The evangelical social reformer Robert Raikes (above) died today in 1811. His prison work convinced him that the best way to help reform people was by giving poor children education and religion. Since the only day of the week in which children were not at work was Sunday, he invented Sunday schools in 1870. Fifty years later, some 1,250,000 children were attending the ‘ragged schools’, as they were nicknamed, and in time they gave rise to the English school system.
It is Theodora of Thessalonica’s Day. After she died her abbess chose to be buried with her, and at the abbess’s funeral, when the tomb was opened, mourners were surprised to see the body of the saint shuffle over to make room for the new arrival. True story.
Today in 1568 saw the baptism of the future Pope Urban VIII, who was then just a baby called Maffeo. During his time as Pope, he enriched his family to a fabulous degree, giving nepotism a bad name by making his nephews and other relatives cardinals and giving them other lucrative jobs. He also summoned his old friend Galileo to Rome in 1633, where Galileo was tried for a second time by the Inquisition and found ‘vehemently suspect of heresy’ – the heresy being that the earth moves round the sun, rather than the other way round.
Timothy I, the Patriarch of Constantinople, died today in the year 517. He was one of the first Christian leaders to get congregations to recite the Nicene Creed, with all its obscure theological terms, at church services.
Image: Tim Green