June 2
304: Syrian Bishop St. Erasmus – also known as St. Elmo – comes under severe persecution by Diocletian in Formia, Italy.
553: Closing of the Second Council of Constantinople under the leadership of Eutychius, the Patriarch of Constantinople. The council condemned the Nestorian positions in the writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret of Cyprus and Ibas of Edessa.
597: St. Augustine, missionary to England and first archbishop of Canterbury, baptizes Saxon King Ethelbert, which paved the way for the rapid growth of the Christian faith among the Angles and Saxons.
828: (or 829) Demise of Nicephorus in Constantinople, the former Patriarch of Constantinople, who had defended the use of icons in worship in spite of the objection of the Emperor Leo III to this practice. Leo then removed Nicephorus from office and put him under house arrest in a monastery.
1070: Peterborough Abbey is looted by Hereward the Wake and his followers, supposedly to keep its wealth from coming under Norman control because the new abbot was a Norman.
1537: Pope Paul III issues the bull Sublimis Deus declaring that American Indians also have souls like any other human beings and are to be treated with dignity.
1811: Baptism of Abdool Musseeh (Sheikh Salih) who had been a staunch Muslim but had begun to seek Christ. He then became a strong witness among Muslims and opened a Christian school, becoming a catechist for new Christians and eventually an ordained Lutheran pastor.
1875: James A. Healy is consecrated bishop of the Diocese of Maine, thus becoming the first African- American bishop in the history of American Catholicism.
1895: Repose of Zeng Laishun, a Christian educator, in Tianjin; he had served the church both in China and the United States, and also took up business and administrative posts in China.
1901: Death of George Leslie Mackay, a Canadian Presbyterian missionary in Formosa (Taiwan). He was the first foreign missionary commissioned by Canada’s Presbyterian Church. He later married a Chinese woman and his life then became the subject of an opera.
Edited by: T. Chempilayil MCBS
Courtesy: www.studylight.org