September 3
590: Consecration of St. Gregory, the Great, as the 64th pope in the Catholic Church. During his pontificate of 14 years, Gregory oversaw the conversion of the Anglo-Saxon tribes in England, with St. Augustine of Canterbury working at his instruction.
1658: Demise of Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector of England and a Presbyterian, who had made a strong profession of faith early in life.
1692: Repose of David Ancillon in Berlin, a learned and highly respected pastor of the Reformed Church, who had built up a famous library during his ministry at Metz. It was plundered as he fled France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
1752: Great Britain – including Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the American colonies – officially implement the Gregorian Calendar, developed by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 replacing the Julian calendar. With this implementation, this date (3rd September) became September 14th, since the Gregorian calendar is ahead of the Julian calendar by a few days.
1831: Repose of John Holt Rice, a Presbyterian theologian, who also served as the (first) professor of Christian theology at Union Theological Seminary, Virginia, and as the editor of the Virginia Evangelical and Literary Magazine.
1905: Baptism of Sundar Singh, formerly an opponent of Christians, who then converted to Christianity following a vision of the risen Lord.
1906: Conversion of Bentley Deforest Ackley, previously an alcoholic, who later wrote almost four thousand hymns, and became Billy Sunday’s organist and secretary. He died on the same day (in 1958) after writing “I Would Be Like Jesus.”
1918: Walter Grand Taylor takes over as the superintendent of the Pacific Garden Mission.
1934: Evangeline Cory Booth, the seventh child of William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, becomes its fourth elected commander and the first woman general (in London).
1939: Repose of W. E. Biederwolf, an American Presbyterian evangelist, who had been the director of the Winona Lake Bible School of Theology, and the founding general director of the Family Altar League.
1941: Passing away of Rafailo Momcilovic, an abbot of the Šišatovac Monastery, after long days of from a Croationa nationlist militia. He was a notable painter of icons.
1946: Founding of the United World Mission by Sidney N. Correll, an interdenominational agency which focuses on evangelism, church planting and Christian education in 13 world countries.
Edited by: T. Chempilayil MCBS
Courtesy: www.studylight.org