August 6
1651: Birth of Francois Fanelon, French priest and scholar. His 1697 writing, Christian Perfection, provided a reasoned defense of mystical spirituality, though it afterward brought him into disfavor with the pope.
1727: French Ursuline nuns first arrived at New Orleans, where they set up the first Catholic charitable institution in America. It comprised an orphanage, a girl's school, and a hospital.
1774: English religious leader Ann Lee (1736-1784) and a small band of followers first arrived in America. Her sect called itself the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Coming, but to the rest of the world her followers came to be known as the "Shakers."
1801: The Great Religious Revival of the American West began at a Presbyterian camp meeting in Cane Ridge, Kentucky.
1821: Birth of Edward H. Plumptre, Anglican theologian. He served on the Old Testament committee for the 1881 English Revised Version of the Bible. Today, he is better remembered as author of the hymn, "Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart."
[Source: William D. Blake. Almanac of the Christian Church, Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.]
