16th January: Today in Christian History

16th January, 648

Death at Forsheim, France, of St. Fursey who had founded monasteries in England and Gaul. Many years earlier, Fursey, while seriously ill, had fallen into a trance in which he saw visions of heaven and hell that he recorded. These will probably be among the sources from which Dante will draw inspiration for the descriptions of hell and heaven in his Inferno and Paradiso.

16th January, 1543

On this day in Christian History, the British Parliament prohibited the reading of the New Testament in English by “women or artificer’s prentices, journeymen, servingmen of the degree of yeoman, or under, husbandmen or labourers...”

16th January, 1545

Death at Altenburg, Saxony, of Georg Spalatin, a friend of Luther. As confidential secretary, councilor, librarian, historian, archivist, and relic-buyer for elector Frederick the Wise he had been able to promote the Reformation.

January 16, 1604

Puritan John Rainolds suggests to King James I “that there might bee a newe translation of the Bible, as consonant as can be to the original Hebrew and Greek.” James will grant approval the next day. Seven years later, the Authorized Version (King James Version) will be published.

16th January, 1630

On this day in Christian History, Archbishop William Laud consecrated the St. Catherine Cree Church, in Leadenhall Street, London, with ritual and ceremony that his detractors consider excessive and counter to Reformation or Puritan tendencies.

January 16, 1650

Death of Blessed Maximus, Priest of Totma in Vologda District, a “fool for Christ” who had continually fasted and prayed. The Orthodox consider him a saint because of miracles alleged to have occurred at his tomb.

January 16, 1786

Virginia adopts a statute for establishing religious freedom authored by Thomas Jefferson.

January 16, 1815

Reformer Henry Thornton dies at William Wilberforce’s house in London, England. A banker and Parliamentarian, he had been the financial brains behind the social schemes of the philanthropic and anti-slavery group known as the Clapham Sect.

January 16, 1899

Death in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, of Charles P. Chiniquy, who had been a Catholic priest but, following disciplinary action, left the church and became a popular American agitator against Catholicism and the author of the anti-Catholic book, Fifty Years in the Church of Rome. He had also blamed Lincoln’s assassination on a Catholic conspiracy.

Read: How to Write an Effective Prayer Request

16th January, 1929

On this day in Christian History, Abraham Odekunle Aiki returned to his home town in Ilero, Nigeria, where for more than forty years he preached, visited members, prayed, and studied. His church grew from thirty-nine members to over one thousand, and he planted several new churches and establish a school where none had previously existed.

16th January, 1999

On this day in Christian History, the United Methodists disturbed many fellow Methodists and other traditional Christians by “blessing” a lesbian couple before fifteen hundred people in Sacramento, California. The women were lay leaders who had lived together for fifteen years.