Johann Conrad Beissel (March 1, 1691 – July 6, 1768) was a
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
-born
religious
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatur ...
leader who in 1732 founded the
Ephrata Community
The Ephrata Cloister or Ephrata Community was a religious community, established in 1732 by Johann Conrad Beissel at Ephrata, in what is now Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The grounds of the community are now owned by the Commonwealth of Penn ...
in the
Province of Pennsylvania.
[For the correct date of his birth see Alderfer, Everett Gordon: ''The Ephrata Commune'', Pittsburgh, 1985, p. 14, 219.]
Background
Beissel was born in
Eberbach then part of the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars.
From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...
, and emigrated to
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
in 1720. Beissel had intended to join a commune of hermits founded there by
Johannes Kelpius
Johannes Kelpius (; 1667 – 1708) was a German Pietist, mystic, musician, and writer. He was also interested in the occult, botany, and astronomy. He came to believe with his followers – called the "Society of the Woman in the Wilderness" – ...
, but Kelpius had died in 1708. Beissel met with Conrad Matthaei, an associate who became his principal spiritual confidant. The group around Kelpius had arrived in 1694. They settled on a ridge above the
Wissahickon Creek
Wissahickon Creek is a tributary of the Schuylkill River in Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties, Pennsylvania.
Wissahickon Creek rises in Montgomery County, runs approximately 23 miles (37 km) passing through and dividing Northwest ...
. There they prayed, meditated, and watched the stars looking for signs of the coming kingdom of Christ. They also taught children of the community. Some were celibate until death; others married.
In 1732 Beissel established a semi-monastic Baptist community called the Camp of the Solitary, with a convent (the Sister House) and a monastery (the Brother House) at
Ephrata Ephrata may refer to:
Places
* Ephrata, Suriname
* Ephrata, Pennsylvania, U.S.
*Ephrata, Washington, U.S.
* Ephrata Township, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Other uses
*Ephrata Cloister, a religious community in Ephrata, Pennsylvania
See also
*
* Efrata or E ...
, in what is now
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Celibacy was considered a virtue, but not obligatory. Each member adopted a new name, and Beissel was called Friedsam, to which the community afterward added the title of Gottrecht.
Believing families settled near the community, accepted Beissel as their spiritual leader, and worshipped with the community on the
Sabbath. They were influenced by
Schwarzenau Brethren
The Schwarzenau Brethren, the German Baptist Brethren, Dunkers, Dunkards, Tunkers, or sometimes simply called the German Baptists, are an Anabaptist group that dissented from Roman Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed European state churches during t ...
thought.
Beissel served as the community's composer as well as its spiritual leader. He devised his own system of musical composition intended to simplify the process by relying on pre-determined sequences of "master notes" and "servant notes" to create harmony. This was mentioned in
Thomas Mann
Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...
's ''
Doctor Faustus'' as a precursor to
serialism.
Beissel's colony was noted for its printing facilities. After Beissel's death and the disruption of the war years of the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
, the utopian community declined in population. Failing to attract sufficient members, its people assimilated into the general Baptist community.
Veganism
Beissel was one of the first
vegetarians
Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter.
Vegetarianism ma ...
in North America who was motivated by Christian religious belief. The entire Ephrata community reportedly abstained from meat eating, which Beissel considered spiritually undesirable.
[Iacobbo, Karen; Iacobbo, Michael. (2004). ''Vegetarian America: A History''. Praeger Publishing. p. 3. ]
Beissel invented a
vegan
Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. ...
diet for the Ephrata community that excluded all
meat,
dairy,
egg
An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...
s and
honey
Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...
.
His diet consisted of
buckwheat
Buckwheat (''Fagopyrum esculentum''), or common buckwheat, is a flowering plant in the knotweed family Polygonaceae cultivated for its grain-like seeds and as a cover crop. The name "buckwheat" is used for several other species, such as ''Fagopy ...
,
cabbage, fruit, green vegetables,
potato
The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae.
Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...
es and
wheat
Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...
.
Works
ed. Peter C. Erb, ''Johann Conrad Beissel and the Ephrata Community. Mystical and Historical Texts'', Lewiston, NY: 1985 (contains selected works)
References
Further reading
*Klein, Walter C. Johann ''Conrad Beissel: Mystic and Martinet 1690–1768''. Philadelphia, 1942.
External links
"Beisel, Johann Konrad (1690–1768)" ''Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online''
* Bach, Jeff: ''Voices of the turtledoves : the sacred world of Ephrata'', Göttingen 2003
An examination of parallels between the music and worldviews of Beissel and
Sun Ra
Le Sony'r Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993), better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific ou ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beissel, Conrad
1691 births
1768 deaths
18th-century Christian mystics
American members of the Church of the Brethren
American veganism activists
Radical Pietism
Seventh Day Baptists
Emigrants from the Holy Roman Empire to the Thirteen Colonies
Founders of utopian communities
Clergy of Brethren denominations
Protestant mystics
People from Ephrata, Pennsylvania
Ephrata Cloister
People of colonial Pennsylvania
Proto-vegans