germany, writes her first popular hymn, “I Gave my Life for Thee” after seeing a painting of the suffering Christ titled Ecce Homo (“Behold the Man”). Thinking the verses of little worth she throws the paper onto a fire but it falls off. When her father sees the words he composes a tune for them.
1836: Death in New York City of Lyman Beecher, famed anti-Unitarian preacher. In addition to pastoral roles in Connecticut and Massachusetts, he had served as president of Lane Theological Seminary in Ohio.
1883: Death of Elling Eielsen, a lay preacher in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and the United States. He had migrated to America in 1839 and won many Norwegian emigrants to Christ, traveling the frontier with the gospel message, an axe, compass, coffee pot, and rain gear. At Fox River, Illinois, he organized America’s first Norwegian Lutheran congregation—The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
1960: A car filled with seven Christian workers plunges into deep water in the Black Umbluzi River but Pastor Phineas Dlamini and the other six escape, some with injuries. Dlamini was a leading pastor in the Church of the Nazarene in Swaziland.