1220: A New House of Praise Rises at Salisbury
On April 28, 1220, work began on Salisbury Cathedral as Bishop Richard Poore guided the church’s move from crowded Old Sarum to a new site where worship could flourish in peace. Laying the first stones was more than engineering; it was an act of faith that God deserves our best, offered patiently over years. Clergy and craftsmen labored with perseverance, shaping a place for prayer, preaching, and the sacraments, trusting the Lord to establish what human hands could not finish quickly. In time the cathedral would stand as a witness that steadfast devotion builds enduring beauty for God’s glory.

1521: Scripture Above Human Reason
On April 28, 1521, only days after his stand at the Diet of Worms, Martin Luther wrote in a letter, “The authority of Scripture is greater than the comprehension of the whole of man’s reason.” With church and empire pressing him to recant, he anchored his conscience not in shifting opinions, but in God’s written Word. This conviction was not anti-thinking; it was humble faith—reason serving revelation, not ruling it. Luther’s courage strengthened believers to trust that God speaks clearly and truly in Scripture, even when obedience is costly and dangerous.

1550: A Bishop Who Chose the Gospel
Georg von Polentz, remembered as the first Reformation bishop of Samland and Pomesania in Prussia, died on April 28, 1550. Though trained and installed within the old order, he embraced the clear teaching of Scripture and used his office to call clergy and people to Christ, stressing repentance, faithful preaching, and the comfort of salvation not earned by works but received by faith. In the turbulent years when Prussia’s church life was being reshaped, he showed steady pastoral courage, supporting church reforms, orderly worship, and Christian instruction. His death marked the passing of a public shepherd who sought to serve God’s Word above human fear.

1716: Louis-Marie de Montfort Finishes His Race
On April 28, 1716, Louis‑Marie de Montfort finished his race at Saint‑Laurent‑sur‑Sèvre, worn down at only 43 after preaching mission after mission through the towns and villages of France. Often opposed and mocked, he kept calling ordinary people to repentance, prayer, and a wholehearted life of obedience to Christ. He had helped form fellow laborers and communities devoted to serving the poor and teaching the faith, refusing to soften the gospel to win approval. Near the end he urged those around him to hold fast to Jesus. His steady, unseen faithfulness still bears fruit.

1721: Resisting the “Hell-Fire” Societies
On April 28, 1721, an Order in Council in England condemned the so‑called “Hell Fire” societies—reported gatherings where members mocked Christianity, offered blasphemous toasts, and treated holy things as entertainment. Though details of such meetings often came through scandal and rumor, the government’s public denunciation signaled that open contempt for God was not to be excused as fashionable wit. For believers, the moment underscores the duty to pray for rulers, to uphold reverence in public life, and to answer ridicule not with fear or bitterness, but with steadfast holiness, courage, and quiet faithfulness to Christ.

1839: A Shelter for the Fatherless
On April 28, 1839, Vernon J. Charlesworth was born, later serving as an English clergyman and as headmaster at Charles Spurgeon’s Stockwell Orphanage in London. In a setting marked by loss and need, he labored to form young lives with steady teaching, discipline, and gospel hope—quiet heroism expressed in faithful daily care. Charlesworth is also remembered for writing the hymn “A Shelter in the Time of Storm,” a lasting confession that Christ is the sure refuge of His people. His life invites believers to combine sound words with compassionate deeds.

1841: Peter Chanel’s Martyrdom in Futuna
On April 28, 1841, on the island of Futuna, missionary priest Peter Chanel was murdered for his faithful witness to Jesus Christ. Serving patiently for years amid suspicion and opposition, he cared for the sick, taught the Word, and endured growing hostility as some began to believe. When Chief Niuliki feared the gospel would weaken his power, he ordered Chanel’s death, and he was beaten and killed, becoming the first recognized martyr of Oceania. Yet the Lord turned apparent loss into lasting fruit: soon many on Futuna, including former opponents, sought baptism, showing how God uses suffering to open hearts.

1848: Steady Shepherd at Canterbury
On April 28, 1848, John Bird Sumner was enthroned as archbishop of Canterbury, bringing to England’s chief see the habits of an evangelical pastor and builder. As bishop of Chester he had strengthened gospel ministry and worship, consecrating more than two hundred new churches, and he had shown public courage by supporting the removal of civil restrictions on Roman Catholics. A prolific author, he argued in Records of Creation that Moses’ testimony was trustworthy and consonant with sound science. From Canterbury he sought to govern fairly amid high- and low-church tensions, modeling firmness with charity.

1862: Dying in the Pulpit with Resurrection Hope
On April 28, 1862, George Washington Bethune—Reformed pastor and gifted hymn translator—finished his earthly race in Florence, Italy, collapsing and dying while preaching. Far from home, he still poured out strength for Christ and for the comfort of fellow believers, a vivid picture of a servant “spent” in holy labor. His death in the act of proclaiming the gospel testified that ministry is not a career but a calling worth every breath. When he was buried in September, his translated hymn, “It Is Not Death to Die,” was sung—fitting words of calm faith in the Savior and the life to come.

1872: A Prayer for Spirit-Guided Speech
On April 28, 1872, English devotional writer Frances Ridley Havergal, 33, penned the words of “Lord, Speak to Me That I May Speak,” shaping a hymn that begins not with confidence in self, but with humble listening to God. With Scripture-saturated clarity, she turned the believer’s witness into a prayer: that our tongues would be governed by the Lord’s voice, our strength renewed by His Word, and our service marked by quiet courage and love. Her lines still call Christians to speak truth faithfully, because they have first bowed to hear.

1874: A Life Laid Down for Latin America
Susan Strachan was born April 28, 1874, and the Lord used her steady faith and quiet courage to help open lasting gospel work across Latin America. With her husband, Harry Strachan, she carried a deep burden for those with little access to Scripture or sound teaching, and in 1921 they helped found the Latin America Mission in Stony Point, New York, to send and support workers for evangelism and discipleship. Her life reminds us that missions advance through prayer, sacrifice, and steadfast trust in God’s power to save.

1911: Courage to Call Sin What It Is
On April 28, 1911, thousands filled Geneva’s streets for nearly five hours to protest a ban on gambling that had been urged on moral and religious grounds. The sheer size of the crowd revealed how quickly public passion can rise when appetite is challenged; yet the dispute also exposed a deeper question of what a city should bless or restrain. Contemporary reports say the young Swiss pastor Karl Barth was disturbed by the protest’s shallow slogans and publicly supported the ban, choosing sober conscience over popularity. His stance reminds believers that love of neighbor sometimes means resisting profitable vices and enduring scorn for righteousness.

1916: A Gospel Call to a Changing Nation
On April 28, 1916, Josiah Strong died in New York City, leaving a legacy of urging believers to bring Christ’s light to a rapidly changing America. A pastor and influential voice on social concerns, he pressed Christians not to ignore poverty, injustice, and the pressures of urban life, while insisting that lasting change comes through redemption in Jesus Christ. Through his widely read book Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis and his leadership in cooperative evangelical work, he championed missions and prayerful engagement with society, calling the church to faithful witness in word and deed.

1939: Faithful Witness Under the Terror
On April 28, 1939, Soviet authorities arrested Natalya Ivanovna Sundukova in Stalinabad (today Dushanbe), the daughter of a priest, accusing her of leading a “counter-revolutionary” church cell. In a time when the state demanded loyalty to atheism, she chose loyalty to Christ—encouraging believers, speaking of the Gospel even among prisoners, and refusing to cooperate with a regime set against God. For these “crimes” she was imprisoned, condemned for anti-Soviet activity, and ultimately shot. Her steadfast courage reminds the Church that no cell door can silence the truth, and no threat can outweigh a clear conscience before the Lord.

1955: Wings of Service in the Highlands
On April 28, 1955, Christian and Missionary Alliance pilot Albert Lewis was flying a mission flying boat through a pass leading into Netherlands New Guinea’s Baliem Valley (now in Irian Jaya) when his aircraft crashed, ending his life in the highlands. He had spent his strength so others might hear, using flight to connect remote outposts, carry medicine and supplies, and strengthen those pressing into unreached places. Before his untimely death, some ten thousand souls had been brought to Christ in part through his faithful supporting ministry. His sacrifice still calls believers to courageous, humble service and steadfast trust in God.

1960: Marriage, Love, and Responsible Stewardship
On April 28, 1960, the 100th General Assembly of the Southern Presbyterian Church (PCUS) adopted a resolution affirming that husband and wife may share sexual union even when conception is not intended, and that such intimacy, rightly ordered, is not sin. In a time of growing medical knowledge and cultural anxiety about family size, the Assembly sought to relieve tender consciences and to honor Scripture’s teaching that marriage includes companionship, mutual delight, and faithful self-giving (1 Cor. 7). It also called couples to prayerful stewardship, rejecting selfishness and remembering that children remain a blessing to be received from the Lord.

1962: Gianna Beretta Molla’s Costly Love
On April 28, 1962, Gianna Beretta Molla, an Italian physician, wife, and mother, died in Magenta, Italy, one week after giving birth to her fourth child. During pregnancy she was found to have a serious uterine tumor, and she refused any treatment that would directly end her baby’s life, choosing instead a risky surgery that sought to spare the child. After a Caesarean delivery on April 21, complications and infection followed, and she offered her suffering to the Lord. Her costly love honors the sanctity of life and reflects Christlike courage to do what is right, whatever the price.

1973: The Philosopher Who Sought Wisdom in Christ
On April 28, 1973, Jacques Maritain died in Toulouse after years of quiet prayer as a lay brother among the Little Brothers of Jesus. Once a skeptic, he and his wife Raïssa embraced Christ in 1906, and Maritain spent the next decades showing how faith and reason belong together, drawing deeply from Thomas Aquinas. Through works like Integral Humanism and a steady defense of human dignity amid the tumults of war and politics, he helped believers speak wisely to the modern world without surrendering truth. His late-life humility reminds us that learning is meant to serve love and holiness.