August 7
44: Herod Agrippa in Caesarea, the persecutor of the Apostles who also had executed Apostle James, passes away.
117: Demise of Marcus Trajan, Roman emperor from A.D. 98-117, at the age of 65. He had tolerated Christianity at the beginning, but gradually changed his attitude and started persecuting them. Apostolic Father Ignatius of Antioch was martyred during Trajan’s reign.
768: Stephen IV from Sicilia, is consecrated pope. He was a close friend of Pepin, the Frankish king, who granted him the first of the papal estates.
1409: The Council of Pisa comes to a close. Determined to end the Great Schism (1378-1417) caused by the existence of two rival popes, the Council elected a third pope, Alexander V, who was later regarded as another anti-pope).
1560: The famous Scots Confession is ratified by the Scottish Parliament, marking the triumph of the Reformation movement in Scotland, under the leadership of John Knox. The Scots Confession was replaced by the Westminster Confession in 1647.
1737: Twenty-year-old Benjamin starts his training in  pastorate, after he was moved by the preaching of a pastor. He could bring about a revival in Gloucestershire in 1741 and wrote new hymns for the close of each service.
1771: Francis Asbury takes up the mission of  expanding its small, struggling Methodist Church in America.
1814: Pope Pius VII restores the Jesuits who were suppressed for four decades. Afterwards they became strong defenders of the papacy; and two hundred years later a Jesuit – Pope Francis – became the pope for the first time.
1847: Repose of Johann Georg Rapp in Economy, Pennsylvania – a German emigrant who had founded a Pietist community. The colony could not survive long after his death, because it held on to rigorous celibacy and could not find new members.
1865: Passing away of Anthony of Optina, a notable monastic leader in the Russian Orthodox Church, who had worked hard to uplift the spirituality of the monks under his care.
2012: Three unidentified gunmen open fire on a Bible study group at the Deeper Life Bible Church in Okene, Nigeria, killing nineteen Christians.
Edited by: T. Chempilayil MCBS
Courtesy:Â www.studylight.org