Philip Doddridge (above, as a gargoyle), the non-conformist minister and hymn writer, was born today in 1702, the 20th child of a dealer in pickles. He wrote hymns such as ‘My God and is Thy table spread’, which sounds a bit blasphemous, but isn’t really.
The Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate died of wounds today in the year 363, at Samarra on the banks of the River Tigris in Mesopotamia. Julian, who had a strong antipathy to Christianity, had aggressively pursued war against the Persians, but his campaign had faltered and was in retreat when a javelin thrown by pursuing troops pierced his side and lodged in his liver. He died of a haemorrhage a few days later.
‘I now offer my tribute of gratitude to the Eternal Being, who has not suffered me to perish by the cruelty of a tyrant, by the secret dagger of conspiracy, or by the slow tortures of lingering disease. He has given me, in the midst of an honourable career, a splendid and glorious departure from this world; and I hold it equally absurd, equally base, to solicit, or to decline, the stroke of fate.’ Julian the Apostate, dying words
Today in the year 250, Aurelius Diogenes, 72 years old with a scar on his right eyebrow, sacrificed to the gods in the Egyptian town of Oxyrhyncus – like many thousands of other unknown people at the time. The sacrifices were demanded by the Emperor Decius, in an effort to impose religious uniformity. This random event is known because the libellus, the signed certificate of sacrifice, was eventually discarded on the rubbish dump of Oxyrhyncus, and unearthed by archaeologists at the end of the 19th century.
‘I have always sacrificed regularly to the gods, and now, in your presence, in accordance with the edict, I have done sacrifice, and poured the drink offering, and tasted of the sacrifices, and I request you to certify the same.’ Aurelius Diogenes papyrus, Oxyrhyncus
Gilbert White, naturalist and ecologist, perpetual curate, and the author of The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne (1789), died today in 1793 in Selbourne. His pioneering field work and close observation of animals and birds in their natural habitat are said to have laid the groundwork for the work of Charles Darwin.
It is the feast of David the Dendrite, the 3rd or 4th century saint of Thessalonika. He became famous as a holy man, with crowds of people coming to see him, so he climbed a tree at his monastery and didn’t come down for three years, hoping for some peace and quiet.
Image: Storye Book