DECEMBER 26
SATTIANADEN MADE HISTORY FOR INDIA'S TAMIL LUTHERANS (1790)
“The commons assembled in parliament do declare, that they do dislike and will proceed against all such persons as shall take upon them to preach, or e...”
Christian, John T. A History of the Baptists. Baptist Standard Bearer, 2005.
Christ stooped low for us (1836)
All the signs that the angels gave to the shepherds by which they might discover the infant Jesus were marks of humility...
Events
795
Election of Leo III as pope. Five years later he will crown Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor.
Authority for the date: Brusher, Joseph. Popes Through the Ages, Third Edition. Neff-Kane, 1980.1790
Ordination of Sattyanadan Pillai (also spelled Satyanathan), the first Tamil missionary of the Lutheran Church in India. Sattyanadan will serve as pastor-teacher in Tirunelveli and will be one of the leaders in a movement of mass conversion of Indians to Christianity.
Authority for the date: Jeyaraj, Daniel. “Making Missionary Heritage Alive through Archival Research.”1830
Death in Dingapore, India, of Baptist pastor Ignatius Fernandez, the first indigenous Indian pastor of that town, who had established a paper plant to provide work for the support of the local congregation.
Authority for the date: John O. Choules and Thomas Smith, The Origin1912
MacKay Memorial Hospital is established in Taipei in honor of Presbyterian missionary George Leslie Mackay, founder of a clinic which became the basis of the hospital. It will develop into one of the largest medical centers in Taiwan, and will retain deep Presbyterian roots.
Authority for the date: Carrie Kellenberger, “The Legacy of George Leslie Mackay.” https://canchamtw.com/the-lega1937
Bolsheviks shoot Isaac the Younger, a “holy father” of the Russian Orthodox Church associated with the teachings of the former Optina Monastery eighty miles north of Moscow.
Authority for the date: www.pravmir.com.1948
Hungarian authorities arrest Cardinal Josef Mindszenty, an outspoken critic of communism. Fearful that he will break under torture, he scribbles a note to his mother: “I have taken no part in any conspiracy of any kind. I shall not resign from my episcopal see. I shall not make a confession. But if despite what I now say you should read that I have confessed or resigned, and even see it authenticated by my signature, bear in mind that it will have been only the result of human frailty. In advance, I declare all such actions null and void.” He will spend eight years in prison and fifteen more in asylum in the United States embassy.
Authority for the date: Shuster, George Nauman. Religion Behind the Iron Curtain. Greenwood Press Reprint, 1978.1952
Demos Shakarian, founder of the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship International, sees so little success that he announces the meeting of this date will be the last. However, he has a vision the night before of dead men in chains coming to life and this changes his mind. From that day things change and the fellowship grows into a huge international movement with over one thousand chapters world wide and results in the conversion of hundreds of thousands of people.
Authority for the date: Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals.1968
Death in Oregon of historian Kenneth Scott Latourette. His most famous book was his seven-volume History of the Expansion of Christianity.
Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.1994
Nigerian Christians falsely accused of defecating on a Koran are dragged out of jail and beheaded by a mob.
Authority for the date: Marshall, Paul A. and Lela Gilbert. Their Blood Cries Out. Thomas Nelson, 1997.2004
A tsunami from a strong earthquake devastates towns along India’s eastern shore that have large Christian populations.
Authority for the date: Christian History 87 (2005).