March 12
417: Passing away of Pope Innocent I, whose papacy was marked by notable events like, excommunication of Pelagius, defending Jerome, and negotiating with barbarians.
604: Demise of Pope Gregory the Great, who influenced the Catholic Church and the world in general through his Dialogues, his teachings, his revision of the Liturgy, the promulgation of Gregorian chant, and the evangelization of England.
1022: Death of Symeon the New Theologian after spending thirteen years in exile. He stressed the importance of experiencing the grace of God directly and made a description of his own mystical experience with the “Divine Light.” His teachings were condemned during his lifetime, but the later generations in the Eastern Orthodox Church declared him a saint and even honored him with the rare title “theologian.”
1607: Birth of Paul Gerhardt, German clergyman and hymn-writer, who in spite of the pain of  losing four of his five children in childhood, composed over 130 hymns (including “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded”), marking the transition in Lutheran hymnody from confessional and high-church hymns to hymns of devotional piety.)
1622: Gregory XV canonizes Ignatius of Loyola (founder of the Jesuit Order), Philip Neri (the Italian co-founder of a medical religious order), Teresa of Avila (the Spanish Carmelite nun), and Francis Xavier (the Jesuit “Apostle of Eastern Asia.”)
1710: Birth of Thomas A. Arne, considered one of the most outstanding English composers of the 18th century, who is best remembered for his tune ARLINGTON, to which the hymn “Am I a Soldier of the Cross?” is sung.
1734: Protestant refugees from the Catholic city of Salzburg arrive in Georgia where they founded the town of Ebenezer in five days.
1904: Raphael Hawaweeny is ordained the Eastern Orthodox bishop of Brooklyn, NY, thus becoming the first Russian Orthodox bishop to be ordained in America (under the Holy Synod of the Church of Russia!)
1908: J. Wilbur Chapman and Charles Alexander begin the city-wide evangelization of Philadelphia, dividing the city into forty-two blocks and sending an evangelist-musician team to each region. There were about 8,000 conversions in a short time.
1925: Death of Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen, who had claimed to be a Christian and so given a private Christian funeral.
1950: Pope Pius XII issues the encyclical Anni Sacri “for combating atheistic propaganda throughout the world.”
2000: Pope John Paul II prays for God’s forgiveness for the sins of the Roman Catholics through the ages, including the wrongs inflicted on Jews, women, and minorities.
Edited by:Â T. Chempilayil MCBS
Courtesy:Â www.studylight.org