Diego Maradona (above) scored his ‘hand of God’ goal for Argentina today in 1986. Argentina was playing England at the quarter finals of the World Cup in Mexico City. Intense rivalry existed between the two sides due to the sense of unfinished business following the Falklands War of 1982, which England had won. Six minutes into the second half, Maradona drove the ball into the net by striking it with his left hand. Maradona later commented that he scored ‘a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God.’ The goal was allowed, Argentina won the match and went on to win the World Cup.
The first Christian martyrdom in the British Isles happened – or at least is celebrated – today. St Alban was beheaded in the year 209 (although the date is much argued about) for helping a fellow Christians escape persecution, and was put to death in the Roman town of Verulamium, which was later renamed St Albans. The abbey church there is said to stand on the site of his martyrdom.
Today, 22 June 1633, was not a great day for Galileo Galilei. The Roman Inquisition, which had spent 20 years investigating his strange idea that the Earth moves around the Sun, announced its verdict that Galileo was ‘vehemently suspect of heresy’. To be suspected vehemently (vehementer) was a category used by the Inquisition for people who could be tortured and imprisoned. Galileo was threatened with torture, which is itself a form of torture, and was sentenced to house arrest, which he remained in for the final nine years of his life. He was required to ‘abjure, curse and detest’ his ideas, and he was forbidden from publishing any further books. He did, however, write a final book, Two New Sciences, which led Einstein to call him ‘the father of modern physics – indeed of modern science.’
The Council of Ephesus opened today in 431, to sort out the relationship between Christ’s human and divine natures, which was the hot issue of the day. Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, an unpleasant and cunning politican, refused to delay the council a few days to allow bishops held up by traffic problems to arrive, which allowed him to have his great opponent Nestorius anathematized. Nestorius was sacked as Bishop of Constantinople, his teachings were declared to be heresy, and he was banished to Egypt, where he died. His name lives on in the Nestorian Church (aka the Church of the East) which took the Christian faith to India, Central Asia and China.
Nicetas of Remesiana, who worked among the Goths and Dacians in what is now Serbia, died today in the year 414. Nicetas is in the running as the possible author of the Te Deum, one of the greatest Latin hymns of the church. He also preached a sermon full of good practical advice about singing together in church:
‘Can any joy be greater than that of delighting ourselves with psalms and nourishing ourselves with prayer and feeding ourselves with the lessons that are read in between? Like guests at table enjoying a variety of dishes, our souls feast on the rich banquet of lessons and hymns.’ St Nicetas of Remesiana
Today is also the feast day of a friend of Nicetas, St Paulinus of Nola, who died today in the year 431. An aristocrat who became a priest in his 40s, and then Bishop of Nola (a town near Naples), Paulinus remains famous for letters he wrote to Augustine, Jerome, and other Christian writers.
Image: Wally Gobetz