A stalwart of the Moravian community in Salem, N.C., Christian Ludwig Benzien was connected in spirit and blood with some of the most prominent of American Moravians. A grandson of Jacob and Anna Neisser, founding members of Herrnhut, Benzien's parents, Anna Maria Thrane (1724-1783) and Rev. Christian T. Benzien, emigrated to America in 1754. Rev. Benzien was installed as chaplain to the settlement at Gnadenthal (near Nazareth), but died when Christian was still relatively young. After Benzien's death, Anna Maria married Rev. Amadeus Paulinus Thrane (1717-1776), a minister from Bethlehem. Christian Ludwig Benzien followed his father and step-father into the ministry.

Scope and contents:

The Benzien manuscript is a complex document comprised of occasional poetry, hymns, and songs written largely, but apparently not exclusively by Christian Ludwig Benzien. A Moravian minister, the son and step-son of ministers, Benzien was also a talented poet in German, and his work shows the evidence of a highly developed literary and musical aesthetic, deeply interconnected with an equally highly developed spiritual devotion.

Most of the works were written in celebration or commemoration of special days set aside throughout the year, including Christmas and New Years, birthdays, childbirths, arrivals and departures, Lord's Suppers, and Love Feasts. The volume provides insight into the Moravian religious world view, and perhapsm even more into their social and familial relations through sensitive depictions of the nature of friendships between men (and women), family members, and members of church organizations -- particularly the various choirs with which Benzien was associated.

The manuscript appears to have been transcribed in about 1810-1815 by Dorothea Sophia Bötticher, and is written in two hands, entirely in German in the old script.

Provenance:

Acquired 1998.

M-3446
cat. 2/98 rsc

Subject index to the Christian Ludwig Benzien Manuscript

Contents listing for the Christian Ludwig Benzien Manuscript

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