Johannes Kelpius
Encyclopedia
Johannes Kelpius a German Pietist, mystic, musician, and writer, interested in the occult, botany, and astronomy, came to believe with his followers in the "Society of the Woman in the Wilderness" that the end of the world would occur in 1694. This belief, based on an elaborate interpretation of a passage from the biblical Book of Revelation
Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...

, anticipated the advent of a heavenly kingdom somewhere in the wilderness during that year. Kelpius felt that the seventeenth-century Province of Pennsylvania
Province of Pennsylvania
The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as Pennsylvania Colony, was founded in British America by William Penn on March 4, 1681 as dictated in a royal charter granted by King Charles II...

, given its reputation for religious toleration at the edge of a barely settled wilderness, was the best place to be. Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

 had been founded in 1682, but the city and the Province of Pennsylvania had quickly become a tolerant haven and refuge for many pietist, communitarian, or free-thinking groups who were leaving an intolerant Old World for the congenial religious climate of the British colony. Kelpius and his followers crossed the Atlantic and lived in the valley of the Wissahickon Creek
Wissahickon Creek
Wissahickon Creek is a stream in southeastern Pennsylvania. Rising in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, it runs about 23 miles passing through and dividing Northwest Philadelphia before emptying into the Schuylkill River at Philadelphia...

 in Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

 from 1694 until his death. It is reported that they lived communally, though they also spent time in solitary meditation in caves and small cells scattered about their common living quarters. Though no sign or revelation accompanied the year 1694, the faithful, known as the Hermits or Mystics of the Wissahickon, continued to live in celibacy, searching the stars and hoping for the end.

The so-called Cave of Kelpius is located by a small tributary stream of the Wissahickon in Philadelphia's present-day 1372 acres (5.6 km²) Wissahickon Valley Park, which is part of the 9200 acres (37.2 km²) Fairmount Park
Fairmount Park
Fairmount Park is the municipal park system of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It consists of 63 parks, with , all overseen by the Philadelphia Department of Parks and Recreation, successor to the Fairmount Park Commission in 2010.-Fairmount Park proper:...

 system of 63 city parks. Though the structure is alleged to be only a springhouse by some, as late as the 1940s it still had a chimney and fireplace, subsequently removed after some vandalism.

Life

Kelpius was born Johann Kelp in 1667, (American documents incorrectly placed his birth in 1673), near the town of Sighişoara
Sighisoara
Sighişoara is a city and municipality on the Târnava Mare River in Mureş County, Romania. Located in the historic region Transylvania, Sighişoara has a population of 27,706 ....

 (then called Schäßburg) in Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

 (modern Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

) and attended Bavaria’s
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

 University of Altdorf
University of Altdorf
The University of Altdorf was a university in Altdorf bei Nürnberg, a small town outside Nuremberg. It was founded in the late 16th century, received university privileges in 1622 and was closed in 1809 by Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria....

, near Nuremberg
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...

, where his name was Latinized to Johannes Kelpius according to the custom of scholars of his days. By the age of 22 he had taken a master's degree in theology and published several works, including one in collaboration with Johannes Fabricius. At the university he had been drawn to Pietism
Pietism
Pietism was a movement within Lutheranism, lasting from the late 17th century to the mid-18th century and later. It proved to be very influential throughout Protestantism and Anabaptism, inspiring not only Anglican priest John Wesley to begin the Methodist movement, but also Alexander Mack to...

, initially a reaction against the formalism of orthodox Lutheranism
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...

, but a term that sometimes included various esoteric or heretical Christian ideas. He became a follower of Johann Jacob Zimmermann
Johann Jacob Zimmermann
Johann Jacob Zimmermann was a German nonconformist theologian, Millenarian, mathematician, and astronomer.-Life:Zimmerman was born in Vaihingen, Württemberg in 1644, lived in Nürtingen, and studied Theology at the University of Tübingen, where he was awarded the title Magisterhut in 1664.He took...

, a mathematician, astronomer, and cleric, whose pastoral position had ended in 1685 due to his prediction of the imminent advent of a heavenly kingdom, as well as his criticism of the state church. Zimmermann was himself attached to the ideas of theosophist Jakob Bohme
Jakob Böhme
Jakob Böhme was a German Christian mystic and theologian. He is considered an original thinker within the Lutheran tradition...

. After Zimmerman's sudden death, shortly before the group's departure for the New World, Kelpius became the group's magister or leader.

The travel diary of Kelpius has been preserved. Some of the forty or so who traveled with him aboard the Sarah Maria Hopewell were Heinrich Bernhard Koster, Daniel Falckner, and Johann Gottfried Seelig. They disembarked at Bohemia Landing, Maryland and proceeded to Philadelphia and Germantown. On arrival in Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

 (which barely had 500 houses at this time) they moved to Germantown
Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Germantown is a neighborhood in the northwest section of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, about 7–8 miles northwest from the center of the city...

 and then to the Wissahickon
Wissahickon Creek
Wissahickon Creek is a stream in southeastern Pennsylvania. Rising in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, it runs about 23 miles passing through and dividing Northwest Philadelphia before emptying into the Schuylkill River at Philadelphia...

. There they established a regular program of private study and meditation. They eventually erected a large building for their meetings; some say they lived there communally, but others that they lived separately in caves and other rude shelters and cabins. They created a school for neighborhood children, held public worship services, and shared their medical knowledge. A few newcomers, including Conrad Matthai and Christopher Witt joined the group, but the community began to decline, especially after the death of Kelpius.

Little is known of his death except for an account from years later which states that Kelpius had believed that he would not suffer physical death, but be translated to another existence. The same account suggests that Kelpius possessed the legendary philosopher's stone
Philosopher's stone
The philosopher's stone is a legendary alchemical substance said to be capable of turning base metals into gold or silver. It was also sometimes believed to be an elixir of life, useful for rejuvenation and possibly for achieving immortality. For many centuries, it was the most sought-after goal...

, which at his direction was cast into the Wissahickon or Schuylkill River shortly before he died near Germantown in 1708.

His literary legacy is a collection of original hymns, a journal that includes many of his correspondences, and a book on prayer and meditation, A Short, Easy, and Comprehensive Method of Prayer, first published in English in 1761, and republished in 1951. However, this old translation has some inaccuracies, and English has changed over the more than two centuries since it appeared. Fortunately, a completely new translation has been completed by Kirby Don Richards, Ph.D.: A Method of Prayer. A Mystical Pamphlet from Colonial America. Dr. Richards' book includes both the German original and the new English translation. It also contains background materials that help explain the pamphlet and put it in its historical context. However, as of January 2010, Dr. Richards has discovered new information that may indicate that the pamphlet may not have been written by Kelpius. He is now revisiting the question of authorship.

Kelpius was the subject of one of the first oil portraits in the thirteen British colonies; the painting was by Christopher Witt and is in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Historical Society of Pennsylvania
The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a historical society founded in 1824 and based in Philadelphia. The Society's building, designed by Addison Hutton and listed on Philadelphia's Register of Historical Places, houses some 600,000 printed items and over 19 million manuscript and graphic items...

, also home to Kelpius's journal, two collections of his original hymns, and other research source material.

Music

Kelpius was a musician, and he and his followers brought with them instruments that became an integral part of church life. Kelpius was also a composer, and is sometimes called the first Pennsylvanian composer, based on his unproven authorship of several hymns in The Lamenting Voice of the Hidden Love. The 70-page hymnbook which he is believed to have composed is the earliest extant musical manuscript compiled in the thirteen British colonies. It is likely that he wrote the text, though the tunes are mostly based on German songs; four come from Christian Knorr von Rosenroth's Neuer Helicon (Nuremberg, 1684), and another four are from other German sources dated 1690 and later. The harmonies show considerable musical talent and skill. The English translations in the collection are attributed to his disciple Christopher Witt, an Englishman who joined the mystics. Witt is said also to have built them a pipe organ, said to be the first privately-owned organ in North America.

Literary references

Until the recent novel Woman in the Wilderness by Jonathan D. Scott, Kelpius was remembered only in a few scattered references in literature. The nearly forgotten novelist George Lippard
George Lippard
George Lippard was a 19th-century American novelist, journalist, playwright, social activist, and labor organizer. Nearly forgotten today, he was one of the most widely-read authors in antebellum America. A friend of Edgar Allan Poe, Lippard advocated a socialist political philosophy and sought...

 mentions "the monks of the Wissahikon" in his The Rose of Wissahikon. John Greenleaf Whittier
John Greenleaf Whittier
John Greenleaf Whittier was an influential American Quaker poet and ardent advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. He is usually listed as one of the Fireside Poets...

 borrowed from one of Lippard's short romances, based more on what should have been than on what actually happened, to include Kelpius in his 1872 poem Pennsylvania Pilgrim:

Given the tone of the poem, it's worth noting that Kelpius and his followers were men of university training, with considerable knowledge in languages, sciences, and music, strange though they may have seemed to their contemporaries - and to us.

Jonathan Scott's book (mentioned above) has a quite different tone. Scott imagines Kelpius shortly before his death offering this advice to a fellow seeker of wisdom: " . . . how precious are friendships and how difficult are goodbyes! . . . grow into a full life of joy as well as wisdom. . . . I beg you not to defer your life in expectation of some promised tomorrow, for our gift is the present."

Further reading

  • "Kelpius, Johannes". Grove Music Encyclopedia.
  • Miller, Randall M and William Pencak, eds. Pennsylvania: a History of the Commonwealth. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State Univ Pr, 2002.
  • Scott, Jonathan. The Woman in the Wilderness. (Though a novel, notes support the historical events and separate them from created or imagined events. Evokes the context of Kelpius' life in a clear and meaningful way.)
  • Kelpius, Johannes. "A Method of Prayer. A Mystical Pamphlet from Colonial America." Edited and translated by Kirby Don Richards, Ph.D. Philadelphia: Schuylkill Wordsmiths, 2006.

External links

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