| Johannes Kelpius |
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| german religious leaders | |
| kelpius, johannes | |
| history of philadelphia | |
| radical pietism | |
| 1673 births | |
| 1708 deaths | |
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LIFE Johannes Kelpius was born Johann Kelp in 1673, near the village of Sighişoara (then called Schässburg) in Transylvania (modern Romania ) and attended Bavaria’s University Of Altdorf , near Nuremburg , where his name was Latinized to Johannes Kelpius according to the custom of scholars of his day. By the age of 16 he had taken a master's degree in theology and published several works, including one in collaboration with Johannes Fabricius . At the university he had been drawn to Pietism , initially a reaction against the formalism of orthodox Lutheranism , but a term that sometimes included various esoteric or heretical Christian ideas. He became a follower of Johann Jacob Zimmermann , a mathematician, astronomer, and cleric, whose pastoral position had ended in 1685 due to his prediction of the imminent advent of a heavenly kingdom, as well as his criticism of the state church. Zimmermann was himself attached to the ideas of theosophist Jakob Bohme . After Zimmerman's sudden death, shortly before the group's departure for the New World, Kelpius became the group's ''magister'' or leader. The travel diary of Kelpius has been preserved. Some of the forty or so who traveled with him aboard the ''Sarah Maria Hopewell'' {Link without Title} were Heinrich Bernhard Koster, Daniel Falckner, and Johann Gottfried Seelig. They disembarked at Bohemia Landing, Maryland and proceeded to Philadelphia and Germantown. On arrival in Philadelphia (which barely had 500 houses at this time) they moved to Germantown and then to the Wissahickon . There they established a regular program of private study and meditation. They eventually erected a large building for their meetings; some say they lived their communally, but others that they lived separately in caves and other rude shelters and cabins. They created a school for neighborhood children, held public worship services, and shared their medical knowledge. A few newcomers, including Conrad Matthai and Christopher Witt joined the group, but the community began to decline, especially after the death of Kelpius. Little is known of his death except for an account from years later which states that Kelpius had believed that he would not suffer physical death, but be translated to another existence. The same account suggests that Kelpius possessed the legendary Philosopher's Stone , which at his direction was cast into the Wissahickon or Schuylkill River shortly before he died near Germantown in 1708. His literary legacy is a collection of original hymns , a journal that includes many of his correspondences, and a book on prayer and meditation, '' A Short, Easy, and Comprehensive Method of Prayer '', first published in English in 1761, and republished as recently as 1951. Kelpius was the subject of the one of the first oil portraits in the thirteen British colonies; painting was by Christopher Witt and is in the Historical Society Of Pennsylvania , also home to Kelpius's journal, two collections of his original hymns, and other research source material. MUSIC Kelpius was a musician, and he and his followers brought with them instruments that became an integral part of church life. Kelpius was also a composer, and is sometimes called the first Pennsylvanian composer, based on his unproven authorship of several hymns in '' The Lamenting Voice Of The Hidden Love ''. The 70-page hymnbook which he is believed to have composed is the earliest extant musical manuscript compiled in the thirteen British colonies. It is likely that he wrote the text, though the tunes are mostly based on German songs; four come from Christian Knorr von Rosenroth's ''Neuer Helicon'' (Nuremburg, 1684), and another four are from other German sources dated 1690 and later. The harmonies show considerable musical talent and skill. The English translations in the collection are attributed to his disciple Christopher Witt , an Englishman who immigrated and joined the mystics. Christopher Witt is said also to have built the mystics a pipe organ, said to be the first privately-owned organ in North America. LITERARY REFERENCES Until the recent novel ''Woman in the Wilderness'' (http://www.middletonbooks.com/html/witw1.html) by Jonathan D. Scott, Kelpius was remembered only in a few scattered references in literature. The nearly forgotten novelist George Lippard mentions "the monks of the Wissahikon" in his ''The Rose of Wissahikon''. John Greenleaf Whittier borrowed from one of Lippard's short romances, based more on what should have been than on what actually happened, to include Kelpius in his 1872 poem '' Pennsylvania Pilgrim '': :Or, haply, pilgrims from the Fatherland, :Weak, timid, homesick, slow to understand :The New World's promise, sought his helping hand. :Or painful Kelpius {Link without Title} from his hermit den :By Wissahickon, maddest of good men, :Dreamed o'er the Chiliast dreams of Petersen. :Deep in the woods, where the small river slid :Snake-like in shade, the Helmstadt Mystic hid, :Weird as a wizard, over arts forbid, :Reading the books of Daniel and of John, :And Behmen's Morning-Redness, through the Stone :Of Wisdom, vouchsafed to his eyes alone, :Whereby he read what man ne'er read before, :And saw the visions man shall see no more, :Till the great angel, striding sea and shore, :Shall bid all flesh await, on land or ships, :The warning trump of the Apocalypse, :Shattering the heavens before the dread eclipse. :Or meek-eyed Mennonist his bearded chin :Leaned o'er the gate; or Ranter, pure within, :Aired his perfection in a world of sin. Given the tone of the poem, it's worth noting that Kelpius and his followers were men of university training, with considerable knowledge in languages, sciences, and music, strange though they may have seemed to their contemporaries - and to us. REFERENCES
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