The church architect Sir Christopher Wren (above) died today in 1723. Fortunate enough to be at the height of his powers in 1666 when most of London burnt down, he was responsible for the building of many of London’s most well-loved churches, including St Paul’s Cathedral. In a remarkable second stroke of good fortune, he is also the subject of a clerihew by the inventor of clerihews:
Sir Christopher Wren
Said, ‘I am going to dine with some men.
If anyone calls
Say I am designing St Paul’s.’
Edmund Clerihew Bentley
This is the feast day of St John of God, who lived in Spain in the 16th century. He is the patron saint of booksellers and printers, and not, actually, of God.
Amy Carmichael, a missionary in India, hid a five-year-old temple prostitute, Kohila, and helped her escape her abuse, today in 1901. This was the start of an illegal 50-year ‘kidnap’ programme, for which she not only became one of the first Protestant missionaries to adopt Indian dress, but also dyed her skin with dark coffee so she could enter temples to remove the children.
Today in 1983, President Ronald Reagan recast the Cold War as a conflict between good and evil, with the United States on the side of the angels. Calling the Soviet Union an ‘evil empire’, he told his audience of evangelical Christians:
‘Yes, let us pray for the salvation of all of those who live in that totalitarian darkness — pray they will discover the joy of knowing God. But until they do, let us be aware that while they preach the supremacy of the State, declare its omnipotence over individual man, and predict its eventual domination of all peoples on the earth, they are the focus of evil in the modern world.’ Ronald Reagan
Image: Leo Reynolds