March 13
452: Marcian, the Roman Emperor, issues an edict against the Eutychians, whose teachings seem to negate Christ’s humanity and his capacity to stand in our place.
536: Pope Agapetus announces in a synodical letter his decision to depose Anthimus, the monophysite patriarch of Constantinople. Monophysites hold the view that Jesus has only the divine nature in him and deny his human nature. Emperor Justinian I appoints Menas, an opponent of monophysitism and subservient to the Roman popes, at Anthimus’ place.
846: Empress Theodora brings the body of Patriarch Nicephorus, who had defended the use of icons and had to go in exile for eight years, back to Constantinople with great pomp.
857: Execution of Ruderic and Salomon in Cordoba, Spain, for apostatizing from Islam.
1569: Marshal Gaspard de Tavannes defeats the Huguenots at the Battle of Jarnac; their leader, the prince de Condé, was killed in the aftermath.
1604: Demise of Cardinal d’Ossat, who had served as the diplomat for France and who was instrumental in reconciling King Henry IV, formerly a Huguenot, with the pope. His well-crafted diplomatic letters still serve as models to aspiring civil servants.
1687: Father Eusebio Kino, an Italian-born Jesuit in the service of Spain, begins missionary work in the American Southwest, where he could establish25 Indian missions.
1785: The debut performance of Mozart’s “cantata Davidde Penitente,“ known as a “half-mass” because its ten movements include a Kyrie and Gloria, at the Burg-theatre, Vienna. The work was commissioned by the Society for the Relief of the Widows and Orphans of Musicians.
1804: Birth of James W. Alexander, American Presbyterian clergyman and hymn-writer, who made the English translation of Paul Gerhardt’s immortal German hymn, “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded” in 1830.
1868: Birth of Charles E. Cowman, American pioneer missionary, who sailed to Japan with his wife Lettie in 1901, where they founded the Oriental Missionary Society in 1910.
1895: Death of Robert William Dale, a clergyman, who worked vigorously for the people of Birmingham, England, by taking steps to improve the health, housing, sanitation and living conditions. He was an advocate of free public education, social improvement, the extension of the voting franchise, the recognition of trade unions, and analysing the links between poverty and crime.
1904: Dedication of “The Christ of the Andes,” a bronze statue of Christ located on the Argentina-Chile border.
1925: Austin Peay, the Governor of Tennessee, signs legislation prohibiting the teaching of evolution within the state’s public school system. (A famous public violation of this law led to the famous July Scopes Monkey Trial.)
2002: Death of Yusuf Jatau, a popular radio preacher in the Hausa language in Nigeria and a mission leader of the Nigerian Baptist Convention for fifty years, who had extended the Baptist work in the northern regions of the country, escaping death at the hands of enemies many times.
2012: The Three-Self Church in Dafeng County, Jangsu Province, China, is demolished by the Chinese government, although it is a government-approved church. A Christian woman is beaten up so badly at the sight.
2013: Argentine-born Jorge Mario Bergoglio elected the pope of the Roman Catholic Church, the first pope from the Americas; he takes the name Francis.
Edited by: T. Chempilayil MCBS
Courtesy: www.studylight.org