556: Maximian of Ravenna Finishes His Course
On February 22, 556, Maximian of Ravenna finished his earthly course after a demanding decade as bishop, marked by political upheaval and the wounds of war. Though appointed amid controversy and often opposed, he labored steadily for the church’s peace, guarding doctrine and strengthening the people through faithful worship. Under his oversight, Ravenna’s great sanctuaries—such as San Vitale and Sant’Apollinare in Classe—stood as enduring testimonies that God’s glory is not silenced by troubled times. Maximian’s life commends patient leadership, quiet courage, and hope that outlasts shifting kingdoms.

1072: Peter Damian’s Homegoing in Faenza
On this day, Peter Damian died in Faenza, Italy, after a life poured out for the purity and renewal of Christ’s church. A reforming Benedictine monk and later cardinal-bishop of Ostia, he labored with fearless integrity against simony and clerical immorality, calling leaders and monks alike to repentance, prayer, and holy discipline. In De divina omnipotentia he probed God’s limitless power—asking even whether God can change the past—yet always bowing before the Lord who cannot deny His own truth. Centuries later he would be named a Doctor of the Church, a fitting witness to steadfast faith and courageous reform.

1225: Clothed for the Work of the Word
On February 22, 1225, Hugh of St. Cher put on the habit of the Dominican Order, turning from personal ambition to a life shaped by prayer, poverty, and the preaching of Christ. Trained in theology at Paris, he brought a disciplined mind under the lordship of Scripture, believing God’s Word should be clearly opened for the church. In time he became a renowned Bible scholar and led a team that produced the first truly practical Bible concordance, a tool that helped pastors and students find and apply God’s truth with greater precision and reverence.

1297: Margaret of Cortona’s Homegoing
Margaret of Cortona died in Cortona, Italy, on February 22, 1297, after a life transformed by repentance and steady devotion to Christ. Once known for a troubled past, she turned wholeheartedly to prayer, fasting, and humble service, joining the Third Order of St. Francis and living with striking simplicity. Her faith took practical shape as she helped establish a hospital to care for the poor and sick, urging mercy in a hard age. Remembered for compassion, courage, and perseverance, she stands as a witness that God redeems, restores, and calls the repentant into fruitful love.

1632: Martyrdom at Zuni
On February 22, 1632, at the Zuni pueblo of Hawikuh in New Mexico, Father Francisco de Letrado, a Franciscan missionary, was killed during a violent uprising; reports say his scalp was taken and danced on a pole in open defiance. His death exposed the fierce resistance stirred by a mission system too often tied to coercion and colonial power, and it foreshadowed later conflict across the Pueblo world. Yet Letrado’s willingness to remain among those who hated him reminds believers of costly witness—and of the need to hold forth Christ with courage, purity, and humility.

1649: A Work of Worship and Witness Completed
The Westminster Assembly adjourned on February 22, 1649, after one thousand one hundred and sixty-three sessions spanning five years, six months, and twenty-two days. Meeting amid national upheaval, these pastors and theologians labored with solemn fasts, long hours of prayer, and careful attention to Scripture, seeking the church’s reformation and peace. Their work yielded enduring treasures—the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, and guides for worship and church order—meant to guard truth and nourish godliness. Their perseverance reminds us that clarity of doctrine and fervency of devotion belong together.

1680: A Smiling Friend at the End
Thomas Goodwin died on February 22, 1680, aged 79, after a lifetime of steadfast preaching and pastoral care amid England’s upheavals. A learned Puritan and leading Nonconformist, he helped shape the church’s confession and worship in his day, served as a chaplain during the Commonwealth, and later endured loss of position at the Restoration rather than silence his conscience. Yet his greatest legacy is his warm, Christ-centered ministry, calling believers to communion with God and assurance of grace. Near death he marveled, “Ah, is this dying? How I have dreaded as an enemy this smiling friend.”

1703: Healing Bodies, Seeking Souls
On February 22, 1703, General Christopher Codrington set aside two Barbados plantations for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, directing that professors and scholars be maintained to study and practice medicine, surgery, and divinity so they might “endear themselves to the people and have the better opportunities of doing good to men’s souls whilst they are taking care of their bodies.” His vision pressed the church toward whole-person mercy—truth preached, wounds bound, lives served. Yet the wealth of plantations was entangled with slavery, reminding us that gospel work must be joined with repentance and righteous love.

1805: Nearer in Life and Death
On February 22, 1805, Sarah Flower Adams was born in Harlow, Essex, England, and would later give the church one of its most cherished prayers in song: “Nearer, My God, to Thee.” Drawing on Jacob’s lonely night and the staircase of grace in Genesis, her hymn turns hardship into worship and suffering into ascent—calling believers to seek God not only in comfort, but on “thee”ward steps of surrender. Though often frail in health and taken young in 1848, her lasting verses still steady hearts to cling to Christ and rise heavenward.

1845: A Peaceful End to a Life of Wit and Charity
On February 22, 1845, Rev. Sydney Smith died in London, remembered as a sharp literary critic and the lively author of The Letters of Peter Plymley, written to stir consciences toward justice and mercy. His humor was famous—once fastening antlers to donkeys to pass them off as deer for a visiting aristocratic lady—yet his faith showed most clearly in his final hours. His daughter wrote that he died at peace, intent on others’ comfort, sending forgiveness to those who had wronged him, and giving a small church living to a poor, friendless clergyman.

1870: Gospel in the Night Watches
On February 22, 1870, James Gilmour sailed from Liverpool to begin missionary service in China and the Mongolian frontier. Appointed chaplain aboard the ship, he treated the voyage as his first field, patiently speaking of Christ with every member of the crew during the night watches and offering Scripture, counsel, and prayer to men who rarely heard earnest gospel truth. That quiet, unglamorous faithfulness foreshadowed the endurance and courage that would mark his years among hard places and harder hearts. His example reminds believers that no journey is wasted when it is surrendered to the Lord.

1901: A New Work Begins in Japan
On February 22, 1901, Charles and Lettie Cowman arrived in Japan, leaving home and security to answer Christ’s call among a people they had not yet met. With little more than Scripture, prayer, and a willingness to learn, they began gospel work that soon helped give birth to the Oriental Mission Society. Their obedience in the face of distance, language, and uncertainty modeled steady faith and holy courage. God used these first steps to strengthen Japanese believers and to spark a missionary movement that would carry the message of salvation throughout Asia for generations. They trusted that the Lord goes before His servants.

1906: William J. Seymour Comes to Los Angeles
On February 22, 1906, William J. Seymour arrived in Los Angeles with a burden for revival and a simple confidence that God still pours out His Spirit in power. Though soon rejected and even locked out of the pulpit after preaching on Spirit-filled living, Seymour responded with humility, prayer, and perseverance, gathering believers in homes to seek the Lord earnestly. Those quiet meetings prepared the way for what later erupted at the Apostolic Faith Mission at 312 Azusa Street, where repentance, fervent worship, and surprising unity across racial and social lines helped spark a worldwide renewal.

1911: A Poet’s Gospel Witness for Freedom
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on February 22, 1911, closing a life of courageous Christian witness in word and deed. Publishing a volume of poems while still a young woman, she used her gifts to awaken conscience and to proclaim hope rooted in God’s justice. Alongside fellow laborers such as Frederick Douglass and Julia Ward Howe, she spoke and wrote against slavery, urging repentance from national sin and compassion for the oppressed. In later years she also pressed for temperance and the dignity of women, reminding believers that true faith bears righteous fruit.

1930: Faithfulness Under Siberian Terror
On February 22, 1930, Soviet secret-police agents in Tomsk seized more than sixty Orthodox clergy and lay believers, accusing them of “counter‑revolutionary agitation” and the mere “grouping of church people.” In an era when prayer meetings and catechism could be treated as crimes, these Christians were interrogated and condemned through hurried procedures, and fifty were executed. Their witness reminds us that the Church is not sustained by favorable laws but by the Lord who strengthens His people to endure. In the face of fear, they chose fellowship, worship, and a clear conscience, and left hope for believers today.

1943: The White Rose Faces Death with Clear Conscience
On February 22, 1943, Hans and Sophie Scholl, along with Christoph Probst, were executed by guillotine at Stadelheim Prison in Munich, only hours after a show trial before Nazi judge Roland Freisler. Days earlier they had been arrested at the University of Munich for scattering White Rose leaflets urging Germans to resist Hitler’s murderous regime and answer to a higher Judge. Grounded in conscience and faith, they refused to retreat, paying with their lives for speaking truth. Hans’s cry, “Long live freedom,” still presses us: will we fear man, or fear the Lord and be faithful?

1944: Heaven Where Christ Dwells
On February 22, 1944, C.S. Lewis—then laboring in wartime England as a public defender of the faith and a quiet pastor by pen—wrote in a personal letter, “Heaven enters wherever Christ enters, even in this life.” In days marked by anxiety, rationing, and loss, he reminded a struggling correspondent that Christianity is not merely future consolation but present invasion: Christ brings His kingdom into ordinary rooms, hard duties, and wounded hearts. Lewis’s words call believers to brave, hopeful obedience, trusting that communion with Jesus makes even suffering a place where eternal life begins.

1954: A Gospel Signal from Tangier
On February 22, 1954, the first Voice of Tangier program went to air from Tangier, Morocco, using a modest 2,500-watt transmitter. Broadcasting in Spanish and English, the station carried Scripture, preaching, and Christ-centered encouragement across borders that missionaries could not easily cross. In a world divided by politics and distance, this work showed steady faith and creative courage—using new tools to serve an unchanging message. Within two years, programming expanded into more than twenty languages, a clear reminder that the gospel is for every people, and that God can multiply small beginnings into wide-reaching witness.

1980: Pressing On at the Border Lines
In a letter written February 22, 1980, Francis Schaeffer offered a bracing word of hope for weary believers: “None of us are normal, even after we are Christians… if we mean by that being perfect.” Known for thoughtful Christian witness through L’Abri and his apologetic writings, Schaeffer joined realism about ongoing sin and weakness with confidence in God’s restoring grace. His counsel pointed away from pretending and toward persevering—living “in the fullness of life” within the limits God has given, yet “constantly pressing on” into deeper obedience, repentance, and joyful faith.