prev FEBRUARY 12 next

Quote of the day

“I would as soon attempt to enslave Gabriel or Michael as to enslave a man made in the image of God, and for whom Christ died. Slavery is snatching man...”

Garnet, Henry Highland. “Discourse Delivered in the House of Representatives, 1865.” <http://www.lihistory.com/5/hspeech2.htm>

Devotional

God Is Forever Seeking Souls (1893)

I do not know how any man can stand and plead with his brethren for the higher life … unless he is perpetually co...

Events

1049

Bruno is enthroned as pope, taking the name Leo IX. Among his first acts will be countering threats from antipope Benedict IX. He will endeavor to improve the papal finances which are in woeful condition and correct the abuses of simony and sexual misconduct that are rife among churchmen.

Authority for the date: Mann, Horace. “Pope St. Leo IX.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton, 1910.

1220

Jordan of Saxony, who becomes an early leader of the Dominicans, is accepted into that order.

Authority for the date: “The Legend of Blessed Jordan of Saxony, Second Master General of the Order of Preachers.” Footnote.

1322

During the night of this, the eve of St. Ermenilda’s day, the central tower of Ely Cathedral collapses.

Authority for the date: Sweeting, W. D. Bell’s Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Ely.

1481

The first Auto da Fe (ie: Act of Faith, a public confession and implementation of sentences) is conducted by the Spanish Inquisition and takes place in Seville. Twelve men and women are burned alive, charged with relapsing into the practice of Judaism.

Authority for the date: www.jewishhistory.org.il/1480.htm

1554

Execution in London of Protestant claimant to the English throne Lady Jane Grey, whose family had used her as a pawn in efforts to overthrow Mary Tudor.

Authority for the date: Leben 2 (2005).

1593

An Orthodox synod meeting in the Church of Theotokos Paramythia in Constantinople endorses the decision of Ecumenical Patriarch Jeremias II to raise the Metropolitan of Moscow to Patriarchal rank. The Russian patriarch thus becomes the fifth ranking patriarch, after that of Jerusalem.

Authority for the date: http://www.patriarchate.org/patriarchate/former-patriarchs/jeremias-ii-1st-time.

1797

The Emperor’s Hymn (Austrian National Anthem) with music by Franz Joseph Haydn is first sung, on this, the birthday of Francis II, who has been Holy Roman Emperor for about five years. In future, the tune will often be used for the hymn “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken.”

Authority for the date: Vincent, Benjamin. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates. Putnam, 1911.

1834

Death in Berlin of heretical German theologian and philosopher Friedrich Schleiermacher. He defined religion as “feeling and intuition of the universe” and “a sense of the Infinite in the finite.”

Authority for the date: Britannica.

1891

Katharine Drexel of Pennsylvania, having given up a large inheritance, founds the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament to serve African American and Native American people who are oppressed by discrimination and dire poverty. She uses her fortune to fund the society's work and will found Xavier University in New Orleans.

Authority for the date: http://www.katharinedrexel.org/

1938

Death of Iosif Trifa, an Orthodox priest in Romania, who had founded the successful revival movement The Lord’s Army. The Orthodox Church will refuse him burial with priestly honors, a position it will later acknowledge as wrong.

Authority for the date: http://www.tezaur-oasteadomnului.ro/images/GOD_S_ARMY.pdf

1983

Araromi Baptist Church (in Nigeria) holds a retirement service for Stephen Abioye Adeoye, who had renounced the kingship of his region in order to preach the gospel.

Authority for the date: Dictionary of African Christian Biography.

Subscribe to daily emails

Containing today’s events, devotional, quote and stories