August 15
347 The pro-consul of Africa proclaims unity of the African church under Gratus, the bishop of Carthage, after years of conflict between the Catholic Church and the Donatists, who held those who were held “traitors” during the persecution of the Christians by Diocletian unworthy to perform the sacraments. Donatus withdrew into exile.
718 Saracen leader Moslemah gives up his fight for Constantinople, after a brilliant defense by Emperor Leo III, the first Christian ruler to significantly stop the advance of Islam. Since the victory took place on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, the Byzantines ascribe this to the mother of Christ. Many Arab ships involved in the war were destroyed by a storm and others were burned as ashes from the volcano of Santorini fell on them.
1038 Demise of St. Stephen, the first king of Hungary in Esztergom, who was baptized and brought up in a Christian family. He had founded many monasteries and churches and sent Christian missionaries throughout his country.
1096 The armies of the First Crusade sail from Europe to set Jerusalem free from the forces of Islamic Turks. Inspired by Peter the Hermit in 1093, Pope Urban II had sanctioned the crusade at the Council of Clermont in 1095.
1534 Foundation of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) by Ignatius of Loyola, with the aim of fostering reform within Catholicism, and undertaking education and missionary work. It was formally approved by Pope Paul III in 1540.
1549 The first Christian missionaries to Japan – a group of Spanish Jesuits, led by pioneer Catholic missionary Francis Xavier – land at Kagoshima, on the coast of Kyushu, the southernmost of the four main islands of Japan.
1557 Agnes Prest is executed at Southern Hay by Queen Mary’s government because of her rejection to accept the Catholic doctrines.
1579 Repose of the venerable Gerasimus, a wandering ascetic, priest, and abbot of the Orthodox church.
1613 Birth of Jeremy Taylor, Anglican clergyman and devotional writer, whose works became classic expressions of Anglican spirituality: The Rule and Exercise of Holy Living and The Rule and Exercise of Holy Dying.
1790 Father John Carroll is consecrated by Pius VI as the first Roman Catholic bishop of the United States; later he became the later the first archbishop of the country in 1811
1853 Demise of Frederick W. Robertson, a prominent Anglican clergyman and later the bishop of Winchester. He worked mainly among the working classes but his writings were widely read and especially cherished among the evangelicals.
1901 Passing away of poet Julie Katharina von Hausmann near Wösso, Estonia, who authored the hymn “So nimm denn meine Hände” (“O Take My Hand, Dear Father”).
1917 The All-Russian Church Council meets in Moscow and restores the Patriarchal form of the church governance, abolished by Peter the Great in 1721.
1967 The Bishops from Latin America issue the “Message of the Bishops of the Third World” denouncing structural oppression in society, seen as one of the beginning points of the so-called “liberation theology.”
1988 Pope John Paul II praises the role and importance of women in his apostolic letter Mulieris dignitatem (the Dignity of a Woman), but reaffirms that only men can be admitted to priesthood.
Edited by: T. Chempilayil MCBS
Courtesy: www.studylight.org