February 19
842 A Council in Constantinople formally reinstates the veneration of images (icons) in the churches, thus ending the centuries-long Medieval Iconoclastic Controversy, considered to be the last event that led to the Great Schism between the Eastern and Western Churches.
1568 Repose of Miles Coverdale, translator and publisher of the first complete Bible to be printed in English (1535) and the editor of the Great Bible (1539).
1735 Death of Alexander Mack, the leader of America’s German Baptists.
1869 Elizabeth Clephane, an orphaned Scottish poet, passes away. She had penned the extremely beautiful hymns “Beneath the Cross of Jesus” and “The Ninety and Nine,” both of which were published posthumously.
1896 Demise of Xi Shengmo, who – once a drug addict – had become a Christian and experienced the power of the Holy Spirit. He went on to establish fifty camps for drug addicts in four provinces where prayer was a major factor in the treatment of the addicts, through which many became Christians and used his methods on other addicts.
1942 A Presidential Order sends 100,000 persons of Japanese ancestry (among them the majority were American-born citizens) into ten “relocation centers” for the duration of World War II. During confinement within the armed, barbed-wire surroundings, however, prayer meetings, Bible studies and worship services were held regularly.
1948 Father Butrus Sowmy shows the first of the Dead Sea Scrolls to American John Trever, whom he had contacted the day before. Trever requests permission to photograph them and sends the photographs to famed archaeologist William Albright, who could later confirm the value of the manuscripts.
Edited by:Â T. Chempilayil MCBS
Courtesy: www.studylight.org