March 15
1572: Frederick III, Elector of the Palatinate of the Rhine, defends the decision of the Catholic father of Charlotte de Bourbon, Princess of Orange, to provide her asylum, because she followed her conscience in embracing Reformation doctrines.
1672: Charles II of England issues a Declaration of Indulgence on his own authority to extend religious liberty to Protestant non-conformists and Roman Catholics. Parliament forces him to revoke it because it overruled their authority.
1711: Demise of Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, an Italian Jesuit missionary and explorer, who worked among the Pimas, the indigenous people of Arizona and northern Mexico.
1729: Sr. Stanislaus Hachard from the Ursuline convent in New Orleans, makes her first religious profession, thereby becoming the first Catholic woman to become a nun in America.
1796: In a setback to William Wilberforce and his allies, the English Parliament votes 74 -70 against an anti-slavery bill. The opponents won supporters with free tickets to the London premier of a comic opera.
1798: Mary Pryor and her co-sailors disembark safely from the ship Fame, after escaping from an imminent ship-wreck with her fervent prayers and by encouraging its crew and passengers with prayer and prophecies. Her prophesying of rescue even with the name of the rescue ship was literally realised.
1833: The Presbytery of Annan from Scotland suspends Edward Irving from the ministry due to the fear that he is under the influence of tongue-speaking prophetesses, and because of his unorthodox theology regarding the human nature of Christ. He then founded ‘The Holy Apostolic Church’ or ‘Irvingites.’
1839: Robert Murray McCheyne, Scottish clergyman, confessed in a letter, “All my ideas of peace and joy are linked in with my Bible; and I would not give the hours of secret converse with it for all the other hours I spend in this world.”
1875: Archbishop John McCloskey becomes the first American to be named a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church at St. Patrick’s Cathedral New York City.
1930: Soviets execute the Orthodox priest Basil Alexeyevich Tukmachev due to his resistance against the Communist regime and sends his family in exile.
1950: Jim Elliot, American missionary and martyr, exhorts in his journal, “The believer is a displaced person. He loses the controlling features of both environment and heredity.”
1953: The first Southern Baptist church in North Dakota is established in Williston, with 12 members.
1998: Over 2400 people surrender their lives to Christ at a service conducted in Malawi by Matthew Sabwela from the Church of the Nazarene.
Edited by:Â T. Chempilayil MCBS
Courtesy:Â www.studylight.org