This Week in Christian History: Mother Teresa, Harvard and Founding of the Sunday School Society
Founding of Harvard University — Sept. 8, 1636
This week marks the anniversary of the founding of Harvard College, which later became Harvard University.
The Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony voted to establish the school, originally called "New College," primarily as a way to educate Christian clergy.
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"It was named after the college's first benefactor, the young minister John Harvard of Charlestown, who upon his death in 1638 left his library and half his estate to the institution," noted Harvard.
"A statue of John Harvard stands today in front of University Hall in Harvard Yard, and is perhaps the university's best known landmark."
Despite the vote, the actual creation of the college took a few years, spurred on by an effort to advance Puritan theology over competing spiritual ideas.
