February 26
398: John Chrysostom – called, the “golden-mouthed,” – becomes bishop of Constantinople; he had a troubled episcopacy due to inner church politics, influenced by political forces and who had to die in exile.
554: Appearance of a forged letter in the name Pope Vigilius, actually a virtual prisoner of Emperor Justinian in Constantinople, in which he is alleged to have announced to the Western bishops of his acceptance of Monophysitism (which holds that Christ has only one nature, either human or divine, and not both together). The Pope had in fact had condemned Monophysitism and always adhered to Synods of Ephesus and Chalcedon (https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15427b.htm)
1607: Execution by hanging of Robert Drury in England, a Catholic priest, for refusing to condemn his faith. His body was disemboweled and quartered after hanging.
1732: Holy Mass was celebrated for the first time at St Joseph’s Church in Philadelphia, the only Roman Catholic church built and maintained in the American colonies before the Revolutionary War of 1775.
1802: Death of Roman Catholic theologian Dr. Alexander Geddes, who had contributed many of the arguments for German higher criticism (critical, scholarly study of the origins and integrity of the Bible texts).
1807: Birth of Johann K.F. Keil, German Bible scholar, whose Old Testament commentary written in collaboration with Franz Delitzsch first appeared in 1861. This multi-volume set known as “Keil & Delitzsch” is said to be still in print!
1835: Queen of Madagascar Ranavalona I forbids the newly established Christian faith, which in spite of severe persecutions from the queen, spreads widely.
1840: Scottish clergyman Robert Murray McCheyne exhorted in a letter, “Our soul should be a mirror of Christ; we should reflect every feature: for every grace in Christ there should be a counterpart in us.”
1846: Birth of George C. Stebbins, American Baptist music evangelist, who composed over 1,500 songs during his lifetime.
1891: Brahmabandhav Upadhyay, a Bengali Brahmin attracted by the uniqueness of Christ, receives baptism in Calcutta. He later published a series of articles attempting to demonstrate Christian theology as compatible with Indian  thought.
1895: Thérèse of Lisieux writes down from memory her poetic masterpiece “To Live by Love” which she had formulated in mind during a Eucharistic meditation.
1933: Arrest of Russian Orthodox theologian and scientist Pavel Aleksandrovich Florensky, who was later held in concentration camps and who died as a martyr in 1937, shot by agents of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD).
1995: Murder of Mahfouz Rashid Bacilious, one of several Christians targeted for assassination within a period of a few months in the Egyptian city of Malawy.
Edited by:Â T. Chempilayil MCBS
Courtesy: www.studylight.org