March 04
1303: Passing away of Daniel (Daniiel Aleksandrovich), Grand Prince of Moscow and the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky. He was a peaceful and intelligent ruler, who through wise alliances and a timely defeat of the Tatars, could raise Moscow to pre-eminence. He is said to have founded two monasteries and became a monk himself shortly before his death. He was declared a saint in the Russian Orthodox Church.
1621: Demise of Ana de Jesús, a discalced (shoeless) carmelite, who had been a close associate of Teresa of Avila and who also founded several branches of the Carmelites. She was declared “Venerable” soon.
1738: Peter Bohler, a Moravian missionary, advised John Wesley, who later became the founder of Methodism in England, “Preach faith until you have it; and then, because you have it, you will preach faith.”
1804: The founding of the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS) at a large interdenominational meeting in London, “to promote the circulation of the Holy Scriptures, without note or comment, both at home and in foreign lands.”
1805: Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd President of the US, requests in his second inaugural address for prayer and recalls divine blessings.
1827: Death of Sheikh Salih from India a notable Indian Christian, who at his baptism took the name Abdul Masih, meaning “servant of the Messiah.”
1849: Zachary Taylor, the newly-elected president of the United States, declines the inauguration on Sunday, since it is the Lord’s day and gets the ceremony postponed to the next day.
1850: Baptism of James A. Garfield at age 18, who later took the oath of office as 20th President of the United States.
1890: Demise of Franz Delitzsch, German Lutheran Old Testament scholar and theologian, a Christian Hebraist. He will be remembered for his contribution to biblical scholarship through an Old Testament commentary he published in collaboration with J. F. K. Keil.
1906: William Seymour preaches in a Los Angeles church that tongues is the Bible stand as proof for baptism in the Holy Spirit and is padlocked for the same. He decides to continue his ministry privately, leading to the start of the revival at Azusa Street.
1963: Gaspar Makil, a Filipino missionary to Vietnam, his young daughter Janie Makil and Elwood Jacobson, a missionary from the United States, are murdered by the Vietcong, the guerrilla force.
1966: The Evening Standard newspaper published an interview with Beatle John Lennon in which he claimed, “Christianity will… vanish and shrink… We’re more popular than Jesus Christ right now.” This caused a furor and international protests, resulting in burnings and boycotts of the Beatles’ records.
2011: Thousands of Muslims come together and burn down the Coptic church of Saint Mina and Saint George in Soul, Egypt, about nineteen miles from Cairo. Authorities refuse to send assistance but they later nonetheless rebuilt.
Edited by: T. Chempilayil MCBS
Courtesy: www.studylight.org