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December 16, 345: Eusebius (not to be confused with historian Eusebius of Caesarea) becomes bishop of Vercelli, Italy. After refusing to sign the condemnation of Athanasius at the Council of Milan, he was exiled. But he was pardoned by Julian the Apostate and led the movement to restore the Nicene Creed—and thus orthodoxy—to the empire (see issue 51: Heresy in the Early Church and issue 72: How We Got Our History).
December 16, 1714: Revivalist and evangelist George Whitefield, the best-known figure of the American Great Awakening, is born in Gloucester, England (see issue 38: George Whitefield).
December 17, 1912: Yale-educated Chicago native Bill Borden, heir to a fortune in real estate and milk production, boards a ship to China via Egypt. Converted to Christ as a young man, Borden had given his inheritance and his life to the cause of world evangelism. Only a month after arriving in Egypt, he contracted spinal meningitis and died. However, publication of his story prompted many young people to enter the mission field.
December 17, 1917: Bolsheviks confiscate all property of the Russian Orthodox Church and abolish religious instruction in the schools. Within two decades, at least 45,000 priests were reportedly martyred in the country (see issue 18: Russian Christianity).
December 18, 1707: Charles Wesley, who founded Methodism with his brother John, is born in England. A celebrated and prolific hymnwriter, his "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" and "Lo, He Comes" are widely sung this time of year (see issue 69: Charles and John Wesley).
December 18, 1835: Lyman Abbott, a Congregational clergyman who was a leading proponent of the social gospel, is born in Massachusetts. Prompted by his admiration of Henry Ward Beecher to enter the ministry, he succeeded Beecher as pastor at Brooklyn's Plymouth Congregational Church.
December 18, 1865: Slavery is abolished in the United States as the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified. Many of the abolitionists who pushed for its passage were Christians seeking to make America more like the Kingdom of God (see issue 33: Christianity and the Civil War).
December 18, 1957: English author Dorothy Sayers, a Christian apologist who was also the most popular mystery writer in England, dies.
December 19, 1734: Count Nicholaus von Zinzendorf, founder of the modern Moravian church and a pioneer in ecumenism and missions, is recognized as a minister by the theology faculty of Tubigen, Germany (see issue 1: Nicholaus Zinzendorf).
December 20, 1552: Former nun Katherine von Bora, Martin Luther's wife from 1525 to Luther's death in 1546, dies (see issue 39: Luther's Later Years).
December 20, 1560: The Scottish Reformed Church, organized with the help of John Knox, holds its first assmbly (see issue 46: John Knox).
December 20, 1576: Edmund Grindal, Archbishop of Canterbury, sends a letter to Queen Elizabeth protesting her order that he tell preachers throughout England to stop speaking so often. She felt three or four sermons per year were sufficient. Grindal's refusal to enforce her wishes earned him house arrest.
December 20, 1787: The Shakers, a millenarian communal society in New Lebanon, Indiana, experience a revival. The religious fervor continued throughout the frontier, crossing denominational barriers.
December 21, 1118: Thomas a Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury who clashed with England's King Henry II, is born in London.
December 21, 1511: In Hispaniola, preacher Antonio des Montesinos counters the conquistador sentiment "Gunpowder against Indians is incense to the Lord" with a fiery sermon denouncing Spain's atrocities in the new world (see issue 25: Columbus Christianity).
December 21, 1620: English separatists known as the Pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts (see issue 41: American Puritans).
December 21, 1807: Anglican clergyman and hymnwriter John Newton, author of "Amazing Grace," dies (see 31: The Golden Age of Hymns).
December 22, 1216: Pope Honorius III officially approves the Dominican Order, which is dedicated "to preaching and the good of souls." Founded earlier that year by Dominic, the order has since been associated with study and scholarship, and with such luminaries as Thomas Aquinas and Albertus Magnus (see issue 73: Thomas Aquinas).
December 22, 1899: Evangelist Dwight L. Moody, the chief spokesman for the revivalist wing of American evangelicalism, dies (see issue 25: D.L. Moody).
December 22, 1917: Francesca Xavier Cabrini, founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, dies in Chicago's Columbus Hospital. In 1946 she was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church, becoming the first American citizen declared a saint.
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