This day in the year 70 is a possible date for when the Temple in Jerusalem, built by Herod the Great and seen by Jesus, was destroyed by Roman soldiers under the command of Titus, son of the Emperor Vespasian. Titus had intended to preserve the Temple for its artistic value and as an ‘ornament of the empire’, but it was fired by a soldier. This catastrophe was the climax of the siege of Jerusalem, which saw the complete destruction of the city, the massacre of its people, and the enslavement of its survivors. The temple treasures were carried back to Rome, and the menorah, the golden, seven-branched lampstand, appears on the triumphal Arch of Titus (above), which still stands in the Roman Forum.
‘Then one of the soldiers, without awaiting any orders and with no dread of so momentous a deed, but urged on by some supernatural force, snatched a blazing piece of wood and, climbing on another soldier’s back, hurled the flaming brand through a low golden window that gave access, on the north side, to the rooms that surrounded the sanctuary. As the flames shot up, the Jews let out a shout of dismay that matched the tragedy; they flocked to the rescue, with no thought of sparing their lives or husbanding their strength; for the sacred structure that they had constantly guarded with such devotion was vanishing before their very eyes.’ Josephus, The Jewish War
Joseph Scriven, who wrote the gospel hymn, ‘What a Friend We Have in Jesus’, tragically drowned in a river accident today in 1886. Born in Ireland, he emigrated to Ontario as a young man, where he taught and preached as a Plymouth Brethren believer. He wrote his famous hymn as a private poem for his mother when she was ill, and never seems to have thought much of it. But it became popular in the late 19th century when the gospel soloist Ira D Sankey sang it in revival meetings and included it in his influential hymn book, Sacred Songs and Solos.
What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear;
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer.
Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
Oh, what needless pain we bear –
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer.
Joseph Scriven
It is the feast of St Lawrence, a deacon in Rome who was martyred in the 3rd century. Ordered by the city prefect to surrender the church’s treasure, he spent a couple of days distributing the valuables to people in need. He then assembled a group of the poor and sick before the prefect and said, ‘Here is the church’s treasure,’ which didn’t go down well. He was either barbecued or beheaded. St Lawrence was one of the West’s most popular martyrs and one of the first saints to be depicted with a halo, an accessory originally reserved for the deity.
Father Eusebio Kino, the Jesuit missionary in Mexico and Arizona, as well as being an explorer and cartographer, was born today in 1645. Raised in the Tyrol, in northern Italy, he was sent to New Spain as a young Jesuit, where he travelled more than 50,000 miles, establishing Jesuit missions. He discovered that Baja California was a peninsular rather than an island, and named the Colorado River, as well as a host of other places.
Today in 612 BCE is sometimes given as the date when the city of Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian Empire, fell to the Medes and Babylonians. A century earlier, in 721 BCE, the Assyrians had taken some 27,000 Israelites into exile, never to return. The Old Testament prophet Nahum gleefully prophesied the destruction of Nineveh, ‘the city of blood’:
All who hear the news about you
clap their hands at your fall,
for who has not felt
your endless cruelty?
Nahum
Image: Carole Raddato