Christian Renatus Von Zinzendorf

Christian Renatus Von Zinzendorf

Christian Renatus, Count von Zinzendorf was the charismatic leader of the Single Brethren and of Herrnhaag (God’s Grove), a Christian religious community built near Büdingen by his father, Nicholas Ludwig, head of the Brüdergemine or Moravian Unity. Christian Renatus, affectionately known as Christel, took his father’s marriage religion (Ehereligion) literally, proclaiming himself to be the living side wound of Christ in 1748, which meant he was the embodiment of Christ's sacrificial and compassionate love.

Zinzendorf and his co-elder of the Single Brothers, Joachim Rubusch, also proclaimed themselves to be married to the sidehole. This derived in part from the teaching of Zinzendorf’s father that all souls are female, regardless of gender, so that they may be married to Christ. (This image is derived from the fact that "soul" in German, die Seele, is always a feminine noun.) It was also in 1748 that Christian Renatus von Zinzendorf declared all single brothers to be sisters and therefore brides of Christ.

The compounding of sexuality and spirituality at Herrnhaag led to virulent attacks from outside and within the church, threatening to undo the goodwill with other denominations that Nicholas had sought for decades. He dismissed his son from his positions and brought him to England for the remaining three years of Christian's life.

After his death, Christian's followers in Pennsylvania believed his spirit remained in a sacred spring while church leaders systematically destroyed most of the documents referring to the events at Herrnhaag. Only within the past two decades has a new generation of scholars and historians begun to reexamine that period to determine what happened.