February 15
670: Death of King Oswy of Northumbria, under whose rule much of the middle of England converted to Christianity and whose troops were triumphant against huge pagan forces. At the same time, Oswy was guilty for the treacherous murder of his main rival Oswin, who had raised forces to dethrone him.
1386: Baptism of King Jagiello of Lithuania into the Christian faith. Lithuania being the last pagan country in Europe, Jagiello’s conversion helped to fulfill the Macedonian Vision in Acts 16:9, which led St. Paul to begin taking the Gospel to Europe.
1621: Death of Michael Praetorius in Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, a well known German composer. He composed many popular and beautiful pieces of Christian music, such as “In Dulci Jubilo.”
1739: Five slaves on St. Thomas Island, write a letter to the king of Denmark on behalf of 650 persecuted Christian brothers and sisters. In the letter they elucidated the violence they had experienced at the hands of the white owners, who even burned their books and demeaned them saying “baptized black is no more than kindling wood for the fires of hell.”
1762: Anglican hymn-writer John Newton confessed in a letter: ‘We serve a gracious Master who knows how to overrule even our mistakes to His glory and our own advantage.’
1905: Death of Lew Wallace, author of Ben Hur, at Crawfordsville, Indiana,. The novel had been conceived during a train journey while arguing with famous agnostic Robert Ingersoll about Christ’s divinity. The novel became one of the best-selling religious books of the 1800s, selling out more than 300,000 copies in a decade.
1960: Repose of St. Anthimus of Chios. After years of ascetic life and service to others, he had founded the Monastery of Panagia Voithia on the Island of Chios to shelter nuns and women displaced during an exchange of populations (1922-1924) between Turkey and Greece.
1986: Living Bibles International, founded in 1968 by Ken Taylor, moves to its present headquarters in Naperville, IL. LBI is an interdenominational agency for distributing Bible, active in 45 countries.
1994: The final troop of soldiers leave Tavane Mission, a Nazarene work in Mozambique, leaving it in ruins. Nazarenes, a Jewish-Christian group, is known for the strict observance of Jewish laws and customs. They had suffered much persecution during the revolution and the missionaries expelled from the land. Benjamin Langa, who still remained in Mozambique and took care of Tavane Mission, had to preach even with guns pointed at him.
Edited by:Â T. Chempilayil MCBS
Courtesy: www.studylight.org