This Week in Christian History: Augsburg Confession, First Crusade, John of the Cross

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, June 24, 2018

Crusaders Invade Asia Minor - June 26, 1097

Peter the Hermit leading an army during the First Crusade (1096-1099). | (Photo: Public Domain)

This week marks the anniversary of when the Christian armies of the First Crusade entered Asia Minor, days after taking the strategically important city of Nicaea.

Begun less than a year earlier in Western Europe, the Crusaders laid siege to Nicaea from May 14 to June 19, eventually taking the city despite heavy losses.

A week after Nicaea was taken, the various armies comprising the First Crusade set out in two large groups across the large peninsula, defeating Islamic forces on their way to Antioch.

"For the next four months, the crusaders made their way across Anatolia under horrible conditions. The heat was brutal, water scarce, and food scarcer," noted about-history.com.

"Repeatedly, the enterprise seemed doomed, yet in each case something allowed it to continue, if only just a little farther. For the crusaders, these were the miracles that God performed for those who marched to the land of his Son."