Stephan’s Official Seal
And His Zinzendorf Connections,
#3 Devil’s Advocate Report
In Pursuit of Religious Freedom: Bishop Martin Stephan’s
Journey
By Philip G. Stephan (born 1935), New York: Lexington Books,
2008.
My citations will be In Pursuit of Religious Freedom,
instead of Stephan, to avoid confusion, since the author is a descendant of the
bishop.
I am not going to rehearse all my posted information about
Zinzendorf, one of the most influential figures in Lutheran Pietism. Here are
some links:
“There is also a family oral tradition about the hat drawn
in the seal. It was believed that the hat represented the hat that Martin used
when he preached. This preaching hat may have represented Herrnhut, which translated
into English means ‘the hat of the Lord.’ Herrnhut was alos an important place
in the Pietist tradition. It was in Herrnhut where two families of Moravian Brethren
came to live on the estate of Nicholas Ludwig, called Count von Zinzendorf. The
count donated the land for their community that grew and then they built a
church on the donated property that was near Dresden…Zinzendorf was born in 1790
only seventy mikles from Dresden. He had a profound influence on the ‘awakening’
movement, on Pastor Stephan, and on the Bohemian founds of St. John’s Church in
Dresden.”
#31, IPRF. p. 64.
