December 25, 336
First recorded instance of Jesus’ nativity celebrated as a feast on December 25, appears in the Calendar of Filocalus (or Philocalus).
December 25, 508
(or as early as 496) King Clovis, who united Gaul and founded France, is baptized by St. Remigius in the Cathedral of Rheims with three thousand of his warriors. His wife Clotilda was instrumental in “converting” him, although his understanding was low and his change of character minimal.
December 25, 597
Thousands of Anglo-Saxons are baptized by the missionary Augustine, an important date in the Christianization of Southern England.
December 25, 1572
Death of Peter Melius Juhász, a Hungarian reformer and religious writer. He had been active and prominent as bishop of the Calvinist Reformed Church in Transylvania, but also produced an early botanical and medicinal work in the Hungarian lanaguge.
December 25, 1625
Metrophanes Kritopoulos, an Eastern Orthodox priest traveling on behalf of the Patriarch of Constantinople, delivers a speech at the University of Altdorf to foster goodwill between Protestants and the Orthodox and explain how the eastern church looks at Christianity.
December 25, 1821
James Montgomery’s Christmas carol, “Angels from the Realms of Glory,” is first used in a public service, despite having been written in 1816. It is sung at the English Moravian center in Fulneck, Yorkshire, England.
December 25, 1866
Death in Alexandria, Virginia, of Baptist hymn writer Mary Ann Collier, author of the hymn “The Sun That Lights Yon Broad Blue Sky.”
December 25, 1898
The first continental council of the Latin American Roman Catholic Church is convened. It issues 998 canons. Among its objects is a desire to check anti-Christian influences. Thirteen archbishops and forty-one bishops are present at this meeting in Rome.
December 25, 1905
Death in Athens of Apostolos Makrakis, who had often been embroiled with the Greek Orthodox Church but was popular with middle class Christians. He had considered himself chosen to liberate Byzantium from the Turks and to renovate the church. Not only had he preached controversial sermons on Christ throughout Greece, but he condemned Freemasonry, materialism, and the buying and selling of church positions. Local councils twice condemned him to prison.
December 25, 1909
Japanese evangelist Toyohiko Kagawa crosses the Higurashi Bridge to serve in the slums of Shinkawa. His most quoted saying is, “Theology is but an appendix to love, and an unreliable appendix!”
December 25, 1911
Dedication of Dom Evangelina in Petrograd, the largest evangelical house of worship in Russia.
December 25, 2011
Islamic terrorists bomb Nigerian churches in Madalla, Jos, Kano, Damaturu, and Gadaka, killing dozens of Christians during Christmas services.
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