Christian feast day: Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg (Lutheran)

Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg was a German Lutheran missionary and the first Pietist missionary to India. Sent under the patronage of Frederick IV of Denmark, he co-founded the Danish-Halle Mission in Tranquebar with Heinrich Plütschau in 1706. Ziegenbalg is noted for producing the first complete translation of the New Testament into Tamil, for introducing the printing press to Protestant mission work in India, and for promoting Tamil literature and education.

Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched the Reformation in 1517. The Lutheran Churches adhere to the Bible and the Ecumenical Creeds, with Lutheran doctrine being explicated in the Book of Concord. Lutherans hold themselves to be in continuity with the apostolic church and affirm the writings of the Church Fathers and the first four ecumenical councils.