Growth of Herrnhut
Within four years, Herrnhut had grown to three hundred members. The men of the village gathered to lay the cornerstone for a Moravian school and medical building; they dedicated it to the glory of God, singing songs of praise for His work among them. As Friedrich von Watteville knelt in front of the cornerstone, praying aloud for God to accept their work and worship, five newcomers were standing in the back of the crowd and listening intently; the men were Moravian refugees who had stopped at Herrnhut on their way to find religious sanctuary in Poland.
Newcomers Who Shaped the Future
When they saw the passion for Christ among the leaders and villagers, they asked for permission to remain. Strangely, three of the five men had the same name, David Nitschmann, so they were labeled by their jobs in the village. All of the men were essential to the future growth of Herrnhut, but David “the carpenter” became a Moravian bishop in Herrnhut and one of the first missionaries sent to foreign soil.
Who Were the Moravians?
It took Zinzendorf a few years to understand the history of the Christian brothers from Moravia and Bohemia who were seeking religious sanctuary in Herrnhut.
In 1412, John Hus, a Catholic Bohemian priest, spoke out against the practices of the Catholic Church, condemning the selling of indulgences for the forgiveness of sins and the immorality among the Catholic leaders. In 1415, Hus was tried for heresy by a Catholic tribunal and burned at the stake for his righteous stand, but throughout Bohemia and Moravia, his followers, “the true Christian believers,” grew in number. By 1457, still sixty years before Luther made his famous protests, these Moravian believers became officially known as the Unitas Fratrum, the United Brethren; they became the earliest Protestant denomination.
The Unitas Fratrum: A Strong Protestant Movement
Members of the early Unitas Fratum were Germans; they lived a community within what is now the Czech Republic, but they were Germans by blood, culture, and language. By Luther’s time, they had more than four hundred congregations and nearly 200,000 members. It was not a small, struggling denomination.
To be continued…
Tale Tuesday 106
Date: 3rd December, 2024
Title: : COUNT NIKOLAUS LUDWIG VON ZINZENDORF (The Founder of The Moravian Community) (Part 3)
Source: God’s generals- The Missionaries
Author: Roberts Liardon
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