1220: A Crown Bound to a Cross
On November 22, 1220, in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Pope Honorius III crowned Frederick II as Holy Roman Emperor, binding imperial power to a solemn pledge: to uphold the rights and liberty of the Church and to advance a new crusade for the defense of Christ’s people and the holy places. The ceremony reminded all that rulers remain under God’s authority and are called to serve, not merely to reign. Honorius pressed for reform and protection of the faithful, while Frederick’s vow held before Europe a vision of leadership marked by duty, courage, and accountability before the Lord.

1307: A Warning About Power and Purity
November 22, 1307, Pope Clement V issued the bull Pastoralis Praeeminentiae, ordering Christian rulers to arrest the Knights Templar and seize their goods, echoing King Philip IV’s earlier crackdown in France. What followed—interrogations, coerced confessions, and years of trials—shows how quickly fear, greed, and politics can masquerade as zeal. Some brothers endured torture, recanted false admissions, and faced death rather than deny conscience. This dark chapter calls the church to love justice, test accusations, and refuse corruption, remembering that Christ—not any institution—guards His people when power turns cruel. Pray for leaders who wield authority humbly and for believers to walk in purity.

1633: A Voyage of Faith and Refuge
On November 22, 1633, Cecil Calvert, Lord Baltimore, sent the Ark and the Dove from Ireland toward the New World, seeking a place where persecuted believers—especially fellow Catholics—could live and worship in peace. Under the leadership of his brother Leonard, the small company crossed winter seas with Scripture, prayer, and steady courage, trusting God’s providence more than favorable winds. Their journey would lead to Maryland’s founding and to early commitments to ordered liberty and religious conscience. Calvert’s determined, sacrificial vision later earned him the name “Colonizer of Maryland.”

1687: A Song That Points Beyond Sorrow
On November 22, 1687, John Dryden’s “A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day” was written for the annual London celebration honoring music’s God-given power, and it was soon performed at Stationers’ Hall with music by Giovanni Battista Draghi. Dryden’s ode lifts the mind from mere entertainment to worship, tracing how harmony reflects the Maker who ordered the world and will one day call it to account—“the last and dreadful trumpet” sounding beyond every grief. In a world acquainted with loss, sacred beauty can steady the soul, awaken gratitude, and remind us that our deepest longings were made to rest in God.

1739: Handel’s Music for a Higher King
On November 22, 1739—St. Cecilia’s Day—George Frideric Handel’s “Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day” (setting John Dryden’s poem) was first performed in London at Lincoln’s Inn Fields. After seasons of illness and pressure, Handel poured his hard-won craft into music that traces the Creator’s order, the trembling of judgment, and the fitting response of praise. In chorus and trumpet, in tender strings and lifted voices, the work reminds us that skill is not ultimate, and applause is not the goal. Every gift can be disciplined, sanctified, and offered back to God as witness to His glory.

1849: Learning on the Frontier
On November 22, 1849, the Texas Legislature chartered Austin College in Huntsville under Presbyterian sponsorship, planting a school where faith and learning could shape young lives on a demanding frontier. Named for Stephen F. Austin, the college aimed to educate students for service marked by integrity, discipline, and reverence for God—training leaders to strengthen churches, communities, and the public good. Through hardship and change, the work endured, and in 1876 the campus moved to Sherman, Texas, a reminder that steadfast vision can adapt without surrendering its mission.

1873: Peace in the Deep Waters
November 22, 1873, the French liner Ville du Havre, crossing the Atlantic, was struck by the iron sailing ship Loch Earn and sank within minutes. Among the dead were American lawyer Horatio G. Spafford’s four daughters—Annie, Maggie, Bessie, and Tanetta—while his wife, Anna, was rescued from the wreckage and later wired him, “Saved alone.” Already chastened by the Chicago fire and the earlier loss of a son, Spafford sailed to meet her; as his ship passed over the place of sorrow, he wrote the lines that became “It Is Well with My Soul,” a testimony of steadfast trust in God’s sovereign mercy.

1939: A Nurse Who Raised a Generation of Healers
On November 22, 1939, nurse Dorothy Davis was appointed as a Nazarene missionary to Swaziland, offering her skills to Christ’s healing work in a land with great medical need. In clinics and wards she combined careful training with patient compassion, insisting that Swazi women and men could master modern nursing and serve their own communities with dignity. Her steady courage, humility, and prayerful perseverance shaped a generation of caregivers, earning her the affectionate name “the Mother of Swazi Nurses.” In later years her sacrificial service was recognized publicly with the Member of the British Empire award.

1950: A Missionary Founder’s Homegoing
On November 22, 1950, Paul William Fleming, a co-founder of New Tribes Mission, was killed in a plane crash, a sudden loss to a young work devoted to bringing the gospel to peoples still without Scripture and a gospel witness. Fleming had helped stir believers to take Christ’s command seriously, praying, organizing, and sending workers to difficult places with humble courage. His death underscored the real cost that often accompanies frontline missions, yet also the sure hope of resurrection. The Lord used his life—and even his passing—to strengthen resolve to finish the task.

1963: C.S. Lewis Enters Glory
On November 22, 1963, C.S. Lewis died at his Oxford home, The Kilns, after years of fragile health, only a week shy of his 65th birthday. While the world’s headlines turned elsewhere, the church quietly mourned a writer who helped countless skeptics face Christ. With clear reason and baptized imagination, he defended the faith in works like The Screwtape Letters and The Great Divorce, and invited children to love goodness through The Chronicles of Narnia. His wartime radio talks, later published as Mere Christianity, still strengthen wavering hearts. Lewis’s life reminds us that honest questions and humble repentance can become instruments of grace.