Daily Calendar – October 19

The 293rd day of the year; 73 days remain until the New Year.

Church Calendar

Commemoration of the All-Praised Holy Apostle Thomas.

The Holy Apostle Thomas is numbered among the Twelve Holy Apostles—the closest disciples of the Savior.

According to the testimony of Holy Scripture, he did not believe in the Resurrection of his Teacher from the dead. He replied to his fellow disciples, who had announced this joyful event to him: "Unless I see the mark of the nails in His hands, and place my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe." On the eighth day after His Resurrection, the Lord appeared once again to His disciples—among whom was Thomas—and said to him: "Reach out your finger and look at My hands; reach out your hand and put it into My side. Do not be faithless, but believe." Following this—as Saint John Chrysostom writes—"the Holy Apostle Thomas, who was previously weaker in faith than the other apostles, became, by the grace and mercy of God, the most courageous, devoted, and tireless laborer for the cause of Christ. He traversed the entire world preaching Christ, fearlessly proclaiming the Word of God even to savage peoples."

According to Church tradition, the Holy Apostle Thomas established Christian churches in Palestine, Mesopotamia, Parthia, Ethiopia, and India. Saint Thomas crowned his apostolic ministry with a martyr’s death. For converting the wife and son of the ruler of the Indian city of Mylapore to the Christian faith, the Holy Apostle Thomas was cast into prison; he subsequently endured great suffering and torture, and ultimately, pierced by five spears, he surrendered his soul to the Lord. Relics of the Apostle Thomas are preserved in India, Hungary, and on the Holy Mountain of Athos.

Born:

1862 – Auguste Lumière, the elder of the brothers who invented the motion picture camera; died in 1954.

1870 – Boris Esadze, military figure, politician, and historian; the collection Sakartvelos Matiane ("Chronicle of Georgia") was published under his editorship; died in 1914.

1886 – Sergi Kakabadze, historian and philologist; died in 1967.

1888 – Vasil Kakabadze, chemist, Doctor of Chemical Sciences, and Honored Scientist of Georgia; died in 1968.

1896 – Ephrem (Grigol) Sidamonidze, Catholicos-Patriarch of Georgia; died in 1972.

1899 – Miguel Ángel Asturias, Guatemalan writer and Nobel Prize laureate; died in 1974.

1899 – Konstantine Katsitadze, Georgian epidemiologist, Doctor of Medical Sciences, and Honored Scientist of Georgia; died in 1982. 1910 – Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, American physicist and astrophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate; died in 1995.

1913 – John le Carré, English writer, author of suspenseful detective novels.

1916 – Emil Gilels, pianist, laureate of international piano competitions in Vienna and Brussels; died in 1985.

1927 – Giga Lortkipanidze, director; died in 2013.

1928 – Davit Muskhelishvili, historian, Academician of the Georgian Academy of Sciences.

Died:

1745 – Jonathan Swift, English writer and political figure; born in 1667.

1826 – François-Joseph Talma, prominent French actor; born in 1763.

1909 – Cesare Lombroso, Italian scientist, forensic psychiatrist, and anthropologist, founder of the anthropological school; born in 1835.

Events:

1722 – The Frenchman Hoffen patented a fire extinguisher.

1872 – The world's largest natural gold nugget, weighing 215 kg, was discovered in New South Wales (South Africa).

1879 – Thomas Edison created the electric light bulb.

1950 – UN forces entered Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea.

1958 – From October 19 to 22, the 1500th anniversary of the founding of Tbilisi was celebrated.

1981 – Nicolaas Bloembergen and Arthur Leonard Schawlow were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.