April 26: Today in Christian History

April 26, 865

Death of Paschasius Radbertus, who wrote an influential book affirming that the Eucharist contains the true, historical body of Jesus Christ.

April 26, 1569

Queen Elizabeth I of England issues a special license allowing John Seconton to hold Sunday games because he has fallen on hard times and has four children to feed. She requires local authorities to send “four or five good substantial men” to keep the peace.

April 26, 1630

George Herbert is appointed by the Earl of Pembroke to the parishes of Fugglestone St Peter and Bemerton St Andrew, near Salisbury. There he will write notable Christian poetry and preach sermons comprehensible to a rural audience.

April 26, 1731

(Uncertain date; April 24 is also often given.) Death of Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe and Journal of the Plague Year, works of fiction noted for their versimilitude, which he wrote from a Puritan non-conformist point of view. He had been hiding from creditors and was found dead, hence the uncertainty of the date of his death. Two centuries after Defoe’s death, Neesima Shimeta, a Japanese youth, will be converted to Christianity through reading Robinson Crusoe.

April 26, 1865

German missionary Ernst Faber arrives in Hong Kong where he will help create a Chinese-Christian literature by having Chinese associates write their own books in consultation with him. He also will work with Chinese officials to import and apply European technology in China.

April 26, 1877

Residents of Minnesota observe a statewide day of prayer, set by Governor John Sargent Pillsbury, imploring deliverance from a plague of grasshoppers that has been ravaging their crops. Many families are on the verge of starvation. In the next two days warm weather will cause millions of larvae to wiggle to life and skeptics scoff; but a plunge in temperature on the fourth day will freeze and kill them. A chapel will be built at Cold Spring to commemorate the miracle.

April 26, 1969

Emmanuel Oladele Agboola is unanimously elected to chair the 56th annual session of the Nigerian Baptist Convention in acknowledgment of his hard work and zeal for souls. His contemporaries recognize him as one of Nigeria’s greatest indigenous pastors and educators as well as a humble and kind man.

April 26, 1995

Azmy Mokhtar Aziz, a Coptic Christian, is murdered in the city of Malawy, one of several Copts targeted there this year.