23rd December: Today in Christian History

23rd December, 814

On this day in Christian History, Magnentius Hrabanus Maurus, who later became one of the most brilliant scholars of his era, was ordained a priest.

23rd December, 1193

On this day in Christian History, Death of Thorlac Thorhallssohn, founder of Iceland’s first monastery.

23rd December, 1528

On this day in Christian History, Two hundred citizens of Basel assemble and present a petition, drawn up by the reformer Oecolampadius, for the suppression of the mass.

23rd December, 1531

On this day in Christian History, Heinrich Bullinger accepted the pulpit of Zurich which was vacated by the death of Zwingli in battle.

23rd December, 1652

On this day in Christian History, John Cotton died. In his lifetime, he was an eminent minister in colonial Massachusetts and the “father of New England Congregationalism.”

23rd December, 1736

On this day in Christian History, In an Auto da fé (Act of faith) Inquisitor Cristóval Sánchez Calderón of Lima, Peru, burns Dona Ana de Castro alive, on the accusation of practicing a Jewish mourning ritual and other Jewish rituals that she did not consider in conflict with Christianity. The Inquisition also burns in effigy a Jesuit who had been suspected of practicing Quietism (a form of Christian mysticism tending toward passivity and annihilation of one's own will) and another Jesuit who may have been insane. They are burned in effigy because they had already died.

23rd December, 1873

On this day in Christian History, Women of Hillsboro, Ohio, marched to the places that served liquor in town and by appeals and prayer shut most of them down. Within fifty days, saloons in two hundred and fifty Ohio cities were also shut down.

23rd December, 1873

On this day in Christian History, Death of Sarah Grimké at West Newton, Massachusetts. She had been a sturdy opponent of slavery.

December 23, 1897

Peru passes a law empowering Alcades (mayors) of provincial councils to solemnize marriages, thus enabling non-Catholics to wed.

December 23, 1925

Edith Warner’s remains are laid to rest. She had been a missionary for thirty-three years in Niger and explored areas never before seen by a white person.