December 18
1542: Passing away of Solomonia Yuryevna Saburova, in Suzdal, Russia, who was forced into a nunnery because she couldn’t bear a son (and heir) for Grand Prince Vasili III of Muscovy. She was a woman of exemplary character, and was later honoured as a saint.
1555: Martyrdom of John Philpot, archdeacon of Winchester and one of the religious leaders who condemned Joan of Kent. He kissed the stake and recited three psalms before going aflame.
1666: Hugh McCall, a Covenanter minister, is awarded the death penalty for his resistance to the authority claimed by the king over the Scottish church.
1819: Birth of Isaac Thomas Hecker, who had first entered the Redemptorist Order (1845), but later founded the Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle (the Paulist Fathers) in 1858. He was the superior general of the Paulist Society for 30 years; he was revered as an important American Roman Catholic leader.
1834: Chartering of Emory College in Oxford, GA, by the Methodists. Later it came to be known as Emory University.
1904: Conversion of Sundar Singh, the well known Indian mystic, to Christianity through a vision. He became a member of the Church of England  and took the habit of a Sadhu (holy man) in order to be able to present Christianity in a Hindu form.
1919: Demise of Wu Hongyu, one of the first three priests ordained in the American Episcopal Church of China, who was known for the use of a medical ministry for evangelization.
1974: Passing of Evelyn “Granny” Brand, who had been an extraordinary missionary in the hills in India.
1975: Elder Seraphim (Romantsov), who had lived a life of asceticism, humility, and prayer, giving wise spiritual counsel to people, falls ill which led to his death after a few days. The Soviets had arrested him once and sent with prisoners to canal construction.
1979: The  Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Vatican, withdraws the missio canonica of Hans Küng (the permission to teach in the name of the church), after he had contended the papal infallibility and had made statements repugnant to Catholic theology, even to the extent that a lay person could consecrate the bread and wine of the Eucharist in certain circumstances.
Edited by: T. Chempilayil MCBS
Courtesy:Â https://studylight.org