January 13: Today in Christian History

January 13, 533

Death of St. Remigius, apostle of France and the first bishop of Reims. In one of the most famous incidents of his life, he had baptized King Clovis of France on Christmas day, 496.

January 13, 1501

The world’s first hymnbook in a language other than Latin is issued by the Bohemian followers of Jan Hus in Prague. It contains 89 hymns.

January 13, 1547

The Council of Trent debates the doctrine of justification and anathematizes the fundamental doctrines of the Lutheran Reformation.

January 13, 1599

Death in London, England, of Sir Edmund Spenser, English poet who authored The Faerie Queene.

January 13, 1681

Don Carlos Sigüenza y Góngora, a lay priest and rector of a hospital in Mexico, issues a pamphlet showing that there is no cause to fear a bright comet which has appeared in the northern hemisphere. A Creole, he will be stung when subsequently called a “dull wit” by an influential Spanish missionary, who says that comets are obviously bad omens.

January 13, 1691

Death in London, England, of George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends, or Quakers.

January 13, 1817

Robert Moffat reaches Cape Town. The London Missionary Society had been reluctant to send him because of his limited education but he will translate the New Testament into Bechwanas within the decade, and demonstrate that Christian missionaries can succeed in Africa by persistence and patience. Many know him as the mentor and father-in-law of David Livingstone.

January 13, 1847

Pius IX mounts a pulpit and preaches a sermon, allegedly the first pope to do so in three hundred years.

January 13, 1855

Death in Wynberg, South Africa, of John Scudder, Dutch Reformed missionary to Ceylon and India. He was father of John Scudder, also a missionary to India, and, through him, the grandfather of famed medical missionary, Ida Scudder.

January 13, 1873

Death at Mortlake, Surrey, England, of Anglican clergyman and missionary statesman Henry Venn.

January 13, 1888

Charles Spurgeon is censured by the Baptist Union because of his stand in the Down-Grade Controversy and his refusal to provide names and supporting evidence against other Baptist ministers.

January 13, 1889

The first three Lutheran deaconesses in America are consecrated at the Philadelphia motherhouse.

January 13, 1897

Pope Leo XIII pronounces genuine the Bible verse 1 John 5:7, “There are three that bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” although the verse is not found in any early manuscripts of the New Testament.

January 13, 1908

Daniel Opperman claims baptism in the Holy Spirit in Belton, Texas. Already a Pentecostal leader, he will become more prominent, establish schools, and edit The Blessed Truth.

January 13, 1915

Death in Nigeria of missionary Mary Slessor, known as the “White Queen to the Cannibals.”

January 13, 1919

Death in Miami, Florida, of hymnwriter Margaret Jenkins Harris who had written the popular hymns “He Took My Sins Away,” “I Will Praise Him,” and “I’ve Pitched My Tent in Beulah.”

January 13, 1930

Soviets arrest Orthodox priest Artemius Grigoryevich Zuyev in Taldy-Kurgan province and sentence him to death for anti-Soviet and counter-revolutionary propaganda and agitation.

January 13, 1964

Pope Paul VI nominates Karol Wojtyla to be Archbishop of Cracow. In 1978 Wojtyla will become Pope John Paul II.

January 13, 2007

Security forces in Sri Lanka shoot Nallathamby Gnanaseelan in the stomach as he motorcycles to a meeting for prayer and fasting. They complete his murder by shooting him again where he lies in the road. A pastor of the Tamil Mission Church in Jaffna, he was not politically active. The police will concoct various cover stories in an effort to frame him and legitimize their act of persecution.