It is St Veronica’s Day. Veronica is at the centre of a web of legends which tell the story of how she received a portrait of Jesus. In one of the oldest stories, she asks St Luke to paint Jesus’s picture, and in another, Jesus comes to supper, dries his face with a towel and leaves his image miraculously printed on it. In the time of St Francis of Assisi, her story changed again, with Veronica among the crowds as Jesus was carrying his cross. She wiped his sweating face with a cloth, which came away with his face on it. Veronica’s story became popular in the 15th century when the Franciscans included it as one of the Stations of the Cross.
Tonight in 1958, David Wilkerson, a Pentecostal minister from rural Pennsylvania, held a ‘city wide youth crusade’ for violent street gangs at St Nicholas Arena in New York. Wilkerson was prompted to get involved in urban mission when he was reading a magazine report about the trial of seven teenage gang members for murder, and had a thought that wouldn’t leave him: ‘Go to New York and help those boys’. The rally almost descended into violence, but Wilkerson prayed and preached, and Nicky Cruz, leader of the Mau Maus gang, became a Christian. Wilkerson went on to found Teen Challenge, an evangelistic and recovery program for drug addicts and gang members, and wrote about his story in the bestselling book, The Cross and the Switchblade.
‘All of us were on our feet. The room was charged with hatred. I was looking for a way out into the aisle. A full scale riot was building. Suddenly I had a compelling urge to look at Wilkerson. He was standing calmly on stage. His head bowed. His hands clasped tightly in front of his chest. His knuckles showed white against the skin. I could see his lips moving. I knew he was praying. Something clutched at my heart.’ Nicky Cruz, Run Baby Run
Today in 1580 saw the publication of the Ostrog Bible, the first Bible to be translated into Old Church Slavonic, the language used in the liturgy of many Eastern European Orthodox Churches, as well as the Russian Church. Printed in Ostroh, in what is now Ukraine, it was sourced from Greek and Slavonic manuscripts, and was intended to combat the influence of the Latin Vulgate, and of Protestant translations such as Luther’s. Just as the King James Bible had a lasting influence on English Bible translation, modern editions of the Slavonic Bible are essentially based on the text of the Ostrog Bible.
Desiderius Erasmus, probably the greatest scholar at the time of the Reformation, died today in 1536 while he was visiting Basel. In 1516, he produced the first printed edition of the New Testament in Greek, the Novum Instrumentum Omne. Later editions of the book were used by Luther, Tyndale and others in translating the New Testament into German, English, Spanish, Czech and other languages of Western and Central Europe.
On this date in 1537, Robert Aske, an English barrister and cousin of Queen Jane Seymour, was executed for leading the Pilgrimage of Grace in the north of England. Aske and his followers wanted Henry VIII to put his programme of closing and selling off the monasteries into reverse. For leading the rebellion, Aske was mercilessly hanged, drawn and quartered at Clifford’s Tower in York Castle.
Image: Steve Grant under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0