October 28: Today in Christian History

October 28, 312

According to tradition, on this date the 32-year-old Roman emperor Constantine defeated Maxentius at Milvian Bridge. Before the battle, Constantine had seen the symbol of Jesus, chi-rho, in a vision, accompanied with the words "By this sign conquer." He is considered Rome's first Christian emperor 

October 28, 1266

Death of Arsenije I Sremac, second archbishop of the Serbian Orthodox Church. A pulpil of St. Sava, he succeeded him and also built the monastery at Pec.

October 28, 1636

Harvard College (not yet named Harvard) is founded by vote of General Court of Massachusetts Bay with the primary purpose of preparing ministers and religious educators

October 28, 1646

Missionary John Eliot preaches the first worship service for Native Americans in their native language—in a wigwam at Nonantum, Massachusetts.

October 28, 1892

Edith Warner arrives at Lagos, Nigeria, and is transferred to shore by hoists and derricks as if she were a bale of cotton. She will serve as a missionary in Nigeria for decades, often venturing where no white person had gone before.

October 28, 1926

Pope Pius XI consecrates six indigenous Chinese priests as bishops in St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome, part of a new policy to make the Chinese church more nationalistic.

October 28, 1949

Jim Elliot, missionary to Ecuador's Auca Indians, writes in his journal the most famous of his sayings: "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

October 28, 1958

The Roman Catholic patriarch of Venice, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, is unexpectedly elected pope, taking the name John XXIII. Expected to be a mere caretaker in office, he became one of the Catholic church's most activist popes, convening the Second Vatican Council in 1962 .

October 28, 1959

 Fifteen hundred people attend a Pentecostal evangelistic meeting in Puerto Rico. Raimundo Jimenez preaches while his brother Eugenio prays for the sick, resulting in six thousand inquirers.

October 28, 1992

The Korean Hyoo-go (Korean for "rapture") movement, led by prophet Lee Jang Rim, predicts that this is the day of the rapture