Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf, the leading figure in the early Moravian movement, supposedly once said, "Preach the Gospel, die and be forgotten."

This seems to be especially true of the first generation of women missionaries and evangelists in the mid-18th century most of whose letters were destroyed and whose voices have long grown silent. This blog is an attempt to piece together their stories. 

What is this about?

On September 14, 1742, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, a double wedding was underway, led by Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf, the leader of the German Pietist group known as the Moravians. The couples were not in love; they had barely even spoken before. Margarethe Bechtel and Janettje Rauh had been chosen by the Moravian leadership to marry two Moravian missionaries. Together with their husbands, they now belonged to the highly mobile group of missionaries and evangelists known as the “pilgrim congregation” (Pilgergemeine), deployed throughout the Atlantic world. Wherever the church said to go, they would go.

Margarethe Bechtel and Janettje Rauh thus became two of the very first Protestant woman missionaries. The modern missionary movement had not begun. It would be more than 50 years before another denomination would send a married couple into the field. And it was more than a century before the presence of women in the mission field became central to Protestant mission theory with “woman’s work for woman.” Yet, until recently these early women missionaries had been all but forgotten.

My dissertation research seeks to rediscover the stories of these first women missionaries through the use of mission records, spiritual autobiographies, periodicals and other sources and to uncover the complex roles and relationships of female Euro-American missionaries and Native women living together along the so-called “gender frontier” (Kathleen Brown). I am also looking at the other women evangelists working alongside them among another set of displaced people - German-speaking immigrants at the same time. This blog will be my attempt to "think  out loud" about my research questions, findings and musings. 

Hope you also enjoy the journey!