Calendar of Saints: Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1)

Twice a week I post a quote from a saint from the Episcopal Calendar of Saints that week. They are to be meditative and mindful, playful and thought inducing. I hope they are helpful in your spiritual journeys.

Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf
Prophetic Witness
May 10

I was pleasantly surprised the other year when I first saw the contemporary Episcopal Church Calendar of Saints. There, on May 10 was our Moravian "patron saint." Zinzendorf was a prophetic witness to the power of the Spirit working in renewal and in trying to work across denominations.

Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf und Pottendorf, Imperial Count of Zinzendorf and Pottendorf, (May 26, 1700 – May 9, 1760), German religious and social reformer and bishop of the Moravian Church, was born at Dresden. His intention was to carry out into practice the Pietist ideals. He did not mean to found a new church or religious organization distinct from the Lutheranism of the land, but to create a Christian association the members of which by preaching, by tract and book distribution and by practical benevolence might awaken the somewhat torpid religion of the Lutheran Church of his day.

He is celebrated as a hymn writer and witness to ecumenism. -Link