Born: Sep­tem­ber 25, 1712, Kun­ne­wald (near Ful­nek), Mo­ra­via.

Died: June 30, 1783, Sa­rep­ta on the Vol­ga, Russ­ia.

Brother of hymn­ist An­na Nitsch­mann, Jo­hann went to the Mo­ra­vi­an set­tle­ment at Herrn­hut in 1725. In 1726, Count von Prom­nitz took him in­to the or­phan­age at So­rau, and in 1728 sent him to stu­dy the­ol­o­gy at Halle. In 1731, he be­came a tu­tor to the or­phan­age at Herrn­hut, then in 1732 went to Halle to stu­dy me­di­cine, but re­turned to Herrn­hut in 1733, and spent a year as pri­vate sec­re­ta­ry to Zin­zen­dorf. There­af­ter, up to 1745, he was prin­ci­pal­ly en­gaged in miss­ion work in Swe­dish Lap­land, and in form­ing com­mun­i­ties in Li­von­ia. In 1745, he was ap­point­ed di­a­co­nus and Ge­mein­helf­er at Herrn­haag, Wet­ter­a­via, and in 1750 to the same po­si­tion at Herrn­hut. Made bi­shop of the Breth­ren’s Un­i­ty in 1758, he be­came in 1761 su­per­in­ten­dent of the com­mun­i­ties in Eng­land and Ire­land. In 1766, he was put in charge of the new set­tle­ment of Sa­rep­ta on the Vol­ga, Russ­ia.

Sources

Lyrics

  1. Du blutiger Versühner