John Wesley’s mother Susanna was born in Spitalfields, London, in 1669. Daughter of one the most prominent dissenting ministers in England, she converted to Anglicanism at the age of 13. She had 19 children and taught all of them that survived long enough the alphabet in six hours.
‘When turned a year old (and some before), they were taught to fear the rod, and to cry softly, by which means they escaped much correction which they might have had; and that most odious noise of the crying of children was never heard in the house.’ Susanna Wesley
Terry Waite, then the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Special Envoy, was kidnapped today in 1987 in Lebanon where he was working for the release of four men held hostage by Islamic Jihad. He spent the next 1,763 days in chains.
Today is the feast day St Paula the Bearded, a Spanish saint whose chastity was saved from the advances of a young man by the sudden sprouting of miraculous facial hair. It’s also St Sebastian’s Day, the Patron Saint of Archers. Which seems a bit of an insensitive appointment, considering how he died.
Today the Toronto Blessing landed in Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship in 1994. Its manifestations included falling down, shaking, laughing uncontrollably, doing animal impressions (most popularly dogs, lions, chickens and cockerels), running, pogoing, calling ‘Cooee!’, yawning and coughing, and simulating childbirth. Proclaimed by enthusiasts as a revival, it was later remarketed as ‘a time of refreshing’ when it turned out that it was inexplicably failing to convert anyone.
Image: Emory University / CC0