Nicholas Ludwig von Zinsendorf was born in 1700, and he died in 1760. He comes from

German Piotism, and is associated with the Moravian Church, also known at that time as

the Herenhut Brudergemeine, which is named for Herenhut, a small town on the Eastern

border. If you were to draw a line right through the center of Germany, there on the far

eastern border would be Herenhut. Zinsendorf was born in Dresden, his father was a high-ranking

political figure, and his father died in the very year that Zinsendorf was born. He was

raised by his maternal grandmother on a vast estate. When he was a age, he was sent to study

at Holla's center of German Piotism, and not only was he exposed to Piotism there, but also

to missions endeavors. After study at Holla, he went to Luther's University. He studied law at the

University of Wittenberg, and when he graduated, he took up a government post. 1722 was a big year

for Zinsendorf. He married, he also used his family's resources to purchase a large estate,

and that same year, a group of Moravians fleeing religious persecution came to him, and he gave

them sanctuary on his estate. This group has its roots back to Jan Huss, the pre-reformer and

Bohemia. This is a Protestant group, and very quickly, Zinsendorf used his study in law and his

abilities to navigate governments to bring structure and organization to this movement. He brought

a liturgy to this movement, and in ten years by 1732, these Moravians were ready to send out

missionaries. They sent one to Greenland, cold climates, and they sent the other to a warmer

St. Thomas of the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. Zinsendorf himself went to St. Thomas,

I would say the wiser choice for a nice climate in 1738 and 1739. Then in 1741, he went to the

colony of Pennsylvania. Just north and a little to the west of Philadelphia, he visited with a small

community of Moravians, and on Christmas Eve in 1741, he held a service for them, and at that very

moment, he named the community Bethlehem. Moravian College is there to this day in the town of Bethlehem,

...