March 29: Today in Christian History

March 29, 1547

English reformer John Hooper and his wife are welcomed to Zurich by Heinrich Bullinger, having temporarily left England because of persecution by King Henry VIII. Hooper will perish at the stake under Mary Tudor.

March 29, 1549

First Jesuits arrive in Brazil led by Father Manuel de Nobrega.

March 29, 1751

Death of Captain Thomas Coram. Appalled at the sight of children dying in London's streets, he had urged the creation of the Foundling Hospital in that city. The orphanage will be claimed as the world’s first incorporated charity and in its chapel the captain’s remains will be interred on April 3.

March 29, 1772

Death in London of Emanuel Swedenborg, a versatile thinker who had made contributions to science, but later in life veered into mysticism. His writings claimed direct revelations from God and angels to restore the true Christian religion. He had also claimed he spoke with extraterrestrials from the moon, Mercury, and other planets in the solar system. Centuries later, his thought will still have adherents and defenders.

March 29, 1788

Death of Charles Wesley in London. An evangelist like his more famous brother, John, he also wrote many hymns of the highest quality.

March 29, 1882

Death at Clifton, England (near Bristol), of Dora Greenwell, Christian poet and hymn writer. Her two best-known hymns are “And Art Thou Come with us to Dwell?” and “I Am not Skilled to Understand.”

March 29, 1887

Death at Newark, New Jersey, of hymn writer Ray Palmer. His most famous hymn is “My Faith Looks up to Thee.”

March 29, 1927

Death of Ambrosius of Georgia in Tbilisi. He had been the partriarch of all Georgia, a historian of his people and their church, and a staunch opponent of Soviet communism. The Soviets had imprisoned him and his death came shortly after his release.

March 29, 1991

Ezra Lawiri is fatally wounded by an artillery shell as the Sudanese battle around him. An Episcopal priest, educator, author, and translator, he had refused to take refuge in Kenya, saying death would overtake him wherever he was when his time came.