WHAT’S A MORAVIAN?

The story of Bethlehem is the story of the Moravians who founded the place.  

So, who the hell were the Moravians?

According to Wikipedia,

“The Moravian Church, formally named the Unitas Fratrum (Latin for “Unity of the Brethren”) is one of the oldest Protestant denominations in the world, dating back to the 15th century. The name by which the denomination is commonly known comes from the original exiles who fled to Saxony in 1772 from Moravia, Czechoslovakia to escape religious persecution. The modern Unitas Fratrum, with about one million members worldwide, continues to draw on traditions established during the 18th century. The Moravians continue their tradition of missionary work, such as in the Caribbean and Africa.  They place a very high value on working with other Protestant denominations, personal piety, missions, and music.  The Moravian Church’s emblem is the Lamb of God with the flag of victory, surrounded by the Latin inscription “Vicit agnus noster, eum sequamur” (‘Our Lamb has conquered, let us follow Him’).”

As usual, with religious fanatics bent on converting the rest of the world to their slightly twisted cosmic view, their founder, a pissed off Catholic priest named John Hus, was burned at the stake as a heretic. And that, of course, really energized the Moravians to come to America in 1740 as missionaries and convert the Native American and German savages. Oh Boy!

But from a purely religious standpoint, the Moravians were Lutherans on steroids with a big chip on their shoulder.

From the very beginning, the Moravians of Bethlehem were  a closed community. On their way to and from Philadelphia, many of America’s most famous men, like George Washington and Ben Franklin, were not allowed to set foot inside the town. In fact, up until 1845, only Moravians could live in town. And the general public is excluded from the Central Church to this day, similar to the Mormons and their temples.

The Sun Inn (1758) was where travelers stayed when passing through Bethlehem because the Moravians wouldn’t let them stay inside the city center.  All the Founding Fathers roomed there at one time or another and John Adams said it was the best place he ever stayed while traveling because they offered individual rooms, which was a rarity during the Colonial era.

The Moravians of Bethlehem were industrious little buggers because everyone worked together day and night to pull the proverbial wagon. The Moravian Industrial Quarter, which the Moravians erected in the 1750s along Monocacy Creek, was the first and largest industrial park in America, (35 industries) .  The creek provided power to run the mills and fresh drinking water for the town.

Today, one of the most popular attractions is the Smitty Shop where a burly, bearded reenactor shows how they worked with iron; tin; and though devout pacifists, lots and lots of guns.

I found it quite interesting that there is a very logical progression from the Moravian Industrial Quarter to the city becoming the birth placed of the modern industrial behemoth Bethlehem Steel.  The fact that the town was strategically located on the Lehigh River and then became a major railroad hub insured its modern transformation.

The Spring House down by Monocacy Creek was the source of drinking water for the entire community.  At first they employed young men to constantly carry the water up the hill which was hard tedious work, especially in the heat of summer and cold of winter.  In 1755, they built a water wheel to pump water up the hill (330 linear feet and 94 in elevation) to a holding tank by the church   It was the first municipal water system in America and provided clean drinking and bathing water to each home.

Eventually this bottom land near the creek that was home to America’s first industrial center flooded out.  The original buildings are still standing as they did in the 1700s, but with climate change, the area now floods regularly when the creek overflows its banks and it is essentially a waterlogged historic time capsule.

Shad spawned in the upper stretches of the Lehigh River all the way to Bethlehem and the women of the town wrote in their journals about netting as many as 1,000 a day.

The Moravian Central Church, built between 1803-1806, could seat the 1,500 members of the community, making it one of the largest in America. The architectural design showcases a huge limestone structure built with no columns because they didn’t want to block the sight lines. Consequently, it has six-foot-thick walls to support the weight of the massive roof and hold the building together.  It was the largest church without columns in the U.S.

All of the old Moravian buildings are made of buff limestone, mined from a nearby quarry, like the lovely Communal Choir Building across from the Central Church that was the home for the single men of the community.  The Moravians were pacifists and refused to fight in the Revolutionary War, but they converted this stately stone building into a hospital for soldiers wounded at the Battle of Brandywine in 1776.  And nearby is the largest graveyard associated with a hospital in America — all unmarked wooden coffins.  The hospital and graveyard are, of course, rumored to be haunted by multiple spirits

Behind the Central Church sits Moravian College which opened in 1741, making it the sixth oldest college in America.  It was primarily for women, making it truly unique in a country that thought women were too dumb to be educated. But the Moravians believed that woman should be educated so they could read the Bible.  And before long, women from the surrounding colonies were attending the college and enrollment swelled to 2,000 students.

Gemein House, built in 1743, is the oldest house still standing in town.  It originally was home to all of the Moravians in Bethlehem.   The impressive wooden structure is made from hand-hewn white oak logs that were subsequently covered with stucco and clapboard.  But the original timbers remain, making it the longest continually-occupied log structure in America. 

Eventually there were so many Moravians living in Bethlehem they needed to build more housing, which begat the Single Men’s Choir Building just across the street and the Single Women’s Choir Building nearby. In a Moravian community housing was segregated by age, sex and marital availability. And all the kids were raised communally by the “Sisters”, not their parents. Every aspect of life was strictly structured by the church.

All of the original Moravian buildings from the 1740s are representative of the classic Germanic architecture style. These historic structures are still owned by the church and are rented as apartments to any and all.

All the women wore the same plain, tight-necked dress and peaked white bonnet.  Each female also also wore a color-coded ribbon, like the stripes on a military uniform — red (single under 16), pink (single over 16 and available), blue (married), and white (widowed).

If a man wanted to marry, he went to the church elders for their approval. But, interestingly, and unlike any other place in America at the time, women could refuse a marriage proposal for any reason. And here’s an interesting Moravian first, the bride and groom always ate soft pretzels at their wedding reception.

Some of the other interesting and quirky milestones related to the Moravian community of Bethlehem include:

• The oldest continually-operated civic clock (in the Central Church bell tower) in America.
• The Moravian Trombone Choir is the oldest brass ensemble in America.
• The Moravian Book Store is the oldest continually-operated book store in America.

There are about 50,00 Moravians in America and  30,000 of them live in Winston Salem, North Carolina.  But the largest group of Moravians is in TANZANIA because they are still fundamentally missionaries.

I lived on the north rim of the Grand Canyon for fourteen wonderful years, exploring Utah. So, I spent a lot of time around the Mormons who I found to be hard-working and friendly people devoted to their somewhat wacky, though essentially harmless, religion. I think Mark Twain described them perfectly in his insightful travel book “Roughing It“, so I won’t try and top the master.

As Inna and I learned more and more about Bethlehem’s roots during our recent Thanksgiving holiday, I was struck by the many similarities between the Moravians and the Mormons.

• Their founders were ruthlessly executed by an angry mob, working closely with the authorities.
• Their primary focus has always been on missionary work, trying to convert others (heathens) to their gospel.
• They organized themselves into familial clans (choirs and stakes respectively) where the male leaders of each group called all the shots.
• The women of the community lived within a closely knit framework of a “Sisterhood“.
• They had a prescribed dress code consisting of simple homespun materials.
• They pooled their resources for the greater community good.
• They achieved unimaginable success in agriculture, business and industry.
• They were entirely self-sufficient.
• They were almost psychotically insular, keeping their towns and churches closed to outsiders.
• They did not acknowledge any government other than their own.
• They were essentially peaceful and did not make war.
• They loved to make music and dance.
• And to this day, they both remain an utter mystery to the rest of the world.