October 15
1385: Passing away of Dionysius, the Orthodox archbishop of Suzdal, while in prison. Apart from encouraging his people in their struggle against the Tatars, he had also spoken against heretical leaders. Agitated by this, Vladimir Olgerdovich, prince of Kiev, arrested and imprisoned him.
1573: Lutheran scholar Stephen Gerlach reaches out a letter to Ecumenical Patriarch Jeremias II on behalf of the Lutheran leaders to seek the possibility of a Lutheran-Orthodox union. The attempt couldn’t be fulfilled because differences were too deep.
1582: Gregorian calendar introduced in Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal, and October 5th becomes October 15th.
1647: The Larger Westminster Catechism, a central catechism of Calvinists in the English tradition throughout the world, is completed.
1790: Ann Teresa Mathews (aka Mother Bernardina) and Frances Dickinson found a convent of Discalced Carmelites in Port Tobacco, Maryland, the first Catholic convent to be founded in the United States.
1840: The Evangelical Synod of North America was founded in Melville, Missouri; it later merged with the United Church of Christ.
1846: Isaac Hecker makes his religious profession. He later founded the Paulists, a group which worked hard to build up the Roman Catholic church in America.
1894: Rainisoalambo founds a group calling themselves “Disciples of the Lord,” which became an evangelistic force on the island.
1900: Charles Fox Parham, Pentecostal evangelist, opens Bethel Bible Institute in Topeka, Kansas. It was here that the first Christian in modern times was reported to have spoken in tongues, on January 1, 1901.
1906: Demise of Joseph Schereschewsky, a former rabbinic student in Germany, who had converted to Christianity who later became an Episcopalian. He served as a missionary to China and was bishop of Shanghai and translated the Bible and other Christian works into the Wenli language. He even continued his work after he became almost totally paralyzed.
1932: Gladys Aylward sails from Liverpool to China as a missionary. Her heroic adventures and rescue of over one hundred orphans inspired the film “Inn of the Sixth Happiness.”
Edited by: T. Chempilayil MCBS
Courtesy: https://studylight.org