519: Communion Restored After a Long Schism
On March 28, 519, the long Acacian Schism between East and West ended as communion was restored, closing a painful thirty-five-year breach born from disputes over Christ’s true humanity and true divinity. Under the empire of Justin I, with the strong support of Justinian, Patriarch John II of Constantinople accepted the Formula of Hormisdas, affirming the faith of Chalcedon and renouncing the errors that had clouded the gospel. This reconciliation showed courageous humility and steadfast devotion to truth: unity was not bought by compromise, but healed by clear confession, repentance, and a shared resolve to honor Jesus Christ as Lord.

592: Guntram’s Crown Laid at Christ’s Feet
On March 28, 592, King Guntram of Burgundy died at Chalon-sur-Saône and was laid to rest at the monastery of Saint-Marcel he had favored and endowed. Remembered by contemporaries like Gregory of Tours for penitence, almsgiving, and reverence for the church, he labored to curb feuds, protect the poor from exploitation, and show mercy in judgment amid a violent Merovingian age. Having no surviving sons, he adopted his nephew Childebert II to secure peace rather than prolong war. His life calls rulers to place power under Christ—seeking justice, humility, and generous care for the vulnerable.

754: Hilarion of Pelekete Refuses to Yield
March 28, 754 marks the witness of Hilarion of Pelekete, a Bithynian abbot who would not surrender his conscience during the iconoclast persecution under Emperor Constantine V. Pressured to renounce the church’s confession that the Son truly took flesh—made visible and therefore rightly honored—Hilarion refused. For his steadfastness he was dragged from his monastery, beaten, imprisoned, and driven into exile, choosing suffering over a safer silence. He endured with prayer and hope, and his courage still strengthens believers to obey God when rulers demand compromise, trusting that faithfulness is never wasted.

1134: Stephen Harding’s Quiet, Unshakable Reform
On March 28, 1134, Stephen Harding finished his earthly pilgrimage at Cîteaux, leaving a legacy of reform marked more by obedience than applause. English-born and among the early builders of the Cistercian renewal, he helped shape the Carta Caritatis, guarding unity, charity, and accountability among monasteries. He labored for worship ordered by Scripture, plain beauty, and disciplined prayer, even commissioning careful work on the biblical text and chant so God’s word would be heard clearly. His life shows that courageous faith often looks like quiet perseverance, steady holiness, and communities formed to seek the Lord.

1515: Teresa of Ávila Born for Holy Courage
March 28, 1515 marks the birth of Teresa of Ávila in Ávila, Spain, a woman God would use to stir holy courage in a sleepy age. Though often sick, misunderstood, and opposed, she refused to settle for a shallow faith, calling believers to inward repentance, disciplined prayer, and wholehearted devotion to Christ. As she labored to renew Carmelite life and later helped establish reformed communities, she faced suspicion and spiritual warfare, yet pressed on with clear-eyed honesty about her weakness and steady confidence in God’s strength. Her life still urges us to persevere in prayer and pursue holiness without fear.

1521: Named and Condemned for the Gospel
On Maundy Thursday, March 28, 1521, Pope Leo X’s bull In Coena Domini was proclaimed with Martin Luther condemned by name, and with him those who embraced his teaching. In a season meant to remember Christ’s humble service and His costly Supper, the church’s divisions were laid bare as calls to repentance and reform met official censure. Yet this moment also sharpened the question of ultimate authority—human decrees or God’s Word—and strengthened many to stand with sober courage. In the days ahead, Luther would face imperial scrutiny, trusting Christ above all.

1538: A Protest in Geneva over the Confession
A year after Geneva adopted a Protestant Confession of Faith, a number of the city’s Catholic citizens, led by François Chamois, entered a formal protest against the ordinance that had established it and pressed for public adherence. Their action revealed how deeply questions of worship, doctrine, and church order could stir a community freshly turning from old allegiances. The conflict also foreshadowed the wider unrest that soon shook Geneva’s reforms. This moment reminds believers to hold truth with courage and clarity, yet to seek peace with patience, prayer, and a sincere desire for hearts—not merely laws—to be shaped by God’s Word.

1568: First Jesuit Missionaries Reach Peru
On March 28, 1568, Father Geronimo Ruiz Portillo and six companions stepped ashore at Callao, becoming Peru’s first Jesuit missionaries. Leaving familiar comforts for an uncertain field, they came with a steady purpose: to proclaim Christ, strengthen the church, and bring the hope of the gospel to Indigenous communities. In Lima they soon began the work of planting churches, opening schools, and forming a center to train and send more laborers into the harvest. Their arrival reminds us that faithful service often begins with a costly voyage and a willing heart.

1606: A Conscience on Trial
Father Henry Garnet, a leading priest overseeing the Jesuit mission in England, was brought to trial in London on March 28, 1606, accused of colluding in the Gunpowder Plot to destroy Parliament and the king. Garnet denied approving violence, insisting he had tried to restrain wrong and was bound by the seal of confession not to reveal what he had heard. Prosecutors pressed his teaching on “equivocation,” and he was found guilty of treason. Soon to be hanged in May, his case sobers believers: political rage cannot be baptized, and a faithful conscience must hold fast to truth under pressure.

1661: Rescissory Act and the Cost of Conscience
On March 28, 1661, Scotland’s Parliament, under the restored reign of Charles II, passed the Rescissory Act, sweeping away all legislation since 1633 and clearing the way to restore bishops and overturn the church settlement many had embraced with solemn vows. What followed was not merely political change, but a testing of conscience: ministers were pressured to conform, and ordinary believers faced fines, imprisonment, and worse for worshiping as they believed Scripture required. Their steadfastness reminds us that Christ’s lordship over His church is worth suffering for, and that faithfulness is never wasted.

1747: Drawn Toward Perfect Holiness
On March 28, 1747, colonial missionary to the American Indians David Brainerd wrote in his journal, “Oh, how happy it is, to be drawn by desires of a state of perfect holiness.” Worn down by tuberculosis and the hardships of frontier ministry, Brainerd’s heart still burned for Christ more than comfort, reputation, or long life. His words reveal a faith that measured joy not by ease but by growing purity and deeper communion with God. Later published after his death that year, his journal strengthened countless believers to pursue holiness and sacrificial mission with steadfast prayer.

1866: Gratitude for an Abolitionist’s Sacrifice
On March 28, 1866, with slavery legally ended but the nation still healing, a committee gathered to raise financial support for William Lloyd Garrison, who had poured his strength, reputation, and resources into the long struggle to end human bondage. Friends sought to honor a life marked by costly conviction—years of public scorn, threats, and hardship—by providing practical help as he stepped back from constant labor. Rev. Samuel May, Jr., a steady Christian voice for justice, would do more than anyone to gather the gifts, reminding believers to sustain those who have spent themselves for righteousness and love of neighbor.

1871: Conscience Before God and History
On March 28, 1871, the renowned priest, theologian, and church historian John Joseph Ignatius von Döllinger wrote to his archbishop, refusing to subscribe to the newly defined dogma of papal infallibility. With sober courage he declared, “As a Christian, as a theologian, as a historian, as a citizen I cannot accept this dogma,” insisting that Christian faith must be bound to the apostolic witness and the settled teaching of the early church, not to new claims of authority. His stand cost him dearly, leading eventually to excommunication in 1873, yet it remains a witness to integrity, reverence, and fearless fidelity to conscience under God.

1886: A Careful Keeper of Scripture’s Words
On March 28, 1886, Richard Chenevix Trench—archbishop of Dublin and a devoted student of Bible language—finished his earthly course. Trench served the church not only through pastoral oversight, but through a scholar’s reverence for God’s Word, believing that clarity in language guards clarity in faith. His enduring book, New Testament Synonyms, helped generations read with greater precision, weighing the Spirit’s choice of words rather than rushing past them. He also encouraged the careful work of Bible revision in his day. His life commends diligence, humility, and love for truth.

1892: Bound for Tibet
On March 28, 1892, William Christie sailed from the United States toward Buddhist Tibet, setting his face toward a land largely closed to the gospel and fraught with hardship for any outsider. As he left, he penned words that captured the heart of Christian mission: “By the grace of God I will spend and be spent for my Savior and the salvation of those who are sitting in awful darkness and sin and misery.” That resolve—rooted in Christ’s worth, not personal comfort—marked the beginning of a life of costly witness that would earn him the name “Apostle of Tibet.”

1896: Never Farther than Thy Cross
On March 28, 1896, Elizabeth Rundle Charles died in London, England, leaving a quiet but enduring witness through the gifts God gave her as an author, painter, linguist, and hymnwriter. Her writings, including the much-loved Chronicles of the Schönberg-Cotta Family, helped many readers cherish the gospel and the courage of believers who clung to Scripture in hard days. In her hymn “Never Farther than Thy Cross,” she points the weary heart to the Savior’s finished work, reminding us that strength, comfort, and hope are found nearest to Calvary.

1915: A Life Spent Safeguarding the New Testament Text
Born March 28, 1915, German scholar Kurt Aland devoted his life to tracing the New Testament’s manuscript witness so the church could read God’s Word with greater confidence. After the turmoil of war-torn Europe, he helped rebuild serious biblical scholarship, founding the Institute for New Testament Textual Research in Münster and tirelessly cataloging and comparing thousands of manuscripts. With colleagues and later his wife Barbara, he co-edited the United Bible Society's "Greek New Testament" and Eberhard Nestle's "Novum Testamentum Graece", tools that have served pastors, translators, and students worldwide. His careful, reverent labor reminds us that faithfulness often looks like patient, painstaking service.

1924: Joseph Sebastian Pelczar’s Faithful Shepherding
On March 28, 1924, Bishop Joseph Sebastian Pelczar died after a lifetime of steady, Christ-centered shepherding in Poland. A scholar and pastor, he used his learning to strengthen ordinary believers, urging prayer and the sacraments to shape daily conduct. He organized concrete mercy for the poor, defended family life, and promoted works of charity through communities he helped form to serve the neglected. In public life he called for integrity and courage, insisting that love for Christ must be visible in justice, compassion, and moral clarity. His witness still encourages faithful service where God assigns it.

1929: A Life Given to Christ’s Service
On March 28, 1929, Frederick Brotherton Meyer died in England after decades of tireless preaching, pastoral care, and evangelistic labor. Known for a warm, Scripture-saturated ministry and a steady call to wholehearted surrender to Christ, Meyer helped strengthen believers through conferences, missions, and wide-ranging itinerant work, often alongside other gospel leaders of his day. His devotional writings—especially his homely, practical meditations—have continued to guide Christians into prayer, holiness, and confidence in God’s promises. His life testified that enduring fruit often comes through humble faithfulness, not public acclaim.

1936: A Songwriter of Resurrection Hope
Bill Gaither was born March 28, 1936, in Alexandria, Indiana, and would help give the modern church a rich vocabulary of praise and assurance. With his wife, Gloria (whom he married in 1962), he wrote songs that steady faith in dark hours and lift hearts toward Christ’s victory—“Because He Lives,” “The King Is Coming,” “The Longer I Serve Him,” and “Something Beautiful.” Through the Bill Gaither Trio, the Gaither Vocal Band, and the Homecoming gatherings, his music has called generations to worship, testify, and cling to the living hope of the gospel.

1938: A Life Spent Calling the Church to the Nations
On March 28, 1938, Robert Parmalee Wilder died in Oslo fylke, Norway, closing a long life devoted to stirring Christ’s people toward world evangelization. As a Princeton student he helped organize the Princeton Foreign Missionary Society, and in later years he labored to unite and strengthen mission societies that would send workers and support the gospel abroad. Wilder also helped shape the Student Volunteer Movement, whose rallying cry—“the evangelization of the world in this generation”—summoned thousands to pray, give, and go. Through his writings on missions, he urged faith-filled obedience to Christ’s Great Commission.

1961: Dying to Self, Finding True Life
On March 28, 1961, C. S. Lewis wrote to his American correspondent Mary Van Deusen (later published in Letters to an American Lady) that “the main purpose of our life is to reach the point at which one’s own life as a person is at an end… One must in this sense die… ‘He that loses his life shall find it.’” In a season marked by personal sorrow after the death of his wife, Lewis pointed beyond mere self-improvement to the brave, daily surrender Christ calls for. His words echo the gospel’s paradox: real freedom is found in yielding to God.

2011: A Medal Honoring Courageous Mercy
On March 28, 2011, the Simon Wiesenthal Center posthumously awarded Hiram “Harry” Bingham IV its Medal of Valor, honoring an American diplomat who, in Nazi-occupied France, chose costly compassion over safe compliance. Serving in Marseille, he defied State Department restrictions and helped arrange visas, shelter, and escape routes for persecuted Jews, even as his actions brought reprimand and an early end to his post. His witness echoes the biblical call to defend the oppressed and love one’s neighbor in deed. He is remembered among the “Righteous Gentiles” in the Episcopal Church calendar on July 19.