Historical Writings

Death of St. Alexander of Alexandria whose appointment as Patriarch of Alexandria ensures that the heretic Arius cannot fill the spot. Alexander treats Arius with consideration, but supports the orthodox position.

Baptism of Augustine of Hippo on Easter Eve. According to his writings, Italy observed Easter on the 18th that year. (Under the rules of the Council of Nicea it should have been observed April 25th.)

On a Sunday morning, Donnan and fifty-three other monks on the Hebrides Island of Eigg are massacred at the command of a Pictish queen.

Repose (death) of Zosima, one of the founders of the famous Solovetsky monastery on the White Sea in northern Russia.

Reorus Torkillus, 41, from Sweden, landed at Fort Christie in Delaware, making him the first Lutheran pastor to arrive in North America.

William Law is suspended from his pulpit for non-conformist views. He will become famed as the author of a Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, but his book Power of the Spirit will be more evangelical.

John Rudge bequeaths twenty shillings a year to the parish of Trysull, in Staffordshire, that a poor man might be employed to go through the church during sermons and keep the people awake and also to keep dogs out of the church.

English founder of Methodism John Wesley wrote in a letter: 'You have now such faith as is necessary for your living unto God. As yet you are not called to die. When you are, you shall have faith for this also.'

Repose (death) of Archbishop Makarius at the hermitage of St. Peter in Chios. Metropolitan of Corinth, he had been a mystic and a spiritual writer who sought to revive the Orthodox Church under Turkish rule.

English historian and statesman Thomas B. Macaulay declared: 'The whole history of Christianity proves that she has little indeed to fear from persecution as a foe, but much to fear from persecution as an ally.'

After celebrating Communion, missionary/pastor Willis Hoover resigns from his Methodist congregation in Valparaiso, Chile, declaring that he is separating, for reasons of conscience, from the organization of the church but not from Methodism. The following month he will become pastor of the newly-formed Pentecostal Methodist Church in Valparaiso.

Birth of Robert G. Bratcher, principal translator of the American Bible Society's 1966-1976 "Good News Bible" (also known as "Today's English Version").

Harold John Ockenga, Charles E. Fuller, and Wilbur Smith meet to discuss founding an evangelical seminary, one of the crucial meetings and contacts that leads to the establishment of Fuller Theological Seminary.

Swedish statesman and Secretary General of the U.N. Dag Hammarskjld noted in his journal "Markings": 'Forgiveness breaks the chain of causality because he who forgives you -- out of love - - takes upon himself the consequences of what you have done. Forgiveness, therefore, always entails a sacrifice.'