January 9: Today in Christian History

January 9, 710

Death of St. Adrian (or Hadrian) of Canterbury, an African. Well-educated, he had made Canterbury a center of learning for the British isles.

January 9, 1522

Cardinals elect the Dutchman Adrian Dedel to be pope. He takes the name Adrian VI and will be the last non-Italian pope until St. John Paul II in the twentieth-century.

January 9, 1765

Samuel Stillman is installed at the First Baptist Church, Boston. He will promote separation of church and state in the United States.

January 9, 1887

Death in Madras, India, of Poonamallee Rajahgopaul who had been a notable leader of the Madras Christian community, active in many projects that evangelized and uplifted people of all castes.

January 9, 1890

Death of obscure hymnwriter Florence Catherine Armstrong. Her first hymn had appeared in the British Herald during February 1865. One of her best-known was “Oh to Be Over Yonder.”

January 9, 1921

On this day in Christian History, Soviets arrested the Orthodox priest, Nilus Matveyevich Matveyev, in the Tver province, charging him with “counter-revolutionary agitation.” Owing to an amnesty he was released, but six years later he was arrested again and exiled for three years.

January 9, 1922

Death in New York City of Julia Chester Emery, who had served forty years as Secretary of the Woman’s Auxiliary of the Board of Missions in the Episcopal Church, continually urging expansion of missions and church education.

January 9, 1924

Death in England of Frederick C. Conybeare, internationally respected student of the Armenian language, church history, Bible studies, and textual criticism.

January 9, 1947

On this day, Japan’s Christian Layman’s Association was formed under Dr. S. Uzawa, a former President of the Japanese Bar Association, and Dr. T. Yamamoto, a prominent scientist.