Home > Christian History & Biography > This Week in Christian History
November 11, 397 (traditional date): Martin of Tours, a bishop responsible for the evangelization of Gaul, dies. He is France's patron saint.
November 11, 1215: The Fourth Lateran Council opens. It officially confirmed the doctrine of transubstantiation—that the substance of Eucharistic bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ, with only the accidents (appearances of bread and wine) remaining. The council also prescribed annual confession for all Christians.
November 11, 1620: Forty-one Puritan separatists arrive in Plymouth, Massachusetts. They had hoped to settle further south, but as William Bradford wrote in his journal on December 19, "We could not now take much time for further search . . . our victuals being much spent, especially our beer" (see issue 41: The American Puritans).
November 11, 1793: English missionary William Carey arrives in Calcutta, India (see issue 36: William Carey).
November 11, 1855: Danish Christian philosopher Síren Kierkegaard, regarded as the founder of existentialism, dies at age 42. Trying to "reintroduce Christianity to Christendom," he believed that Christianity was far more radical and difficult than did his Danish contemporaries.
November 12, 1035: Canute the Great, Danish king since 1016, dies at age 41. The often ruthless king had restored churches and monasteries throughout his kingdom and built several new ones (see issue 63: Conversion of the Vikings).
November 12, 1660: John Bunyan is arrested for unlicensed preaching and sentenced to prison. While incarcerated, he penned Pilgrim's Progess and Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, the greatest Puritan spiritual autobiography (see issue 11: John Bunyan).
November 12, 1836: Charles Simeon, the Church of England's most famous evangelical clergyman, dies.
November 13, 354: Augustine of Hippo, the greatest of the Latin church fathers and author of Confessions and City of God, is born in Thagaste—modern Souq Ahras, Algeria (see issue 15:Augustine and issue 67:Augustine).
November 13, 867: Nicholas I, one of the strongest proponents for Rome's primacy in the church, dies. Though a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, he is not to be confused with the bishop of Myra who is also called St. Nicholas and was popularized as Santa Claus.
November 13, 1618: The Dutch Reformed Church convenes the Synod of Dort to "discuss" the Arminian controversy. Of course, the synod's condemnation of Arminianism was a forgone conclusion—Arminians weren't even invited for another month. By April, 200 Arminian ministers (known as Remonstrants) were deposed by the Calvinist Synod, 15 were arrested, and one was beheaded for high treason.
November 13, 1938: The Roman Catholic church makes Francis Xavier Cabrini (1850-1917), founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, the first American saint.
November 14, 565: Roman Emperor Justinian dies at 82. During his reign, he reunited the Eastern and Western empires politically and religiously, erected several new basilicas in Constantinople, and created the Justinian Code, which greatly influenced the development of canon law in the Middle Ages.
November 14, 1741: English revivalist George Whitefield marries Elizabeth Burnell (see issue 38: George Whitefield).
November 14, 1976: The Plains (Ga.) Baptist Church, where then-presidential candidate Jimmy Carter was a member, votes to permit blacks to attend.
November 14, 1990: British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge dies at 87. After editorial stints at the Manchester Guardian and Punch and years as a BBC commentator, the cynical and licentious Muggeridge quietly converted to Christianity. It was his reporting on Mother Teresa that first brought her to the public's attention.
November 15, 1280: German theologian Albertus Magnus, teacher of Thomas Aquinas and defender of his theology (as well as a brilliant writer on Aristotelian thought), dies at age 87. Declared a doctor of the church in 1931 by Pope Pius XI, Pope Pius XII proclaimed him the patron of natural scientists in 1941 (see issue 73: Thomas Aquinas).
November 15, 1397: Thomas Parentuchelli, who would later take the name Nicholas V and is considered the best of the Renaissance popes, is born. As pope he led a blameless personal life, loved the new studies in arts and sciences, restored many ruined churches, and founded the Vatican Library.
November 15, 1630: German mathematician and astronomer Johann Kepler, famous for his laws of planetary motion, dies at 58. As a Christian, he believed the universe to be an expression of God's being rather than God's creation (see issue 76: Christian Face of the Scientific Revolution).
November 15, 1885: Mwanga, ruler of Buganda (now part of Uganda), beheads recent Anglican convert and royal family member Joseph Mukasa. Mukasa opposed the massacring of Anglican missionary bishop James Hannington and his colleagues in October. The bloodbath continued through January 1887 as the ruler killed Mukasa's Christian pages and other Anglican and Catholic leaders. Collectively, the martyrs of Uganda were canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1964.
November 15, 1917: Oswald Chambers dies while serving as chaplain to British troops in Egypt during World War I. His widow, Gertrude, spent the rest of her life compiling his notes, lectures, and sermons into books, including the bestselling My Utmost for His Highest.
November 16, 1621: The Papal Chancery adopts January as the beginning of the calendar year, instead of March.
November 16, 1855: Scottish missionary-explorer David Livingstone first sees and names Victoria Falls (in modern Zimbabwe) during his first missionary journey though Africa (see issue 56: David Livingstone).
November 17, 3 B.C.: According to early church father Clement of Alexandria (c.155-c.220), Jesus was born on this date (issue 59: Jesus of Nazareth).
November 17, 270 (traditional date): Gregory Thaumaturgus ("The Wonder Worker"), a well-loved bishop in Pontus and the author of the first Christian biography (on Origen) dies. A legend, from a generation later, about the Virgin Mary visiting him is the first account of a Marian apparition (see issue 57: Converting the Empire).
November 17, 1558: Elizabeth I's accession to the English throne leads to the re-establishment of the Church of England.
November 17, 1961: Charles H. Mason, founder of the Church of God in Christ, dies. His was the first major denomination to emerge from the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles, where Mason received the baptism of the Holy Spirit (see issue 58: Pentecostalism).
Browse More Christian History & Biography
Home | Archives | Contact Us
FROM THE MAGAZINE
Early Church | The American Experience | Movements & Traditions
Heroes & Leaders | World Christianity | Special Interests
BEHIND THE NEWS
News | Reviews | Profiles | Holidays
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Subscribe to Christianity Today and get 3 free trial issues. No credit card required.
|
 |
|
No credit card required. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Offer valid in U.S. only. Click here for International orders.
If you decide you want to keep Christianity Today coming, honor your invoice for just $19.95 and receive 9 more issues, a full year in all. If not, simply write "cancel" across the invoice and return it. The three trial issues are yours to keep, regardless
Give a gift subscription | Buy past issues
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
| 
