5th December: Today in Christian History

5th December, 532

On this day in Christian History, Death of St. Sabas, a hermit who had become the leader of an early monastic movement and traveled widely preaching against heresy. He founded a monastery in Palestine, Mar Saba, that will still be standing in the twenty-first century. 

5th December, 1525

On this day in Christian History, Anabaptist leader Hans Schlaffer is arrested by persecutors in Austria. Refusing to recant his opposition to infant baptism, he will subsequently be burned alive.

5th December, 1784

On this day in Christian History, Phillis Wheatley died. In her lifetime, she was the first published African American poet and a Christian. She had written brilliantly in English as a second language.

5th December, 1804

On this day in Christian History, Missionary Wilhelm Tobias Ringeltaube landed at Tranquebar, India, serving under the auspices of the London Missionary Society, and will labor there and at Travencore with much success until 1816, when he moved on to Ceylon.

5th December, 1837

On this day in Christian History, the first public performance of Hector Berlioz’s Requiem takes place in a church in Paris in honor of General Damremont and other soldiers who had died during a siege in Algeria.

5th December, 1903

On this day in Christian History, James C. Sheafe, African American pastor, organizes a new congregation of 51 members, mostly African American, into the People’s SDA [Seventh-day Adventist] Church, in Washington, DC.

5th December, 1907

On this day in Christian History, Priscilla Jane Owens died. She had been an American Methodist school teacher and author of several popular hymns, including “Jesus Saves” and “We Have an Anchor.”