Fulton J Sheen (above), the Catholic Monsignor who became America’s first televangelist, died today in 1979. The ‘golden-voiced’ Sheen (as Time magazine called him) was a religious pioneer in both radio and television, with a Sunday night radio show, The Catholic Hour, in the 1930s, and a prime time TV show, Life is Worth Living, in the 1950s, which had a weekly audience of 30 million. Sheen gave a sermon at a televised mass in March 1940 which is thought to be the first ever piece of religious television.
‘This is the first religious television in the history of the world. Let therefore its first message be a tribute of thanks to God for giving the minds of our day the inspiration to unravel the secrets of the universe.’ Fulton J Sheen, 24 March 1940
At 6.30 this morning in 1608, John Milton came into the world in Bread Street, in the City of London. In his early years, William Shakespeare was still meeting friends at the Mermaid, a few doors down the street. At school Milton studied Latin and Greek, plus Italian and French, and he also learned to play the organ and the bass-viol. His facility with languages and music was deeply significant in his English poetry and prose. Milton is the author of the wildly successful Paradise Lost (and disappointing sequel Paradise Regained), and is reckoned to be the second greatest poet in the English language, after Shakespeare.
‘From twelve years of age, I hardly ever left my studies, or went to bed before midnight. This primarily led to my loss of sight. My eyes were naturally weak, and I was subject to frequent head-aches; which, however, could not chill the ardour of my curiosity, or retard the progress of my improvement.’ John Milton, Second Defence, 1654
A law separating Church and state was passed today in 1905 by the French Chamber of Deputies. It overturned Napoleon’s Concordat of 1801, which had given the Catholic Church special status in France. The new law meant that the French state no longer paid for or subsidised any form of religious worship in France. While many Catholics were angered by the law, including Pope Pius X, who condemned it, Protestant and Jewish groups welcomed it, as it gave them equality with Catholicism.
William Cowper wrote the hymn, ‘O For a Closer Walk with God,’ today in 1769. Cowper was the writing partner of John Newton when they were producing the groundbreaking Olney Hymns, which made evangelicalism a singing faith. Cowper, however, suffered from prolonged periods of deep depression and despair all his life, once dreaming that God told him, ‘It is over with thee; thou hast perished’. Cowper’s hymn expresses the pain of his estrangement from God, and his longing for a renewed relationship.
What peaceful hours I once enjoyed!
How sweet their memory still!
But they have left an aching void
The world can never fill.
William Cowper, ‘O For a Closer Walk with God’
Today in 1970, Sister Briege McKenna, a 24 year-old nun from Newry in Northern Ireland, was healed of rhumatoid arthritis during a charismatic prayer meeting in Orlando, Florida. She had been diagnosed with the condition six years earlier and had been told she would soon need to use a wheelchair. McKenna went on to become a faith healer, mystic and evangelist
‘It was 9:15am, December 9, 1970. The only prayer I said was “Jesus, please help me”. At that moment, I felt a hand touch my head, I opened my eyes and no one was there, but there was a power going through my body. I looked down. My fingers had been stiff, but not deformed like my feet. There had been sores on my elbows. I looked at myself. My fingers were limber, the sores were gone and I could see that my feet, in sandals, were no longer deformed. I jumped up screaming, “Jesus! You’re really here”.’ Sister Briege McKenna, Miracles Do Happen, 1987
Image: Library of Congress