From haroldfs@ccat.sas.upenn.edu Fri Oct 19 13:44:54 2001 Return-Path: Received: from localhost by ccat.sas.upenn.edu (8.11.2/8.11.2) with SMTP id f9JHirn14035 for ; Fri, 19 Oct 2001 13:44:53 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2001 13:44:53 -0400 (EDT) From: "Harold F. Schiffman" To: "Harold F. Schiffman" Subject: Ephrata (fwd) Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Status: RO X-Status: October 19, 2001 WEEKEND EXCURSION An Oasis of Peace and Contemplation By RICHARD RUDA EPHRATA, Pa. In the 18th century the Ephrata Cloister was a German Protestant monastic community in the Pennsylvania hinterland. Now a state historic site near Lancaster, its architecture, manuscript illumination, printing and choral arts are rare vestiges of German medieval culture in the United States. The Cloister's architecture alone repays a visit. The eight weathered wooden buildings from the 1700's are "suggestive of the Germany of Albrecht Drer," said the cultural historian Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker. Tourists, who may find the Cloister's ambience of spirituality especially comforting at this time, follow in illustrious footsteps. The community's religious practices, ascetic life and celibacy (not always meticulously observed) as well as the forceful but eccentric character of its first vorsteher (father superior), Conrad Beissel, and the erudition of his successor, Peter Miller made Ephrata a subject of renown among the 18th-century intelligentsia and attracted many visitors. Even that fearsome anticleric Voltaire knew of the purity of religious life at Ephrata and praised its members as "the most just and inimitable of men." The celibate brothers and sisters, who never numbered more than 100 and often far fewer, were known as solitaries. An additional 200 affiliates of the community, the householders, were members of families that lived on farms in the vicinity, participated in Saturday services at the kloster (monastery) and provided key financial support. Ephrata's theology was an idiosyncratic mlange of Protestant, Roman Catholic and Jewish beliefs. Its monastic practices included adult baptism by treble immersion, the wearing of Catholic-style monastic garb, Sabbatarianism, long days of work and prayer, a Spartan diet of one vegetarian meal a day and accommodation in tiny, sparsely furnished cells. Christian mysticism, the revelatory religious experience attained through direct communion with the Holy Spirit, was the spiritual foundation of the community's life. Ephrata's mysticism, like its architecture and visual arts, was rooted in medieval German culture, for the Rhineland, the original home of Beissel and most community members, had been a hotbed of Christian mystical belief since the 1300's. The community's mysticism is encapsulated in the text of one of its decorated wall hangings: "O! Love is now our crown, it mirrors bright our virtue, and wisdom is our goal, which grants us God's blessing. The Lamb is now our prize, we give ourselves to Him, and follow in His path, we virgins chaste." This was not a calling for the faint of spirit. Costumed guides lead visitors through the Cloister's three most noteworthy buildings: the saron (the celibate sisters' convent, a four-story maze of minuscule cells), the saal (chapel) and Beissel's house. Visitors can see other buildings on their own. These include the bakehouse, whose upper level is reminiscent of an Alpine chalet, and the carpenter's house, which contains a reconstructed monastic cell where visitors can test the narrow plank and wooden pillow of a solitary's bed. Ephrata's roots in medieval Germany are a product of that country's turbulent history. Throughout the Reformation much of Germany and Switzerland were convulsed by religious strife between Catholics and Protestants and in turn among Protestant sects. The Rhineland was also the scene of incessant wars. Emigration from the region consequently reached epidemic levels in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Many Rhenish immigrants settled in Europe. Others braved the trans- Atlantic voyage and came to Pennsylvania, the subject of a 1681 land grant from Charles II of Britain to William Penn. Penn, a zealous Quaker, decreed that the new colony of Pennsylvania (unlike every other but Rhode Island) would guarantee settlers freedom of religion. Because Penn had personally proselytized in the Rhineland in the late 1670's, word of this haven quickly spread through western Germany and Switzerland. "Along the Rhine a number of families have banded together to accept the invitation of an Englishman named William Penn, who recently visited that community, to settle in that beautiful land," wrote a resident of Heilbron, Germany, to his son in the New York colony in 1681. "We are only waiting a good opportunity when the dear Lord will take us to you." When the Palatines, Swiss and other German speakers immigrated to Pennsylvania, they imported their folk culture wholesale: German dialect, vernacular architecture, applied arts, devout Protestant beliefs, powerful sense of community and strong work ethic. All of these elements of 17th-century Rhenish culture are discernible at Ephrata, most visibly in its architecture. "In the 18th century, when Germans and Swiss were pouring down the Rhine and across the Atlantic to America, peasant architecture in both Germany and Switzerland was essentially medieval," Professor Wertenbaker wrote, which defines the Ephrata Cloister to this day. There are many Germanic architectural elements at the Cloister steeply sloping roofs covered with double-lapped wooden shingles (both side-lapped and end-lapped); low and narrow doorways, hallways and ceilings (to conserve heat, not to teach humility); small irregularly placed casement windows on metal hinges; A-shaped chimneys; dormer windows dispersed throughout upper stories; fachwerk (half-timber) wall construction; and even a characteristically Rhenish tile-roofed outdoor bake oven. The visitor center displays examples of Ephrata manuscript illumination a highly developed version of the Pennsylvania German folk art called frakturschriften and printed books. The former include the most famous Ephrata illuminated manuscript, "The Christian ABC Is Suffering, Patience, Hope, Who Has Attained These Has Reached His Goal," and beautifully illuminated hymnals and wall hangings. The school of illumination was "chiefly instituted for the benefit of solitaries who had no musical talents," said Miller, the second father superior. Ephrata choral music provides background in the visitor center and is frequently performed at Cloister concerts. Beissel was a gifted musician who devised unusual antiphonal and polyphonic modes of a cappella singing and composed hundreds of hymns, including the first original hymn book published in the colonies, "Die Turtel-Taube" ("The Turtle Dove"), printed at Ephrata in 1747. The Ephrata press (imported from Frankfurt along with German Gothic type) occupies a prominent place in the history of American printing. Among Ephrata's finest printed books were a German-language edition of Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," a hymnal by Beissel called the "Paradisisches Wunder-Spiel" and above all a core Mennonite text, "Der Blutige Schau- Platz" ("The Martyrs' Mirror"). Originally published in Dutch in 1685, it was translated into German by the Ephrata brothers for Pennsylvania Mennonites and then printed and bound in two thick volumes of 1,600 oversize, closely printed pages. The scholarly Miller performed the translation and supervised the typesetting; he is said to have slept only four hours a night during the three years that "The Martyrs' Mirror" was in production. The brothers produced all the necessary materials except the type: high quality paper, ink, thread and leather. Their typography and binding were exemplary. A 1928 memo by the keeper of rare books at the Library of Congress called the Ephrata "Martyrs' Mirror" "the largest and in some respects the most remarkable book of the Colonial period." A copy is exhibited in the visitor center museum. The Cloister's two cemeteries should not be missed. One, God's Acre, contains the remains of householders and solitaries, including Beissel and Miller, who rest side by side under German-language gravestones. The other is an American military cemetery on a rise called Mount Zion. Buried here are 60 Continental soldiers who died while in the care of the Ephrata Solitaries after the Battle of Brandywine in 1777. The grateful letter of a wounded American officer gives life to Voltaire's intellectualized praise of the community. "Until I entered the walls of Ephrata," the officer wrote, "I had no idea of pure and practical Christianity. Not that I was ignorant of the forms, or even the doctrines of religion. I knew it in theory before; I saw it in practice then." Ephrata, Pa., is about 153 miles southwest of New York City. The Ephrata Cloister is at 632 West Main Street, at the intersection of Route 322 and Route 272. The Cloister HOURS: Mondays through Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. The last tour begins at 4 p.m. Closed on Thanksgiving Day and Nov. 23, and Christmas and New Year's Days. Information: (717) 733- 6600. ADMISSION: $6; $5.50 for 60+; $4 for 6 to 12- year-olds; families, $17. EVENTS: Special events include choral concerts of Ephrata and other early American music; a schedule is available by calling (717) 733-6600, Extension 3001. Candlelight tours on Dec. 27, 28, 29 and 30 will be held from 6:30 to 9 p.m., with local students dressed in the monastic garb of Ephrata solitaries; $6, $4 for 6 to 12-year-olds. Reservations are required, beginning Dec. 1. What to Read "EPHRATA CLOISTER," by John Bradley (Stackpole Books, $10). A succinct historical introduction and guide to the historic site, with photographs by Craig A. Benner. "THE FOUNDING OF AMERICAN CIVILIZATION: THE MIDDLE COLONIES," by Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker. An analysis of the transplantation of German culture from the Rhine to southeastern Pennsylvania in the 18th century. Out of print but available in many libraries. Where to Stay THE SMITHTON INN, 900 West Main Street, Ephrata, (717) 733-6094. This eight-room stone inn, in use since the 1760's, is one- quarter mile west of the Cloister. Rooms vary in size and appointments; all have private baths, antique furnishings and fireplaces in use from November to April (weather permitting). Double room including full breakfast, $75 to $155, weekdays; $105 to $175, weekends. Suite, $145, weekdays; $175, weekends. THE INNS AT DONECKERS, Ephrata, (800) 377-2206 or (717) 738-9502. Four separate lodgings dispersed throughout downtown Ephrata. A total of 40 rooms of varying sizes and appointments; some rooms have shared bath. Double room including continental breakfast, $65 to $175, weekdays; $69 to $210, weekends. Suite, $195, weekdays; $210, weekends. Getting There BY CAR OR TRAIN: Ephrata is midway between Lancaster and Reading, Pa. It is seven miles south of Exit 21 of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The Ephrata Cloister can be reached by car, or by Amtrak train from Penn Station in Manhattan to Lancaster. Round-trip fares range from $90 to $104 depending on day and time of travel. Schedules: (800) 872-7245. Taxi fare for the 15- mile trip from Lancaster to Ephrata ranges from $30 to $35 one way; reservations: Friendly Transportation at (717) 392-2222.