February 4: Today in Christian History

February 4, 856

Death at Winkel (near Mainz) of Christian educator, encyclopedist, and archbishop Rabanus Maurus.

February 4, 1555

English reformer John Rogers is burned at the stake at Smithfield, the first of many martyrs in the reign of Mary Tudor.

February 4, 1686

Muslims in Aleppo execute Joseph of Aleppo, claiming he had promised to become a Muslim but reneged. He seals his fate by testifying against Islamic beliefs at his hearing.

February 4, 1798

Elizabeth Fry, reared a Quaker, has a conversion experience in Norwich, England, under the preaching of William Savery, an American Friend. She will become a notable prison reformer.

February 4, 1810

Presbyterian ministers Finis Ewing, Samuel King, and Samuel McAdowhe reorganize the Cumberland Presbytery of Kentucky and Tennessee as an independent presbytery.

February 4, 1928

In South Africa, the parents of teenager Manche Masemola kill her and bury her by a granite rock. Masemola had refused to abandon Christianity, worshiping in the Anglican Church at every opportunity. Decades later, she will be honored with a statue at Westminster Abbey.

February 4, 2005

Opening day of consultation at Bossey, Switzerland, which will establish a new alliance for churches and church-related organizations that work ecumenically in relief and development.

February 4, 2018

Merger in Santiago, Chile, of the International Pentecostal Holiness Church and the First Methodist Pentecostal Church of Chile, enlarging the International Pentecostal Holiness Church to over two million members.