November 6: Today in Christian History

November 6, 1193

Death of Barlaam, who had been born to wealth but gave it all away to become a hermit on the Volga River. He had gained such a following that he founded the Khutyn Monastery of Saviour’s Transfiguration. His fame increased even more after he healed a Grand Prince. After his death, his tomb will become a popular pilgrimage destination.

November 6, 1315

Poet Dante Alighieri is sentenced to death, in absentia, by the magistrates of Florence. Dante, who was at the time working on his Comedy in Venice, avoided the penalty by never returning to Florence, from which he had been exiled for political reasons

November 6, 1789

Pope Pius VI confirms the election of the Rt. Rev. John Carroll to be the first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States (the diocese of Baltimore). He will be consecrated in England in 1790, and become archbishop in 1808.

November 6, 1881

William Temple, future Archbishop of Canterbury, is christened. He will become an advocate of the common man and active in social issues.

November 6, 1832

Melville Cox sailed for Liberia aboard the Jupiter as the first missionary sent to a foreign field by America's Methodists.

November 6, 1905

Death of George Williams, founder of the YMCA, through which he had sought to give young men an alternative to the soul-destroying recreations in London. His endeavor had spread to the whole world.

November 6, 1935

American revivalist Billy Sunday, a baseball player who became one of America's most famous evangelists before Billy Graham, dies at age 73. More than 100 million people heard him speak at his evangelistic crusades, and about 300,000 of them became Christians.

November 6, 1977

A dam bursts near Toccoa Falls, Georgia, killing thirty-eight students and instructors at a local Christian college.