March 19, 412
The Roman Emperor declares that children abandoned to the church may not be reclaimed. A bishop’s signature is necessary to witness that the church has taken in the child.
March 19, 1222
On order of a superior, Anthony of Padua (Fernando de Bouillon), preaches his first, powerful sermon, the fruit of much reflection.
March 19, 1563
The Edict of Amboise grants a narrow permission for the exercise of the Protestant religion in France.
March 19, 1587
William Allen, exiled head of England’s Roman Catholics, exhorts King Philip II of Spain by letter to undertake an invasion of England and declares that the Catholics there are clamoring for him to punish Queen Elizabeth, “hated by God and man.”
March 19, 1612
Sophia Olelkovich Raziwell died, the last descendent of the Olelkovich-Slutsk dynasty. Passionate for Orthodoxy, she had refused to convert to Catholicism and had obtained a law allowing landowners of the region (modern-day Belarus) to remain Orthodox. Because of her efforts, the region around Slutsk will become a bastion of Orthodoxy, and in 1983 she will be canonized by the Orthodox Church.
March 19, 1656
Death in Helmstadt, Germany, of Georg Calixtus who had been the most influential perpetuator of Melanchthon’s Lutheran theology in the seventeenth century.
March 19, 1711
Death at Longleat, England, of Thomas Ken, notable in his generation as one of seven bishops who had been sent to the Tower of London for refusing to publish King James II’s Declaration of Indulgence. He will be remembered by succeeding generations as the author of the doxology “Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow.”
March 19, 1730
Philip Doddridge is ordained as a nonconformist minister in England. His book The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul will be influential in converting English statesman William Wilberforce and many others to evangelical Christianity.
March 19, 1797
Henry Nott and fellow missionaries conduct the first Christian service ever held in Tahiti. The meeting takes place under cover of some enormous trees with the king of Tahiti and many other Tahitians present.
March 19, 1799
In Vienna, the first public performance of Franz Joseph Haydn’s oratorio Creation takes place. Tickets have been sold out long in advance. A public rehearsal and a private performance for the elite had taken place almost a year earlier, also in Vienna.
March 19, 1875
American poet William Cullen Bryant writes his Christmas hymn “Look from Thy Sphere of Endless Day” for the fiftieth anniversary of the Church of the Messiah in Boston.
March 19, 1879
Death in Racine, Wisconsin, of James De Koven, an Episcopal priest and a leader of Anglican ritualism.
March 19, 1907
Charles Harrison Mason experiences baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. An African-American, he will become founder and head of the Church of God in Christ, Inc.
March 19, 1937
In the encyclical Divini redemptoris Pope Pius XI declares “There would be neither socialism nor communism today if the rulers of the nations had not scorned the teachings and material warnings of the Church.”
March 19, 1972
Lithunians establish The Chronicle, an underground newspaper, to expose Soviet cruelty toward Catholic Christians.
March 19, 1976
Pastor Ifeoma Goodness was born on this day in Christian history. You can read her full biography here.
March 19, 1987
Following disclosures of a 1980 sexual liaison with church secretary Jessica Hahn, Jim Bakker steps down as head of the PTL ministry. He will later go to prison on charges of financial fraud.
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