February 21: Today in Christian History

February 21, 1076

Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV sends a sneering letter to Hildebrand (Pope Gregory VII) who is in council. The bishops scream for the messenger’s death but Hildebrand shields the man with his own body.

February 21, 1431

Pierre Cauchon, bishop of Beauvais, begins his interrogation of Joan of Arc. She will eventually be condemned as a heretic and burned at the stake.

February 21, 1595

Robert Southwell is hanged, drawn, and quartered. A Jesuit, he had lived secretly in London, providing priestly services for several years during the reign of Elizabeth I. After his capture he had undergone thirteen tortures.

February 21, 1831

Death in Bristol of the Baptist preacher Robert Hall. The depth of his ideas had been such that he is said to have held large audiences spellbound despite a weak voice. His mental breakdowns had occasionally resulted in stays in asylums.

February 21, 1869

Queen Ranavalona II of Madagascar and her court convert to Christianity and are baptized.

February 21, 1896

Walter Grand Taylor converts to Christianity in a hotel room. The conversion is brought on by his realization that his young wife, a Christian, who has just died, is already in heaven, while he is doomed. Twenty years later he will become head of the Pacific Garden Mission.

February 21, 1953

Death of Ekvtime Takaishvili, a Georgian Orthodox historian and archaeologist who recovered lost information on the history of Georgia, founded a democratic party in his country and suffered in exile under the Soviets, while preserving a large and valuable collection of artifacts relating to Georgian history. The Georgian Orthodox Church will declare him a saint.

February 21, 1954

Appointment of Bonaventure Dlamini, of the Franciscan Familiars of St. Joseph, as South Africa’s first black Catholic bishop.

February 21, 2009

The Vatican announces that Father Damien, famed for his work with lepers on Hawaii, will be canonized.