FEBRUARY 21
Olympian Eric Liddell Ran a Life-long Race for Christ (1945)
“If, then, we believe Christianity to be truer and purer in itself than Islam, and than any other religion, we must needs wish others to be partakers o...”
Ellinwood, Frank F. Oriental Religions and Christianity. New York, 1891.
A Saint May Grow Proud of Grace (1865)
This is another way Satan assaults the Christian. It is true, grace cannot be proud, yet it is possible a saint may be p...
Events
1076
Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV sends a sneering letter to Hildebrand (Pope Gregory VII) who is in council. The bishops scream for the messenger’s death but Hildebrand shields the man with his own body.
Authority for the date: Durant, Will and Ariel. The Age of Faith. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1950.1431
Pierre Cauchon, bishop of Beauvais, begins his interrogation of Joan of Arc. She will eventually be condemned as a heretic and burned at the stake.
Authority for the date: Durant, Will and Ariel. The Reformation. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1957.1595
Robert Southwell is hanged, drawn, and quartered. A Jesuit, he had lived secretly in London, providing priestly services for several years during the reign of Elizabeth I. After his capture he had undergone thirteen tortures.
Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.1831
Death in Bristol of the Baptist preacher Robert Hall. The depth of his ideas had been such that he is said to have held large audiences spellbound despite a weak voice. His mental breakdowns had occasionally resulted in stays in asylums.
Authority for the date: http://baptisthistoryhomepage.com/1869
Queen Ranavalona II of Madagascar and her court convert to Christianity and are baptized.
Authority for the date: Matthews, T.T. Thirty Years in Madagascar. London: Religious Tract Society, 1904.1896
Walter Grand Taylor converts to Christianity in a hotel room. The conversion is brought on by his realization that his young wife, a Christian, who has just died, is already in heaven, while he is doomed. Twenty years later he will become head of the Pacific Garden Mission.
Authority for the date: Henry, Carl F. The Pacific Garden Mission. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1942.1953
Death of Ekvtime Takaishvili, a Georgian Orthodox historian and archaeologist who recovered lost information on the history of Georgia, founded a democratic party in his country and suffered in exile under the Soviets, while preserving a large and valuable collection of artifacts relating to Georgian history. The Georgian Orthodox Church will declare him a saint.
Authority for the date: Wikipedia.1954
Appointment of Bonaventure Dlamini, of the Franciscan Familiars of St. Joseph, as South Africa’s first black Catholic bishop.
Authority for the date: Dictionary of African Christian Biography.2009
The Vatican announces that Father Damien, famed for his work with lepers on Hawaii, will be canonized.
Authority for the date: www.catholic.net.