January 20: Today in Christian History

January 20, 250

Death of Fabian, bishop of Rome, under the persecution of Emperor Decius. 

January 20, 473

Death of Euthymius the Great in the desert northeast of Jerusalem. He had been an abbot in Palestine and a hermit noted for his holiness.

January 20, 524

Bishop Simeon of Beth Ashram from the region of Arabia, travels from the Lakhmid capital Hirta d Na`man and learns of several martyrdoms, especially of holy women, which he records in various letters and writings.

January 20, 1569

Death in London of English translator Miles Coverdale, who produced the first complete printed English-language Bible.

January 20, 1773

Thomas Charles, who will become a leader of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists, converts to Christianity while listening to Daniel Rowland preach.

January 20, 1862

Death at Hoddesdon, Herts, England, of hymnwriter Harriet Auber, who had led a quiet and contented life, publishing only one volume, The Spirit of the Psalms. Many of her hymns will appear in hymnbooks, especially an epiphany hymn that begins "Bright was the guiding star that led..."

January 20, 1870

Clara Swain arrives at Bareilly, India, and begins medical mission work the same day.

January 20, 1881

In 1875 Fredrik Franson, an evangelist among Minnesota's Swedish immigrants and author of Mormonism Unveiled and a treatise on church growth, is ordained by the Free Church at Phelps Center.

January 20, 1895

Death in South Euclid, Ohio, of Johann Adam Ernst, early pioneer pastor of the Missouri Synod in Canada.

January 20, 1952

Roman Catholic bishop Anton Vouk is ambushed, doused with gasoline in Yugoslavia, and set on fire, probably by government hit men. By quick action he manages to save his own life but will suffer from the injuries his remaining years.