This day in history - December 29

Posted Dec. 29, 2007 MINNEAPOLIS 12:42am CT | LONDON 06:42am | SYDNEY 05:42pm

THIS DAY IN HISTORY - December 29, the 4th day of Christmas in Western Christianity

Researched and written by Gloriscope staff

1997: Death of Heinrich Rohr, a prominent German organist and composer of sacred music. – Rohr, who in his youth was close to the Catholic youth movement of Romano Guardini, was director of sacred music in the Roman Catholic diocese of Mainz after World War II. Some of his works are a Te Deum Mass for a choir and four singers and a composition named “Praise of Christ” (”Christuslob”) for a prayer service.

1989: The Church in Czechoslovakia became free again as Vaclav Havel became President of Czechoslovakia. – Before his Presidency, Havel was the leader of the democratic, nonviolent Charta 77 movement for civil rights and freedom of speech in Czechoslovakia. When he was in prison for his political opposition against the Communist regime, he studied the Bible and was inspired by it. Out of his prison, he wrote these words: “Yes, man is in fact nailed down – like Christ on the Cross – to a grid of paradoxes. … And, like Christ, he is in fact victorious by virtue of his defeats.” After his election as President, Vaclav Havel and members of the Czechoslovak parliament walked to the St. Vitus Cathedral, where the Archbishop of Prague, Cardinal Frantisek Tomasek, celebrated a Te Deum Mass (”We Praise Thee, Lord”) to give praise and glory to God.

1986: Death of the prominent Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky. – Although he made his films during the Soviet period, his films contain clear Christian motifs and subtexts. This is especially true of his 1966 film Andrei Rublev about the greatest Russian icon painter Andrei Rublev, who lived in the 15th century. That powerful film is a masterpiece of cinematography, narrative, and Christian spirituality, showing how Andrei Rublev created extraordinary beautiful church icons of Jesus Christ, Virgin Mary, Apostles, and the Holy Trinity during the savage times of bloody Tatar attacks on Russian Christians. In 1988, Andrei Rublev was canonized as a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church.

1894: Death of Christina Rossetti, a prominent English poet of the Victorian period.. – She was interested in the Anglo-Catholic movement in the Church of England and her faith grew during her life. She was a devout Christian all her adult life and lived according to strict rules of godly living. In her poetry, she included God’s Word and clear biblical imagery, but feminist literary critics of our times have reinterpreted the Christian elements of her poetry to mean something non-Christian according to the feminist ideology of gender power and subversion.

1851: The first Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in the United Sates was established in Boston, Massachusetts. – YMCA is an international Christian social movement established in England in 1844 to serve the youth and build local communities. YMCA has Protestant Evangelical roots in the spirit of Christian ecumenism. The World Alliance of YMCAs, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, has millions of members in 145 countries.

1563: Death of the French Reformed theologian Sebastian Castellio, who defended freedom of expression in a conflict with John Calvin.

1170: St. Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered in his own church, the Canterbury Cathedral in England.

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TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY!

Published in the U.S.A. Copyright © 4T4C News Corp. 2007. All rights reserved.