The Italian architect Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, who designed the Church of the Gesù in Rome (above), died today in 1573. The church, which has the first-ever baroque facade, became the template for Jesuit churches in the Americas and around the world.
The bones of St Thomas Becket were moved today in 1220, 50 years after he was murdered by four knights of King Henry II. They were taken from the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral, where they had initially been buried, and deposited in a golden shrine decorated with jewels behind the high altar of the cathedral’s new Trinity Chapel. This date, 7 July, then became a major feast day each year of the English and French Churches, and Becket’s shrine became England’s greatest ever pilgrim attraction. The shrine and the feast day were both done away with by King Henry VIII.
Wonderful news today in 1456 for Joan of Arc, who was declared innocent of heresy. A shame, then, that she had been executed 25 years earlier. The retrial also declared that Joan was a martyr of the Church.
Francis Browne, Irish Jesuit and gifted photographer, who took the last surviving photographs onboard the Titanic, died today in 1960. He disembarked the unsinkable ocean liner at Queenstown, Ireland, before she made her Atlantic crossing, and had a close escape because some first class passengers took a shine to him and offered to pay his ticket to New York. He wired his Jesuit superior to ask if he could do this, and received the curt reply, GET OFF THAT SHIP. Browne enjoyed an afterlife starting in the 1980s, when his unknown negatives were discovered and enjoyed widespread publication and celebrity.
Charles Albert Tindley, the African American Methodist minister famous for his preaching and music, was born today in 1851. He proved so popular that his church congregation in Philadelphia grew from 130 to 10,000. He is reckoned to be one of the fathers of Gospel music, writing hymns that are still sung, such as ‘I’ll overcome some day’, and ‘Stand by me’.
A thousand snares are set for me,
And mountains in my way;
If Jesus will my leader be,
I’ll overcome some day.
Charles Albert Tindley
Image: Paul Williams