February 14
A physician and priest living in Rome during the rule
of the Emperor Claudius, Valentine become one of the noted
martyrs of the third century. The commemoration of his
death, which occurred in the year 270, became part of the
calendar of remembrance in the early church of the West.
Tradition suggests that on the day of his execution for his
Christian faith, he left a note of encouragement for a child
of his jailer written on an irregularly-shaped piece of
paper. This greeting became a pattern for millions of
written expressions of love and caring that now are the
highlight of Valentine's Day in many nations. [From "Commemorations Biographies,"
Lutheran Service Book, LCMS Commission on
Worship]
869 Cyril, monk and missionary to the Slavs,
is commemorated (b. 827).
885 Methodius, bishop and missionary to Slavs,
is commemorated.
1014
Pope Benedict VIII (d. 9 April 1024) recognized
Henry of Bavaria (973–1024) as
king of Germany.
1076
Pope Gregory VII (ca. 1020/1025–1085)
excommunicated
Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor (1050–1106).
1488 Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III
(1415–1493)
established the
Great Swabian
League, a confederation of twenty-two German cities in
the Duchy of Swabia (parts of modern-day Baden,
Wuerttemberg, Bavaria and Switzerland).
1556 Thomas Cranmer (1489–1556) was deposed as Archbishop
of Canterbury by Mary I.
1760 Richard Allen, black American church
leader, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 26 March
1831).
1772 Heinrich Huet (descendants spell the name
Hewitt), Ohio Synod pastor, was born near Hagerstown,
Maryland (d. 16 February 1855).
1779 Jacob Henkel, early American Lutheran
pastor, died (b. 14 March 1733).
1784 Christoph C. L. von Pfeil, hymnist, died
(b. 1712, Grünstadt, near Worms).
1818 Abolitionist Frederick Douglass was born into
slavery in Talbot County, Maryland (d. 20 February
1895).
1826 Johann Daniel Falk, hymnist, died (b. 28
October 1768,
Danzig).
1834 “Fight the Good Fight with All Your
Might” was written on this date by John S. B. Monsell (1811–1875), vicar of Guilford.
1843 James William Richard, Reformation
historian, was born near Winchester, Virginia (d. 7 March
1909).
1843
Jesse Lyman Hurlbut, Methodist
clergyman, was born in New York City (d. 2 August 1930).
After holding pastorates in New Jersey and New York between
1865 and 1879, he was appointed to the Methodist Sunday
School Union, working with them from 1879 to 1900. He wrote
thirty books on Bible study, Bible history and Sunday school
work. One of his most popular works was Story of
Jesus (1915).
1884 Luther B. Bridgers, southern American
Methodist pastor and evangelist, was born in Margaretsville,
North Carolina (d. 27 May 1948, Atlanta, Georgia).
1887 Christian Thomas Wetzstein,
president of the Manitoba-Saskatchewan District of
the LCMS (1927–1929), was born in Sac County, Iowa (d. 31
October 1978, South Lyon, Michigan). A 1909 graduate of
Concordia Theological Seminary (Springfield, Illinois), Wetzstein served congregations and preaching stations in
northwest Canada, Saskatchewan and Ontario. After he left
Canada, he continued to serve several vacant congregations
in Indiana and Michigan until 1967. Wetzstein is said to
have organized twenty-four congregations and to have served
thirty-two congregations from his vicarage year in 1907 in
Texas to his last parish at Burlington, Michigan.
1892 Robert H. Pfeiffer, American
Methodist biblical scholar, was born in Bologna, Italy. He
directed archeological excavations at Nuzi between 1928 and
1929, edited the Journal of Biblical Literature
from 1943 to 1947 and served as president of the Society of
Biblical Literature in 1950. Considered a liberal scholar by
many fundamentalists of his day, Pfeiffer's major
contributions were in the fields of Old Testament and
Assyriology.
1896 Arnold Krentz was born in
Dorchester, Wisconsin (d. 15 March 1961, Fort Wayne,
Indiana). He graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis)
in 1920 and served as a pastor in Canada and Michigan. From
1941 to 1961 he served as superintendent of the
Lutheran
Deaconess Association of Fort Wayne, Indiana. During that
time he also taught at Valparaiso University.
1906 Lorenz C. Wunderlich was born in
Waco, Texas (d. 19 September 1993, Orlando, Florida). He
graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) in 1927 and
served congregations in Indiana, Kansas and Missouri. He
served on the Missouri Synod Hymnody Commission, Literary
Review for Publication, and Appeals and Adjudication
Commission. He served the Kansas District as treasurer and
Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) as registrar.
1913 James A. Pike, controversial American
Episcopal bishop, was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
1914 Ira F. Stanphill, American song
evangelist, was born in Bellview, New Mexico (d. 30 December
1993).
1926 The first four trained evangelists
graduated from the Hankow Seminary in China.
1949 Chaim Weizmann (1874–1952) was elected as the first
president of modern Israel.
1952 Francis H. Rowley (b. 25 July 1854), American
Baptist clergyman and humanitarian, died.
1958 Edward Shippen Barnes, musician and
arranger, died in Idyllwild,
California (b. 14 September 1887, Seabright, New
Jersey).