The patron of the sect of the Moravians, was born at Dresden, in May, 1700. He studied at Halle and Utrecht. About the year 1721, he purchased the lordship of Bertholdsdorf, in Lusatia. Some poor Christians, the followers of John Huss, obtained leave, in 1722, to settle on his estate. They soon made converts. Such was the origin of the village of Herrnhut. Their noble patron soon after joined them.

From this period Count Zinzendorf devoted himself to the business of instructing his fellow-men by his writings and by preaching. He travelled through Germany, and in Denmark became acquainted with the Danish missions in the East Indies and Greenland. About 1732, he engaged earnestly in the promotion of missions by his Moravian brethren, whose numbers at Herrnhut were then about five hundred. So successful were these missions, that in a few years four thousand were baptized in the West Indies, and the converts in Greenland amounted to seven hundred and eighty-four.

In 1737, he visited London, and, in 1741, came to America, and preached at Germantown and Bethlehem. February 11, 1742, he ordained at Oly, in Pennsylvania, the missionaries Rauch and Buettner, and Rauch baptized three Indians from Shekomeco, east of the Hudson, "the firstlings of the Indians." He soon, with his daughter, Benigna, and several brethren and sisters, visited various tribes of Indians. At Shekomeco he established the first Indian Moravian congregation in North America. In 1743, he returned to Europe. He died at Herrnhut, in 1760, and his coffin was carried to the grave by thirty-two preachers and missionaries, whom he had reared, and some of whom had toiled in Holland, England, Ireland, North America, and Greenland. What monarch was ever honored by a funeral like this?