FEBRUARY 23
Bishop Polycarp Followed Christ Into the Fire (155)
“My ever dear and honored Father, You will doubtless before this reaches you, have heard, how it has pleased our heavenly Father to afflict and disappo...”
Bond, Alvan. Memoir of the Rev. Pliny Fisk, A.M. Boston: Crocker and Brewster; New York: Jonathan Leavitt, 1828.
Meditation on the Transfiguration (1862)
First Point.— Go up in spirit to Mount Thabor in the company of Christ and of His beloved disciples, and contemplate wha...
Events
1680
Death of Thomas Goodwin (probably in London), a notable English Congregational Nonconformist preacher. He had been a member of the Westminster Assembly of 1650, and author of many biblical and theological works. His last words were: “Ah, is this dying? How I have dreaded as an enemy this smiling friend.”
Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.1719
Death in Tranquebar, India, of thirty-six-year-old Bartholomew Ziegenbalg, missionary to India, who has established a seminary, translated the New Testament into Tamil, converted and baptized over two hundred Indians, and constructed a church building. At one point he had been imprisoned by the Dutch who feared his preaching would antagonize the Hindus they administered.
Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.1758
Jonathan Edwards receives a smallpox vaccination from which he contracts the disease. He will die in March.
Authority for the date: Holmes, Stephen R. “A Mind on Fire.” Christian History 77 (2003).1819
A new church at Friedensthal on St. Croix Island is consecrated to the worship of the living God by Moravians and their converts. The congregation is so numerous not a third part can get inside the doors.
Authority for the date: John O. Choules and Thomas Smith, The Origin1846
Following the outrage raised by his publication of “Remarks on Certain Passages in the Thirty-Nine Articles,” in which he has tried to reconcile Church of England teaching with Roman positions, and his migration to the Roman Catholic church, John Henry Newman leaves Oxford for good.
Authority for the date: Newman, John Henry. Apologia Pro Vita Sua.1855
John Bright, a Quaker-born Christian parliamentarian in England, makes an eloquent speech against the Crimean War. Its most famous line is, the “Angel of Death has Been Abroad.”
Authority for the date: Encyclopedia Americana.1918
The body of the Orthodox priest George Porgachevsky is found about a mile and a quarter from the village of Ivanovskoye, Amur region. His head is crushed and he has two bayonet wounds in his stomach. The Soviets had arrested him thirteen days earlier.
Authority for the date: Moss, Vladimir. Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of the Urals, Siberia and Central Asia.1925
Death in Alexandria, Virginia, of Kate Waller Barrett, an American physician, who, as a single mother and member of the Episcopal Church, co-founded the National Florence Crittenton Mission financed by wealthy Charles Nelson Crittenton. She had secured for the mission the first-ever federal charter for a charitable organization.
Authority for the date: http://www.socialwelfarehistory.com/people/barrett-kate-waller/1927
The Cristeros (Catholics and peasants who reject actions and laws of Mexico’s anti-Catholic federal government) defeat federal troops at San Francisco del Rincón, Guanajuato, Mexico. After one more victory they will be defeated and scattered, turning to guerrilla operations until peace is brokered by the United States in 1929.
Authority for the date: Wikipedia1929
Lindel Tsen is consecrated as Assistant Bishop of Honan, the first Chinese bishop in an established Anglican diocese. He will become the principal leader of Chinese Anglicanism in the mid-20th century and suffer persecution at the hands of the government.
Authority for the date: Wikipedia.1934
Death in Baltimore, Maryland, of Peter Ainslie, a Disciples of Christ minister, ecumenical leader, and author of The Scandal of Christianity, a sharp rebuke of divisions among Christians.
Authority for the date: Hall, Timothy L. “Ainslie, Peter.” American Religious Leaders, American Biographies. New York: Facts On1951
Death of Zhang Boling (Chang Po-ling), a prominent Chinese Protestant layman and educator. He had been affiliated with the YMCA, founded Nankai University, accepted women for education, and promoted athletic activities. Because of the school’s patriotism the Japanese had bombed and burned it and succeeding political changes made him unwelcome.
Authority for the date: Zhiyue Bo. China’s Elite Politics: Governance and Democratization.