Born into aris­toc­ra­cy and wealth, von Zin­zen­dorf brief­ly stu­died law at the Un­i­ver­si­ty of Wit­ten­berg. Tir­ing of aca­dem­ia, he left school at age 19 to trav­el through­out Eu­rope. Three years lat­er, he in­her­it­ed the es­tate of Ber­tels­dorf in Sach­sen (Sax­o­ny). It was there that he per­mit­ted a group of re­li­gious re­fu­gees called the Mo­ra­vi­an Breth­ren to set­tle. By 1732, this Mo­rav­i­an set­tle­ment, named Herrn­hut (the Lord’s Shel­ter) had grown to over 600. This was the birth­place of the Mo­ra­vi­an church, led by Zinzendorf.

The Mo­ra­vi­ans be­gan send­ing out mis­sion­ar­ies in 1732, the first two go­ing to the West In­dies. In 1735, a group went to Geor­gia, then Penn­syl­van­ia. They ar­rived in Penn­syl­van­ia on Christ­mas Day, 1741, join­ing a group al­ready there. In­spired by their Christ­mas ar­riv­al, they named the new set­tle­ment Beth­le­hem. It is from this town that the fa­mous Beth­le­hem Steel Co­m­pany got its name.

Zin­zen­dorf wrote about 2,00 hymns in his life; the Mo­ra­vi­ans trans­lat­ed ma­ny in­to other lang­uages for use in their mis­sion work.

Sources

Hymns

1. Ach! mein ver­wund­ter Fürste!
   • I Thirst, Thou Wounded Lamb of God
2. Christi Blut und Ge­rech­tig­keit
   • Jesus, Thy Blood and Right­eous­ness
3. Deiner Kind­er Sam­mel­platz
   • Christ Will Gather in His Own
4. Der Gott von un­sern Bunde
   • I Thirst, Thou Wounded Lamb of God
5. Du ewiger Ab­grund der sel­ig­en Liebe
   • Eternal Depth of Love Di­vine
6. Herz und Herz ve­reint zu­sam­men
   • Christ­ian Hearts, in Love United
7. Jesu, geh vo­ran
   • Jesus, Still Lead On
8. Seelenbräutigam, O du Got­tes­lamm
   • O Thou to Whose All Search­ing Sight
9. So lange Je­sus bleibt der Herr