June 13, 1525: German reformer Martin Luther marries Katherine von Bora, 16 years his younger, having sneaked her and several other nuns out of their Cistercian convent in empty herring barrels two years earlier. [Ah, the course of true love.... -ed.]
June 13, 1893: Dorothy Sayers, English mystery writer and amateur Anglican/Episcopal theologian, is born in Oxford, England. "Man is never truly himself except when he is actively creating something," she once said. [Her photo appears above.]
June 14, 1811: Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin and daughter of Congregationalist minister Lyman Beecher, is born in Litchfield, Connecticut.
June 14, 847: Methodius, an Eastern church leader who fought vigorously for icons to be preserved and venerated, dies of dropsy. He had earlier survived seven years of imprisonment with a decaying corpse, as ordered by officials under iconoclastic Emperor Theophilus.
June 15, 1215: King John signs the Magna Carta, which begins, "The Church of England shall be free."
and
June 14, 1925, Duke Kahanamoku rescued eight men from a fishing vessel that capsized in heavy surf while attempting to enter the harbor in Newport Beach, California. Twenty-nine fishermen went into the water and seventeen perished. Using his surfboard, Kahanamoku was able to make quick trips back and forth to shore to increase the number of sailors rescued. Two other surfers saved four more fishermen. Newport's police chief at the time called Duke's efforts "the most superhuman surfboard rescue act the world has ever seen." Thus was born the tradition of lifeguards having rescue surfboards at the ready.
Below is a photo of the Rector with the statue-version of Duke. I'm lamenting that someone had stuffed a gum wrapper in his palm
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