Moravians come to Nazareth, Pennsylvania - Part I

In 1740, Moravian missionaries from Georgia arrived in Pennsylvania as guests of Methodist evangelist The Rev. George Whitefield, a British cleric conducting his own missionary. The Savannah Moravians were looking for a new place to pursue their missionary activities among the indigenous population. 

In Georgia the Moravians had experienced hostility from neighbors and government officials who looked with great suspicion at their pacifism and their friendliness with local Cherokees and enslaved African-Americans. 

The relationship between the Moravians and George Whitfield  was short lived. A serious argument with Whitefield over doctrine caused the Moravians to leave Nazareth and establish the nearby town of Bethlehem. 

This was not the end of the Moravian presence in Nazareth it should be noted. When Whitefield’s finances failed him the Moravians bought Nazareth from him. 

The original structure there, still called Whitefield House, served their community through the centuries as a place of worship, a boarding school for Moravian girls, a nursery for the children of missionaries, and as the Moravian Theological Seminary.