APRIL 15
Lelia Naylor Was Born to Write and Sing Hymns (1862)
“My soul longed for more spirituality and it was my burden that I could do no more for God. O, my barrenness in my daily affliction and heavy load O, h...”
Edwards, Jonathan, Memoirs of the Rev. David Brainerd; Missionary to the Indians….New Haven: S. Converse, 1822. p 295
Expect Much (1885)
Expect great things from God, and also expect the least things, for the great test of faith is shown about the least mat...
Events
297
The seven martyrs of Samos are incarcerated for refusing to offer pagan sacrifices and will remain imprisoned until late in June when they will be brought before the Emperor Maximian, reduced to little more than skeletons. Finally they will be crucified.
Authority for the date: Butler, Alban. Lives of the Saints.428
[probable date] Nestorius observes his first Easter as patriarch of Constantinople. His Christology will soon get him in trouble with Empress Pulcheria.
Authority for the date: Christian Women in the Patristic World.1237
Death of Richard Poore, bishop of Salisbury. He had been an opponent of pluralities (holding more than one church office at a time), and deeply concerned with the care and teaching of children, developing a system under which some children were taught to teach others basic doctrine and prayer. He had his clergy remind families every Sunday that small children should not be left unattended in a house where there was fire or water to endanger them. At Salisbury, he endowed some schoolmasters with benefices to teach boys. He is most often remembered, however, for his role in erecting Salisbury Cathedral.
Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.1531
Deadline given the Protestants by Emperor Charles V to accept his religious terms, eliciting Melanchthon’s Apology in response and causing the Lutherans to organize a defense league.
Authority for the date: Schaff, Philip. History of the Christian Church.1552
King Edward VI of England grants royal assent to a new version of The Book of Common Prayer, the second of his reign.
Authority for the date: Benton, J.H. The Book of Common Prayer: Its Origin and Growth. Boston, 1910.1597
John Gerard, Jesuit, is tortured in the Tower of London for refusing to betray fellow Catholics. He later escapes.
Authority for the date: Carey, John. Eyewitness to History. William Morrow, 1997.1610
Death in Rome of Robert Parsons, formerly a leader of the English Jesuits and author of the spiritual treatise The Christian Directory.
Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.1632
Burial of George Calvert at St. Dunstan’s Church, England. He obtained the charter for the colony of Maryland, intending to make it a home for Roman Catholic refugees from England.
Authority for the date: Marck, John T. “George and Cecil Calvert, First and Second Lord Baltimore.”1767
Death of Elder Basil of Poiana Marului. He renovated the Skete there (a skete is a settlement of Eastern Orthodox monks dependent on a parent monastery) and gained renown for his austerities, focus on Scripture, and insistence on true repentance.
Authority for the date: https://oca.org/1777
Death in Surinam of pioneering Moravian missionary Rudolf Stoll, aka “the Holy Rudolf.”
Authority for the date: Beach, Harlan P., et al. Protestant Missions1791
Death in London of John Marrant, an African-American Methodist minister and missionary who had written three books about his experiences as a preacher with the Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion.
Authority for the date: Dictionary of Canadian Biography.1817
In Hartford, Connecticut, American clergyman Thomas H. Gallaudet and deaf Frenchman Laurent Clerc open the first American school for the deaf —the American Asylum.
Authority for the date: Wikipedia.1872
Canadians hold a day of thanksgiving in gratitude for the recovery of Prince Edward (future King Edward VII) from a serious illness.
Authority for the date: www.thanksgiving-traditions.com1879
Friedrich Kiel’s oratorio Christus is given by the Oratorio Society, New York City. Keil wrote in a Romantic style.
Authority for the date: Lahee, Henry Charles. Annals of Music in America. Boston: Marshall Jones Co., 1922.1889
Death of Joseph Damien, a Belgian missionary to lepers on Molokai, Hawaii. This Roman Catholic priest, who had transformed living conditions for the victims of leprosy, dies with the disease.
Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.1919
Japanese soldiers lure twenty-five Christians into church in the village of Cheamri, Korea, where they shoot at them and burn the church over their heads.
Authority for the date: A History of Christianity in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, 1450–1990, edited by Klaus Koschorke, Frueder Ludwig,1940
Death at Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England, of Alda Marguerite Milner-Barry, author of the hymn “Sing the Joy of Easter Day.” She had lectured on English in British colleges and universities.
Authority for the date: Cyberhymnal.1950
Thirty-six leading members of religious orders in Hungary send a protest letter to the Hungarian government for abuses done to their orders by the government.
Authority for the date: Hutten. Iron Curtain Christians.1957
Baba Ezra Dikki is posted to Majinga among the Kambari people of Niger State, Nigeria. He worked among this group for twenty-four years, extending the Christian church. A student commented that Dikki’s heart was always broken by the things that break the heart of Jesus.
Authority for the date: Dictionary of African Christian Biography.1958
Baptism at Wheaton College of Dayuma, the Waodani (Auca) woman whose conversion helped win her tribe to Christ.
Authority for the date: Moody Monthly.1970
Death of Wang Liming in a communist labor camp in China, where she had been imprisoned on spurious evidence. When taken from her family she had declared, “I am carrying the cross of Jesus Christ.” Wang had been head of the Chinese branch of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and active in much Christian work and in women’s causes.
Authority for the date: Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity.1983
Death of Corrie ten Boom on her ninety-first birthday (born this day in 1892). She had spent time in a concentration camp for sheltering Jews from Nazis and became an international speaker after World War II.
Authority for the date: Wikipedia2011
Lao People’s Army members, assisted by Vietnamese troops, rape and kill four Christian women of the Hmong tribe, forcing their families to watch. When large numbers of Christians march in peaceful protest a few days later because of this atrocity, dozens will be killed, hundreds wounded, and many arrested.
Authority for the date: Persecuted: the global assault on Christians.2019
The centuries-old Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris burns for hours and the main structure is severely damaged.
Authority for the date: Fox News.