Anna Nitschmann

Life

She was born in Kunwald, Moravia (present-day Kunín, Czech Republic), the daughter of the wheelwright David Nitschmann. Around the age of ten she moved with her family to Herrnhut in Saxony to escape persecution. She is said to have been converted during the spiritual awakening that took place in the community in the summer of 1727.

In March 1730, before she had turned fifteen, she was chosen by lot as eldress (Ältestin) of Herrnhut. This office involved the spiritual oversight of the community's women and differed in character from that of an elder in Korean churches. In 1740 she traveled with her father to North America, where she worked in Pennsylvania, returning to Europe in 1743.

After Zinzendorf's first wife, Erdmuthe Dorothea, died in 1756, Nitschmann married Zinzendorf on June 27, 1757. The couple had no children. After Zinzendorf died on May 9, 1760, Nitschmann's health also declined, and she died of illness in Herrnhut on May 21 of the same year.

Ministry and Achievements

• Covenant of the Single Sisters: On May 4, 1730, together with Anna Dober, she gathered eighteen unmarried women at a lovefeast, where they covenanted together to live for Christ alone. The date later became an annual festival observed by the Single Sisters.
• Choir system: The Brethren divided their members into living communities called "choirs" (Chor) according to age, sex, and marital status. Here "choir" does not mean a singing group but a body of people who lived together and received religious instruction. Nitschmann organized and led the Single Sisters' Choir.
• Mission: She carried out an itinerant ministry in southeastern Pennsylvania, visiting German-speaking women. After Zinzendorf's party arrived, she also took part in ministry among Native Americans.
• Mother of the Church: From 1746 to 1756 she served as "Mother of the Church" (Gemein-Mutter), caring for all the women of the Brethren.
• Hymns: She wrote a number of hymns.

Influence on the Korean Church

Little is known of any direct influence Nitschmann had on the Korean church. However, the Moravian Church, to which she belonged, is known to have influenced the spiritual formation of John Wesley. Through this, she is indirectly connected to Korean Methodism, which stands in the Wesleyan tradition.

Assessment

Within the Brethren, Nitschmann was revered as a model for unmarried women. During the period of her activity, the Brethren appointed women as deaconesses and eldresses and, if only for a brief time, even ordained women as priests (Priesterin). The historian Beverly Smaby argues that this trend weakened after the deaths of the two leaders in 1760, since other leaders had long harbored doubts about religious roles for women.

The scholar Katie Faull observes that Nitschmann became an idealized "legend" in poetry and painting even during her lifetime. She also holds that Nitschmann's letters and diaries were deliberately destroyed after her death, leaving almost no biography grounded in primary sources. Another point of discussion is that Zinzendorf's first wife was displaced from that role when Nitschmann became "Mother of the Church." Later church historians have regarded the marriage of Nitschmann and Zinzendorf as one undertaken for the sake of office.