This week in Christian history: Samuel Ferguson elected bishop, UMC labels homosexuality ‘incompatible with Christian teaching’

By Michael Gryboski, Editor Sunday, April 20, 2025

Girolamo Savonarola becomes a friar – April 24, 1475

This week marks the anniversary of when Girolamo Savonarola, a polarizing preacher and social reformer behind the original “bonfire of the vanities,” left his medical studies to become a friar.

After joining the Dominican Order, Savonarola became a prominent political voice in Florence during the 1490s, after the influential Medici family was temporarily driven out of power.

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Savonarola championed a practice later called the “bonfire of the vanities,” in which people gathered possessions that were considered sinful and publicly burned them in grand ceremonies.

However, over time, Savonarola garnered his share of powerful enemies, among them Pope Alexander VI. The friar was eventually overthrown and executed alongside two followers.