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(1690–1751) Historians credit this “humble journeyman carpenter” with being one of the two individuals most responsible for Herrnhut. Born December 31, 1690 in Senftleben, Moravia, he early showed religious inclinations. But his Catholic upbringing failed to satisfy. Two influences profoundly prepared him for conversion at age 27—the Christian carpenter who taught him his trade and the German Bible he obtained at age 20. After years of seeking, he found Christ while ill in Görlitz, Saxony, near the Moravian border, as a Lutheran pastor nursed him to health. That year, 1717, David married and also embarked on soul-winning trips into Moravia. There he discovered Brethren who longed for the rebirth of their ancient church, holding tenaciously to a prophetic word spoken by an ancestor that their persecuted church would yet live. With David’s meeting Count Zinzendorf in 1722, this hope sprang to reality. He led the first Moravian refugees across the border to Herrnhut and actually started that settlement by felling the first tree. Zinzendorf was to call him “the Moravian Moses” for ten times he crossed the border and led Brethren to freedom. Though he sometimes exercised poor judgment and wavered in his faith under the sway of forceful false teaching, he always returned to his devotion to Christ. In 1733 he led a party of three Brethren in the difficult mission to help a Danish missionary among the Eskimos of Greenland.

(1700–1756) In the young countess of the house of Henry X von Reuss, Zinzendorf found a companion characterized by “simplicity and warm sympathy … quick insight and excellent judgment … ” Erdmuth Dorothea was raised in a deeply pietistic home of the nobility. On September 7, 1722 she became Zinzendorf’s wife, entering upon “a life of self denial … to assist (Zinzendorf) in gaining souls for Christ …” She proved more capable than her husband in practical matters and he showed wisdom in turning over to her the management of his finances and in 1732, legal title to all his properties. This proved a blessing four years later when the count was banished from Saxony. Herrnhut was able to continue in the control of the Moravians. Erdmuth Dorothea “outwardly at least seemed as willing to relegate her family to second place as (did) the count,” notes John Weinlick in Count Zinzendorf. One of their 12 children, Marie Agnes, was born but days after the count departed on a “witness trip.” The countess herself traveled much on the continent and in England, encouraging the Diaspora societies. While she was on such a ministry tour to Livonia and St. Petersburg in 1742–43 two of their children died at Herrnhaag. She never fully recovered from the loss of her 24-year-old son Christian Renatus in 1751. “Her ceaseless toil and constant anxiety in behalf of the church had taken their toll,” notes Hutton. She died at Herrnhut in 1756. At her burial she was lamented by the people of Herrnhut as “our praise worthy sister and most beloved Mama.”

(1703–1792) Benjamin Franklin called him “my very much respected friend, Bishop Spangenberg.” This great-hearted man was attracted to the Brethren by visits of the count and other Herrnhuters while he served as an instructor at the university at Jena. Having earned the degree, Master of Arts, in 1733 he threw in his lot with the Moravians. Zinzendorf sought Spangenberg’s tutoring when he was preparing for his own Lutheran ordination. If the count was the visionary of the Moravian movement, Spangenberg was his interpreter and administrator. He early negotiated a grant from the King of England for the Moravian settlement in Georgia when it looked like the Brethren might have to leave Herrnhut. In 1735 he led a group of nine Moravians to Georgia and remained to engage in evangelistic work in Pennsylvania. One of those with whom he earnestly pled concerning salvation was John Wesley. In the early 1740’s Spangenberg led the development of Moravian societies of the “Diaspora” in England and after being consecrated a bishop in 1744 he assumed responsibility for ministries in North America. “He combined unusual adminstrative gifts with sound views in theology and the zeal of a pioneer missionary,” says Hamilton. “Brother Joseph” as he was affectionately called because he protected the Brethren in a strange land, surveyed and settled the community of Wachovia in North Carolina. At the death of the count he was summoned to Europe where his executive abilities proved crucially important in shaping the over-extended Moravian enterprise for the future. This saint died at age 88, leaving among his writings the first systematic discussion of Moravian theology, children’s books and a biography of Zinzendorf.

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