January 26
404: Death of St. Paula of Palestine, St. Jerome’s pupil and patron. She could help her spiritual father Jerome overcome his hot temper.
1557: Cardinal Pole embarks upon a cleansing at Cambridge University against the ´heretical´ preachers Martin Bucer and Paulus Phagius, the continental protestant theologians, who were both long dead.
1564: Pius IV ratifies the enactments of the Council of Trent by the bull “Benedictus Deus.” One among the chief Tridentine decrees was concerning the creation of an Index of Prohibited Books.
1681: Isabel Alison and Marion Harvie are hanged in Edinburgh, along with five female criminals, for their Covenanter beliefs; Covenanters claimed that they belonged to a special form of religion, divinely ordained. Both sang Psalm 84 at the gallows.
1779: Francis Asbury, the first American Methodist bishop published an impressive view about faith and work in his journal: ‘We should so work as if we were to be saved by our works; and so rely on Jesus Christ, as if we did no works.’
1906: The first General Assembly of the Church of God convened in the US. It is the oldest Pentecostal Church denomination in the U.S., the roots of which can be traced back to 1886.
1949: Death of Presbyterian minister Peter Marshall, the most vibrant and influential chaplain of the Senate in the United States.
1951: The Temple Beth Israel of Meridian, Mississippi becomes the first Jewish congregation to allow women to perform the functions of a Rabbi.
1967: Swiss Reformed theologian Karl Barth stated in a letter: ‘What God has done is well done.’
1992: Mr. Boushra Khaliel, a Coptic Christian in Dairut, Egypt, is forced to drop charges against militant Muslims who had beaten him severely, leaving his right arm paralyzed. The militants had threatened to torture his family in the same way, if he refused to drop the charges.
1996: Rev. Fr. L. Bridget and Rev. Sr. Vridhi Ekka are sentenced to six months rigorous imprisonment in the Ambikapur district of Maharashtra, India, for allegedly “forcibly converting” ninety-four Hindus to Christianity, which they never did.
Edited by: T. Chempilayil mcbs
Courtesy: www.studylight.org