February 9: Today in Christian History

February 9, 1555

Bishop John Hooper (deprived of his see at Gloucester), and Dr. Rowland Taylor are burned at the stake as Protestant heretics in the reign of Mary Tudor. 

February 9, 1619

Authorites in Toulouse, France, cut out Lucilio “Giulio Cesare” Vanini’s tongue, then strangle and burn him as an atheist and libertine. He had promulgated pantheistic views and addressed nature as a goddess.

February 9, 1815

Death of Claudius Buchanan, in England. He had been a chaplain and educator in India where he had done much to advance the gospel and free missionaries from the control of the East India Company.

February 9, 1849

After the success of Mazzini and his followers and the flight of Pius IX from Rome, an Italian assembly declares the temporal power of the pope abolished.

February 9, 1881

Death of Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky, who often included Christian characters and themes in his writing

February 9 1907

Mary Stone, a Chinese missionary doctor, sails from Shanghai bound for the United States to receive medical care she desperately needs.

February 9, 1943

Alexander Solzhenitsyn is arrested at the German front and charged with conspiracy to overthrow Stalin’s government because of a letter he had written a friend criticizing the Communist leader’s actions. He will be sent to the Gulag where he will find faith.

February 9, 1949

Cardinal József Mindszenty is sentenced in Hungary. Hungary's Communist government had accused him of treason because he refused to permit the secularization of Catholic schools. He had scribbled a note to his mother, saying, “I have taken no part in any conspiracy of any kind....if despite what I now say you should read that I have confessed or resigned, and even see it authenticated by my signature, bear in mind that it will have been only the result of human frailty. In advance, I declare all such actions null and void.”

February 9, 1958

Dave Wilkerson, a pastor in Pennsylvania, decides to sell his TV and pray two hours a night. He goes on to do a notable work among the gangs of New York City.