September 27
1540 Through the encyclical
Regimini Militantis Ecclesiae,
Pope
Paul III (1468–1549; pope, 1534–1549) officially
approved the
Society of Jesus (Jesuits), founded in 1534 by
Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556).
1590
Pope Urban VII (b. 4 August 1521) died thirteen days
after being chosen as the pope, making his reign
the shortest papacy in history.
1616 Peter Frank, composer, was born at
Schlausingen. He studied theology at Jena about 1636. In
1640 he was at the University at Altorf. Frank worked as a
Hofmeister from 1643 to 1645, when he received a position as
a pastor. As such he served churches in Thüngen,
Rossfeld, Rodach, Gleussen and Herreth. He died 22 June
1675. [The Handbook to the Lutheran
Hymnal, comp. W. G. Polack (Saint Louis: Concordia
Publishing House, 1942): 508]
1627
Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet,
French bishop and author, was born (d. 12 April 1704). He
was one of the first to advocate the theory of
political absolutism; he made the argument that
government was divine and that kings received their power
from God.
1643
Solomon Stoddard, Puritan religious leader and
grandfather of
Jonathan Edwards
(1703–1758), was born (d. 11
February, 1728/9).
1660
Vincent de Paul, founder of the first Confraternity of
Charity in 1617, the
Congregation of the Mission in 1625 and the
Daughters of Charity, died (b. 24 April 1576).
1696
Alphonsus Liguori, Italian founder of the
Redemptorist order, was born (d. 1 August 1787).
1700
Pope Innocent XII died (b. 13 March 1615).
1719
George Smalridge, English Bishop of Bristol, died (b. 18
March 1662).
1735
Robert Robinson, English clergyman and hymnist, was born
in Norfolk, England (d. 8 June 1790, Showell Green,
Warwickshire, England).
1742
Hugh Boulter, Irish Archbishop of Armagh, died (b. 4
January 1672).
1793
Denis Auguste Affre, archbishop of Paris, was born at
Aveyron, France (d. 27 June 1848).
1805
George
Müller, English
philanthropist, was born near Magdeburg, Germany (d. 10
March 1898).
1817 The
Prussian Union of Lutheran and Reformed churches was
proclaimed by
Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia (1770–1840)
in Potsdam.
1822
Jean-François Champollion
(1790–1832) announced
that he had deciphered the
Rosetta Stone.
1829
Mount
Ararat, the mountain in Turkey that is believed by some
to hold the remains of Noah's Ark, was first climbed in
modern times by Dr. J. J. Parrot.
1857
August Otto Wilhelm Pieper, professor at Wauwatosa and
theologian of the Wisconsin Synod, was born in Carwitz,
Pomerania (d. 23 December 1946).
1867
W. E. Biederwolf, American Presbyterian evangelist, was
born in Monticello, Indiana (d. 3 September 1939).
1872
Bentley DeForest Ackley, American sacred composer, was
born in Spring Hill, Pennsylvania (d. 3 September 1958,
Winona Lake, Indiana).
1899
James Ellor (b. 26 November 1819), English-born American
hat maker and hymn tune composer, died.
1901
F. Wilbur Gingrich, American Evangelical United Brethren
(United Methodist) New Testament scholar and translator of
the
Bauer-Danker Greek lexicon, was born in Annville,
Pennsylvania.
1914
Edward L. Arndt (1864–1929) baptized the first Chinese
converts at his mission in Hankow.
1914
Catherine (nee Wood) Marshall LeSourd, American
Christian writer, was born in Johnson City, Tennessee (d.
March 1983). She became a best-selling author with the
publication of A Man Called Peter, a biography of her
first husband,
Peter Marshall, chaplain of the U.S. Senate.
1929
Gottlieb Bender Christiansen, United Danish Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America president and professor, died (b.
27 October 1851, Vejlby, near Assens, Fyn, Denmark).
1944
Aimee Semple McPherson (b. 9 October 1890), founder of
the Church of the Foursquare Gospel, died.
1947 The
Church of South India was formed by the merger of three
denominations: the Anglican Church (dioceses of Madras,
Tinnevelly, Travancore and Chocin and Dornakal plus dioceses
of the Church of India, Burma and Ceylon), the South India
province of the Methodist Church and the South India United
Church (formed originally by a 1908 union of Presbyterian
and Congregational churches). The merger was the first union
ever between episcopal (bishop-led) and non-episcopal
(congregation-led) bodies.
1948 The Family Worship Hour, a ministry of
the Lutheran Laymen’s League, was first broadcast over
eleven stations.
1949 A committee of thirty-four met to consider
organic union of various American Lutheran church bodies.
1957 The half-hour dramatic anthology series
Crossroads aired for the last time over ABC television.
Depicting the work of clergymen, the series had premiered
two years earlier in October 1955.
1958 Saint Paul Lutheran Church and School, Macau,
was dedicated.
1971
Erich Hugo Heintzen, professor at Concordia Theological
Seminary (Springfield, Illinois), died (b. 17 February 1908,
New Orleans, Louisiana).
1978 Michael J. Stelmachowicz (1927–2009)
was inaugurated as president of Concordia Teachers
College (now
Concordia University, Seward, Nebraska). He was the
school’s seventh president and the first who was also a
graduate of the college.
