Christian Gregor (January 1, 1723 - November 6, 1801) was a Moravian composer and bishop.
Gregor was born to a peasant family living in the
Silesia
Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...
n village of Dirsdorf, near Peilau and became a member of the Moravian Church when he was seventeen. He moved to
Herrnhut
Herrnhut ( Sorbian: ''Ochranow''; cs, Ochranov) is an Upper Lusatian town in the Görlitz district in Saxony, Germany, known for the community of the Moravian Church established by Nicolas Ludwig, Count von Zinzendorf in 1722.
Geography
It is ...
, Germany in 1742, where he soon became organist and director of congregational music. He later served similar roles in
Herrnhaag
Herrnhaag (Lord's Grove) was a communal spiritual centre for the Moravian Church, Moravian Unity, an early form of Protestantism. It and Marienborn, a nearby sister community, are located in the Wetterau, an area of Hesse, north of Frankfurt am Ma ...
(1748) and
Zeist
Zeist () is the capital and largest town of the municipality of Zeist. The town is located in the Utrecht province of the Netherlands, east of the city of Utrecht.
History
The town of "Seist" was first mentioned in a charter in the year 83 ...
(1749). He was ordained a Deacon in 1756, and was appointed to several administrative posts within the Moravian Church during which time he traveled extensively: Riga (1744) where he met
Nicolaus Zinzendorf
Nikolaus Ludwig, Reichsgraf von Zinzendorf und Pottendorf (26 May 1700 – 9 May 1760) was a German religious and social reformer, bishop of the Moravian Church, founder of the Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine, Christian mission pioneer and a major fig ...
, North America (1770-1772), and a trip to
Old Sarepta Old Sarepta (Russian Старая Сарепта) now Krasnoarmeysky Rayon, is a district of Volgograd, in Russia.
Sarepta was founded 28 kilometers south of Tsaritsyn by the Moravian Brethren in 1765 when Catherine II sought to attract German sett ...
, Russia (1774) by way of Estonia, Latvia, and St. Petersburg. He was consecrated a bishop in 1789.
A translation into English of his Lebenslauf (autobiography) was completed in the 1960s.
Gregor is credited with the Moravian liturgical development of the late 18th century and the introduction of concerted anthems into worship services. Gregor edited the 1779 hymnal and the 1784 chorale bookJames Boeringer, editor, Choral-Buch by Christian Gregor, a Facsimile of the First Edition of 1784. Introduction by Martha Asti. Translation of the Author's Preface by Karl Kroeger (Winston-Salem, NC & Bethlehem, PA: Moravian Music Foundation Press, 1984). of the
Unitas Fratrum
The Moravian Church ( cs, Moravská církev), or the Moravian Brethren, formally the (Latin: "Unity of the Brethren"), is one of the oldest Protestantism, Protestant Christian denomination, denominations in Christianity, dating back to the Bohem ...
. He composed several hundred musical works of which the majority are preserved in collections of the Moravian archives in Herrnhut, Germany,
Christiansfeld
Christiansfeld, with a population of 2,977 (1 January 2022), is a town in Kolding Municipality in Southern Jutland in Region of Southern Denmark. The town was founded in 1773 by the Moravian Church and named after the Danish king Christian VII. ...
, Denmark, and Moravian Music Foundation in the United States, as well as the University of Warsaw.
He died in