This Month in Lutheran History

[Monthly Index]

February 1

1963 - The Lutheran Free Church merged with The American Lutheran Church.

February 2

1852 - C.F.W. Walther returned to St. Louis after a trip back to Germany.

1952 - William Dallmann, president of the English Synod (1899-1901), vice-president of the LCMS (1926-1932), and editor of the Lutheran Witness (1891-1895), died.

February 3

1518 - Pope Leo X ordered the Augustinian Order to discipline Martin Luther for his controversial writings.

February 4

1906 - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German-Lutheran theologian who led the opposition to Nazification of the German Protestant Church, was born.

1940 - The Lutheran Hour made its first foreign broadcast.

February 5

1555 - The fifth and final Diet of Augsburg began. The diet resulted in the Peace of Augsburg, officially recognizing Lutheranism as a religion.

February 6

1838 - The German School Association began classes at the St. Louis German Academy.

February 7

1528 - The Reformation was officially established in Bern, Switzerland.

February 8

1841 -The congregation of Trinity, St. Louis, called C.F.W. Walther to succeed his brother, Herman.

1864 - William H.T. Dau, president of Concordia College, Conover, North Carolina (1892-1899); professor at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis (1905-1926); and president of Valparaiso University (1926-1929), was born.

February 9

1717 - The corner stone for the first Lutheran church in Tranquebar, South India was laid.

February 10

1963 - Concordia Seminary, Hong Kong, was dedicated.

February 11

1881 - Concordia College, Conover, North Carolina, was chartered.

February 12

1819 -

Johann Schaller, confirmed and sent to America by Wilhelm Loehe; pastor of Trinity, St. Louis (1854-1872); president of the Western District, LCMS (1857-1863); and professor at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis (1872-1887), was born.

1962 - Westfield House in Cambridge, England was dedicated.

February 13

1904 - Karl Naether, the first LCMS missionary to India (1894), died.

1936 - The Missouri Synod's Armed Services Commission was organized. The ASC's primary purpose was to commission and assist Lutheran chaplains.

February 14

1546 - Martin Luther preached his final sermon, on Matthew 11:28, at Eisleben.

February 15

1643 - Johann Campnius arraived in the United States with the governor of New Sweden, Johann Printz. Campanius served as a pastor to German and Swedish settlers and as a missionary to the Delaware Indians, for whom he translated Luther's Small Catechism.

February 16

1497 - Philipp Melanchthon was born Philipp Schwartzerd. Melanchthon was one of the Reformation's leaders.

1839 - "Pledge of Subjection" to Martin Stephan was drafted as Saxon Immigrants traveled up the Mississippi River to St. Louis.

February 17

1573 - Jakob Andrea sent his six sermons addressing controversies within the Protestant Reformation to Duke Julius, the head of the Evangelical Lutheran Territorial Church of Brunswick.

1842 - Georg Stoeckhardt, pastor at Paris, France (1870), and Holy Cross, St. Louis (1878-1887), and professor at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis (1881-1913), was born.

February 18

1546 - Martin Luther died (at Eisleben, where he was also born).

1890 - A.A. Grossmann, teacher and first executive secretary of the Walther League, was born.

February 19

1839 - The final group of Saxon immigrants arrived in St. Louis on the steamboat Selma.

1941 - A.A. Grossmann, teacher and first executive secretary of the Walther League, died.

February 20

1494 - Johann Agricola, the German reformer who studied under Luther at Wittenberg and served as his secretary at the Leipzig Disputation, was born at Eisleben.

1932 - Ralph Arthur Bohlmann was born. Bohlmann was the ninth president of the Missouri Synod.

February 21

1808 - Wilhelm Loehe, pastor at Neuendettelsau, Bavaria, who sent missionaries to serve Germans immigrating to America, was born.

1819 - Christian A.T. Selle, pastor of First St. Paul Lutheran Church, Chicago (where the Missouri Synod held its organizing convention) was born.

1846 - Martin Stephan, leader of the Saxon Immigration of 1838-1839, died.

February 22

1922 - Concordia Seminary, Hankow, China, opened.

February 23

1877 - Karl Kretzmann, the first full-time curator of Concordia Historical Institute, was born.

1968 - John W. Behnken, president of the LCMS for 27 years (1935-1962), died.

February 24

1500 - Emperor Charles V was born. Though he condemned Martin Luther at Worms, Charles was later tolerant of Luther and his followers for political reasons.

February 25

1913 - E.L. Arndt began his missionary work in Shanghai, China.

February 26

1839 - "Confirmation of Stephan's Investiture" was signed by Saxon Immigration pastors and representatives of congregations, reaffirming Martin Stephan's position as their bishop.

February 27

1907 - The Foreign Mission Ladies Aid Society was organized.

February 28

1870 - The first physical plant for Concordia Publishing House was dedicated.

February 29

1528 - In Scotland, Patrick Hamilton was burned at the stake for being Lutheran.

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