January 4
1066
Edward the Confessor (b. ca. 1004), the only
English king ever canonized a saint by the Roman Catholic
church, died.
1519
Martin Luther had an interview with the papal nuncio,
Karl
von Miltitz.
1528
Ferdinand of Austria, younger brother of Holy Roman
Emperor Charles V, became the first secular ruler to issue a
mandate forbidding the Anabaptist religious movement.
1547
Johann
Brenz
(1499–1570) returned to
Halle after being forced to flee several weeks earlier
during the Smalkaldic War.
1581
James
Ussher, Irish theologian, Anglican prelate and Bible
chronologist, was born in Dublin, Ireland (d. 21 March
1656).
1745
Johann Jakob Griesbach, New Testament scholar, was born
at Butzbach, Germany (d. 21 March 1812).
1770
William Staughton, Baptist clergyman, educator and
composer, was born in Cogentry, Warwickshire, England (d. 12
December, 1829, Washington, D.C.).
1821
Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seaton (b. 28 August 1774), founder of
the American Sisters of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious
order, and the first American-born Roman Catholic saint,
died.
1834 Ferdinand Doederlein was born.
He immigrated to America in 1859 after attending seminary at
Neuendettelsau. He served as an Iowa Synod missionary to the Crow
Indians (d. 2 July 1915).
1857
John Nathan Kildahl, president of the Red Wing
(Minnesota) Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Seminary and of
Saint Olaf College (Northfield, Minnesota), was born in
Beitsteden (Namdalseidet), Norway (d. 25 September 1920).
1861
John Henry Ott, Wisconsin Synod librarian,
was born in Tell City, Indiana. He graduated from
Northwestern College and attended Amherst, Berlin and Halle
universities, receiving a Ph.D. from Halle in 1892. He was
professor of English and history at Northwestern College of
the Wisconsin Synod (1885) and served as its librarian and
bursar.
1874
Concordia Theological Seminary (Springfield, Illinois)
was dedicated.
1944
Kaj Munk,
Danish Lutheran pastor and patriot, died (b. 13 January 1898
at Maribo, Denmark).
1947 Presbyterian clergyman
Peter Marshall (1902–1949)
was elected chaplain of the U.S. Senate. Serving until his
untimely death on 25 January 1949, he was the 54th chaplain
chosen in Senate history and the first Presbyterian
appointed since 1879.
1949 A committee with representatives from most
National Lutheran Council churches met in Minneapolis to
consider organic union.
1953 The Catholic Hour
aired for the first time over NBC television. This
long-running series (aired through August 1970) was produced
by NBC in cooperation with the National Council of Catholic
Men.
1963 Martin F. Kretzmann died (b. 30 December
1878). He graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) in
1901 and held parishes in Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. From
1918 to 1920 he served the Central District as secretary. He
then served as secretary of the Missouri Synod from 1920 to
1956. From 1956 to 1959 he was a member of the Missouri
Synod Board of Directors.
1967 Henry Wittrock, the first Missouri Synod
missionary to Argentina, died in Omaha, Nebraska (b. 13 July
1879, Stover, Missouri). He graduated from Concordia
Seminary (Saint Louis) in 1902 and went to Brazil, where he
served for three years, covering hundreds of miles on
horseback, visiting scattered settlements and organizing
parishes. In 1905 he moved to Argentina and organized a
parish at San Juan. Ill health forced him to return to the
U.S. in 1906, where he served parishes at Edinburg, New
Berlin and Mount Pulaski, Illinois. He retired in 1946 and
moved to Omaha, where for ten years he served as chaplain at
the Lutheran Home for the Aged.
