May 9
1590: Passing away of Cardinal de Bourbon in a French prison, whom the Catholic League and the Paris parliament had considered as the rightful king of France, following the death of Henry III, who had imprisoned him. Cardinal Bourbon renounced the throne, however, in favour of his nephew Henry of Navarre, who rejected Protestantism to become King Henry IV.
1619:Â The six month long Synod of Dort ended in Holland, which confirmed the authority of the “Heidelberg Catechism.”. As a result of its decisions 200 Arminian clergy were deprived of their offices.
1707: Death of church organist Dietrich Buxtehude in Lübeck, who played so well that Johann Sebastian Bach once walked 250 miles one way to hear him and to watch him play.
1760: Demise of Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf in Herrnhut, the founder of the Moravian Brethren and a pioneer in ecumenism and Protestant mission work.
1828: Birth of Andrew Murray, who got ordained in the  South African Dutch Reformed church, on his 20th birthday. He became a notable educator of Christians in South Africa and the author of the books on Christian living such as The True Vine and Abide in Me. He was also known for his devotional hymns, his master piece being “Abide in Christ” (1864).
1844: Pran Krishna, a zealous evangelist in India, contracts cholera and dies the following morning.
1859: Consecration of the Orthodox mystic and author Theophan the Recluse as the Bishop of Tambov, where he demonstrated his forward thinking by establishing a school for girls.
1911: Demise of Arabella Katherine Hankey in London, and author of the hymns “I Love to Tell the Story” and “Tell Me the Old, Old Story.”
1983: John Paul II announces the reversal of the Catholic Church’s 1633 condemnation of Galileo Galilei, the scientist who first argued for the Copernican (i.e., heliocentric) view of the solar system.
Edited by: T. Chempilayil MCBS
Courtesy:Â www.studylight.org