November 25: Today in Christian History

November 25, 450

Empress Pulcheria marries General Marcian in Constantinople on the stipulation he keep her virginity inviolate.

November 25, 1491

Boabdil, the Unlucky, capitulates to Christian rulers Ferdinand and Isabella, yielding Granada and ending the last Moorish toehold in Spain.

November 25, 1535

The Order of Ursuline Nuns is founded for the education of girls and the care of the sick and needy.

November 25, 1554

Martin Chemnitz, who will be called “the Second Martin” because of his influence in the Lutheran church, is ordained by Johannes Bugenhagen at Wittenberg.

November 25, 1748

Death at Stoke Newington, England, of Isaac Watts, who wrote close to 600 hymns, including “At the Cross,” “Come, We That Love the Lord, “ “Jesus Shall Reign Where’er the Sun,” “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” and “Joy to the World.”.

November 25, 1841

Tsar Nicholas I grants Evangelical Lutherans in his empire’s German enclaves independence from the Lutheran consistory at St. Petersburg. These pietistic groups wanted to select their own ministers and make spiritual decisions free from interference by more formal Lutherans.

November 25, 1854

Death of John Kitto who raised standards for Bible encyclopedias by adding images and combining articles on relevant topics such as New Testament archeology. Although deaf, he had traveled and taught in the Middle East, laying the foundation for his biblical knowledge. He had also founded and edited the Journal of Sacred Literature.

November 25, 1877

Ahmed Fahm, an Egyptian Muslim, having converted to Christianity, is baptized. When he refuses to return to Islam, his relatives kidnap him and show him weapons intended to kill him. He will gain his release and travel to Scotland to obtain a theological education, returning to Egypt to work with a mission and found a clinic.

November 25, 1884

James Otis Sargent Huntington, who has been working among the poor and immigrants at Holy Cross Mission in New York City, takes a life vow consecrating himself to this vocation. Because of his insistence on the social witness of the Church, he will increase Episcopal Church commitment to social ministries.

November 25, 1884

Death in Clifton, England, of Susanna Winkworth, who had translated German religious works into English. Among her more notable works were translations of the fourteenth-century Theologia Germanica and a life and some sermons of the mystic Johann Tauler. Her sister, Catherine Winkworth, was also a translator, especially of German hymns

November 25, 1899

Death of Robert Lowry, Baptist clergyman who wrote many beloved hymn tunes, including the music to “All the Way My Savior Leads Me,” “I Need Thee Every Hour,” “Nothing But the Blood of Jesus,” and “Marching to Zion.”

November 25, 1900

Death of Willibald Beyschlag, a German theologian and church leader, editor, and founder of the Protestant League. Although a pietist and an evangelical, he had rejected the formula developed by the Council of Chalcedon (which stated that Christ has two natures coming together to form one person) and the rationalism of David Strauss and Ernest Renan that denied the divinity of Christ. He was also a strong proponent of separation of church and state.

November 25, 1921

Meletius Metaxakis becomes ecumenical patriarch of the Orthodox Church as Meletius IV. In his extraordinary life, he will be the only man successively to lead three autocephalous (independent) Orthodox Churches. He will found metropolitan sees of the Greek Orthodox Church in America and as ecumenical patriarch will reach out to the Anglican Church.

November 25, 1935

Sun Chu Kil, who had been at the heart of Korean revival and resistance to Japanese occupation, collapses while preaching at a Bible conference. He dies the next day.

November 25, 1954

Death in Lakeville, Connecticut, of Presbyterian minister Henry Sloane Coffin, a leader in liberal evangelicalism in the United States, and for nineteen years president of Union Theological Seminary.