DECEMBER 24
HANS DENCK WAS FORCED INTO THE COLD ON CHRISTMAS EVE (1526)
“Dear Home Folks, Just got back from Escuintla Sunday night, late. Yesterday I had to help out on a Christmas tree, then renew my passport. This mornin...”
Stevens, Hugh. A Thousand Trails. Personal Journal of William Cameron Townsend 1917-1919 Founder of Wycliffe Bible Translators.
Sing hymns at Christmas (1745)
Sing, ye ransomed nations, sing Praises to our newborn King, Son of man our Maker is, Lord of hosts and Prince of Peace....
Events
361
Assassination at Alexandria, Egypt, of George of Cappadocia, a despotic bishop who had forced Arian theology on Alexandrians. After killing him, the mob burns his body and casts the ashes into the Mediterranean Sea.
Authority for the date: The Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization.1164
Discovery of Bishop Hartmann of Brixen, Austria, dead in his bath. He had supported Pope Alexander III against Victor, Frederick Barbarossa’s claimant to the papacy; however, Holy Roman Emperor Barbarossa never held this against him.
Authority for the date: A. W. A. Leeper, A History of Medieval Austr1515
Bartolomé Las Casas has an audience with Ferdinand of Spain, building rapport with the monarch, who will eventually commission him to act in behalf of the Indians of the New World.
Authority for the date: Wagner, Henry Raup. The Life and Writings of Bartolome de las Casas. 1944.1526
Hans Denck is ordered to leave Strasbourg because of his Anabaptist views.
Authority for the date: Yoder, John Howard, editor. The Legacy of Michael Sattler. Herald Press, 1973.1784
The first General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in American convenes in Baltimore, Maryland, at Lovely Lane Chapel.
Authority for the date: Stevens, Abel. History of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America. Carlton, 1866.1849
Dostoevsky’s trek toward exile in the Omsk penal settlement begins. He has been condemned for participating in a rebel plot. On the way, a woman will thrust a Bible into his hands, which will turn him toward Christ. Although Christian considerations will be prominent in his future writings, his Christianity will not deliver him from compulsive behaviors such as gambling until the last decade of his life.
Authority for the date: Leatherbarrow, William J. Fedor Dostoevsky. Twayne, 1981.1912
Death in Japan of Charlotte Diggs “Lottie” Moon, who had served as a Baptist missionary in China. Her appeals had led to the formation of the Women’s Missionary Union.
Authority for the date: Episcopal Church. Holy Women, Holy Men.1929
Ralph Darby Williams and his wife Jewyl arrive in El Salvador, where they will teach nationals to manage their own churches and conduct their own mission work.
Authority for the date: Oberg, "Ralph Williams, Missionary to El Salvador..."2003
Falsely blaming Christians for the death of a popular Buddhist monk, Sri Lankan Buddhists attack and burn Christian churches, forcing 140 churches to close.
Authority for the date: Persecuted: the global assault on Christians.2010
Muslims from the organization Boko Haram murder Pastor Bulus Marwa of the Victory Baptist Church in Alamuderi, Nigeria, along with other Christians on the site, and burn down the church.
Authority for the date: Dictionary of African Christian Biography.