The Pennsylvania commune where German immigrants lived like medieval monks until 1934

The Ephrata Cloister Community

In 1732, a German baker named Conrad Beissel built a strange commune in Pennsylvania where people slept on wooden planks, ate one meal a day, and created some of America’s most beautiful art. The group ran the second German printing press in the colonies and published the largest book in Colonial America.

Today you can tour the buildings where these devoted people lived their harsh but creative lives. Here’s their story.

German Immigrant Who Created A Religious Haven

Beissel entered the world in April 1690 in Eberbach, Germany. His father died before his birth, and his mother passed when he was 8, leaving him to learn baking and fiddle playing as trades.

At 27, Beissel underwent a religious awakening that shaped his future. This conversion convinced him that staying unmarried offered the only path to true holiness.

He sailed to America in 1720 to escape religious persecution in Europe. Beissel planned to join Johannes Kelpius’s group of mystics but found Kelpius had died twelve years earlier.

Jan Meyle rebaptized Beissel in Conestoga Creek in December 1728. This act marked his final split from the German Baptist Brethren and launched his independent spiritual path.

The Prayerful Beginnings

Johann Conrad Beissel moved to a cabin along Cocalico Creek in 1732. He first called his settlement “Camp of the Solitary,” seeking a place for prayer away from the world.

The place later became Ephrata, named after the biblical region around Bethlehem. Ephrata means “fruitful” in Hebrew, reflecting Beissel’s hopes for his spiritual venture.

Beissel established his community 65 miles west of Philadelphia. His religious haven grew in what we now know as Lancaster County.

Brothers And Sisters Who Lived In Celibacy

The Ephrata community split into three groups: celibate Brothers, celibate Sisters, and married Householders. Brothers and Sisters lived in separate buildings while Householders supported them from nearby farms.

Everyone wore white robes reaching to their feet. Men’s robes featured pointed hoods while women wore rounded ones, making them easy to tell apart across the grounds.

Conrad Weiser, a Lutheran elder, and Peter Miller, a theologian, left established positions to join. Frau Christopher Sauer caused scandal by abandoning her printer husband to become a prioress at Ephrata.

Brothers wrote weekly confessions for Beissel to read aloud. These public admissions of spiritual struggles kept members humble before the community.

Strict Daily Regimen For Spiritual Purity

Ephrata members slept six hours nightly, split between 9 p.m. to midnight and 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. This unusual pattern allowed for midnight prayer sessions in between sleep periods.

Their midnight prayer vigil, called “Night Watches,” originally lasted four hours. Leaders later shortened these to two hours when members struggled with exhaustion.

Beissel banned meat, dairy, eggs, and honey from meals. This strict vegetarian diet aimed to purify bodies preparing for heaven.

Members ate lamb only during communion services. This rare taste of meat made these religious gatherings particularly anticipated among the hungry faithful.

Buildings With Medieval German Influences

Saron, the Sisters’ House built in 1743, contained twelve sleeping chambers. These simple rooms housed women devoted to prayer, work, and celibacy.

Bethania, the Brothers’ House, stood four stories tall until 1908. This massive structure housed male members and workspaces for their crafts and printing.

The Saal, built in 1741, served as the main worship space. Its half-timbered construction used Fachwerk techniques brought from German medieval building traditions.

Beissel lived in a house built between the Brothers’ and Sisters’ quarters in the late 1740s. This strategic location let him monitor both groups while maintaining his own study space.

German Printing Press That Made History

Ephrata’s press operated from 1745 to 1792, producing around 100 publications. These ranged from hymns to complex theological works for German-speaking colonists.

The Martyrs Mirror spanned 1,500 pages chronicling Anabaptist persecution. Printed between 1748 and 1751, it remains the largest book produced in colonial America.

Peter Miller spent three years translating the Martyrs Mirror from Dutch to German. This massive undertaking showed the scholarly abilities within the isolated community.

The press ranked as only the second German-language printing operation in the colonies. This position made it crucial for maintaining German cultural and religious identity in Pennsylvania.

Unique Musical Traditions From Scratch

Beissel created his own system for composing music unlike anything in colonial America. His methods produced over 1,000 original hymns sung in complex harmonies by community members.

Choir members followed special diets Beissel claimed purified their voices. Their singing reached extremely high pitches that visitors found otherworldly and moving.

Sisters crafted illuminated manuscripts preserving community hymns and choral works. These hand-decorated documents combined musical notation with artistic calligraphy.

The 1747 hymnal “Turtel Taube” contained 900 pages of Beissel’s German hymns. Its name, meaning “Turtle Dove,” symbolized the faithful church as lonely but devoted.

Self-Sufficient Community Of Skilled Craftspeople

Members installed some of the first casement windows used in America. These hinged windows, common in Europe but rare in the colonies, marked their buildings as distinctive.

The community bakery produced fresh bread daily as the foundation of their diet. Beissel’s background as a baker likely influenced the central role bread played in community life.

Gardens throughout the property grew vegetables for the strict vegetarian diet. Members tended these plots as part of their daily work supporting the community.

Archaeologists found a unique glass trumpet at the site in 1998. The perfectly preserved instrument came from Germany and shows the community’s appreciation for fine craftsmanship.

Hospital For Wounded Revolutionary Soldiers

The community cared for soldiers wounded after the Battle of Brandywine in 1777. Despite their pacifist beliefs, they turned buildings into hospitals for approximately 250 injured Americans.

Their religious principles prevented fighting but allowed healing the wounded. This compromise let them maintain pacifist ideals while supporting those in need.

Smallpox spread through the community during the Revolutionary period. The disease, likely carried by soldiers, killed both patients and community members.

The cloister press printed Continental currency during the Revolution. This practical support for independence came from a community that otherwise stayed politically neutral.

Peter Miller Who Led After Beissel

Peter Miller converted from Presbyterianism to join Beissel’s Seventh Day Baptist faith in 1735. His education and language skills proved valuable to the community’s printing work.

Miller led Ephrata for 28 years after Beissel died in 1768. Though membership declined during this period, his leadership maintained key community traditions.

He co-wrote “Chronicon Ephratense” with Jacob Gass in 1786. This history of the community preserved details about Ephrata’s development despite its bias toward Beissel.

Miller translated works between multiple languages for the printing operation. His skills allowed the press to serve diverse religious groups throughout Pennsylvania.

Decline Of A Unique Religious Experiment

Only twenty members remained at Ephrata by the late 1700s. Without Beissel’s charismatic leadership, fewer people felt drawn to the demanding lifestyle.

The last celibate member died in 1813, ending the original communal practice. After this, the remaining members could no longer maintain the strict traditions that defined early Ephrata.

Workers divided the large buildings into apartments for church members. These modifications turned the unique structures into more conventional living spaces.

Marie Kachel Bucher, the last resident with ties to the community, died in 2008 at age 98. Though not a celibate member, she gave tours of the site in her youth, preserving stories of the community.

Visiting Ephrata Cloister

Ephrata Cloister stands at 632 West Main Street in Ephrata, Pennsylvania. The historic site sits approximately 45 minutes from Harrisburg and 1.5 hours from Philadelphia.

Nine original buildings dating from 1734 to 1830 remain on the 30-acre property. The most significant include the Sisters’ House (Saron), the Meetinghouse (Saal), and Beissel’s cabin.

The site opens Thursday through Sunday for guided tours, which cover the major buildings and community history.

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