February 28 in Christian History

Feb 28, 2009 10:52 AM EST

1759 - Pope Clement XIII granted permission for the Bible to be translated into the languages of the Roman Catholic states.


1784 - English churchman John Wesley, 80, formally chartered the movement within Anglicanism which afterward came to be known as Wesleyan Methodism.


1873 - The Society of Mary, founded in 1816, was officially recognized by Pope Pius IX. This religious order seeks to combine the work of education with foreign missions.


1947 - U.S. Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall prayed: 'Let not the past ever be so dear to us as to set a limit to the future. Give us the courage to change our minds when that is needed.'


870 - The Fourth Constantinople Council closed, under Pope Adrian II in the West and Emperor Basil I in the East. The council had condemned iconoclasm, and became the last ecumenical council held in the Eastern Mediterranean area.


© 1987-2009, William D. Blake. Used by permission of the author, from

Almanac of the Christian Church