July 7
303: Martyrdom of Procopius of Scythopolis, the first of the Palestine victims under emperor Diocletian.
781 [or 787]: passing away of St. Willibald, a disciple of St. Boniface.
1220: Dedication of a golden shrine which displays the effigy of Thomas à Becket in the Trinity Chapel of Canterbury Cathedral. It was shaped by Walter of Colchester, a famous goldsmith.
1438: The Pragmatic Sanctions of Bourges, issued by King Charles VII of France, asserts the liberties of the Gallican Church (a movement in the catholic church in France setting secular monarch over the pope), confirms the supremacy of the General Council over papacy and limits the power of Pope in France. It was revoked by the Concordat of Bologna in 1516, after negotiations between King Francis I and Pope Leo X.
1586: Birth of Thomas Hooker, a colonial American pastor and the mastermind behind the earliest system of federal government in America.
1806: Laying of the foundation stone for the Cathedral of the Assumption in Baltimore, Maryland, the first Catholic cathedral in the United States. Now it is known as the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The construction was initiated by Archbishop John Carroll and designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, the architect of the United States Capitol.
1851: Birth of Charles A. Tindley, African-American Methodist preacher and songwriter, who has a few most enduring gospel hymns to his credit, including “Stand By Me,” “Nothing Between,” “Leave It There’ and ‘By and By.”
1858: Archbishop Hughes of New York approves the constitution for founding the Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle (the Paulists) formed by Isaac Hecker and his companions. Hecker took it for his mission to show that Americanism and Catholicism are not incompatible, although the founding ideals of the United States – religious liberty and individualism – seem diametrically opposed to Roman Catholicism. He can be called the champion of Catholicism in America.
1859: Samuel Schereschewsky conferred the order of diaconate. He later became a notable missionary to China and a bishop.
1878: Francis J. Grimké is ordained a Presbyterian minister. He became instrumental in organizing the American Negro Academy in 1897.
1896: The Gospel Missionary Union becomes the first “faith mission” to reach Ecuador, through the missionaries J. A. Strain, F. W. Farnol, and George Fisher.
1935: Passing away of the Orthodox patriarch Meletius Metaxakis in Alexandria, Egypt. He was a zealous reformer who had also taken steps to create a Greek Archdiocese in North America and also sought to bridge the gap between Orthodoxy and the Anglican Church.
1946: Canonization of Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, an Italian-American educator, who became the first American citizen to be made a saint in the Catholic Church. She reached the U.S. in 1889, and was naturalized in 1909.
1952: Formation of the Southern Baptist Association of Colorado, through the merging of six churches.
Edited by: T. Chempilayil MCBS
Courtesy: www.studylight.org