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| a nice, comfortable plank to sleep on |
At 9pm any given night nearly 280 years ago, eternal virgins dressed in white hooded robes entered dormitories in Lancaster County, where they would lay themselves to sleep on hard wooden planks only 18 inches wide, their heads resting on pine blocks where pillows should have been. The hooded slumberers in question were members of the monastic settlement known as Ephrata, and their story is a colorful one.
Our story begins in 1720, with the arrival of a young man from Germany named Conrad Beissel, who sought the religious freedom that Pennsylvania was then so famous for. Beissel had been in Pennsylvania for just four years before being named the spiritual leader of the Brethren, a German Anabaptist group in the area of Conestoga, Pa. His tenure with the Brethren was short lived, however, and in another 4 years he left the congregation amid great controversy caused by his ideas about Saturday worship and promotion of strict, celibate lifestyles.
Conrad Beissel then spent the next 4 years as a freelance preacher, gaining large audiences with his charismatic personality and radical ideas. Among his controversial ideas was the theory that God encompasses both genders, and that no man could know God's female side if he was distracted by a human spouse. Another subject of his sermons was the idea that a person could choose to pursue Earthly wealth, or a closer relationship with God, but not both.
In 1732 Beissel attempted to leave the public eye in favor of a completely solitary lifestyle along the banks of the Cocalico Creek in Lancaster County. The preacher was so popular, however, that dozens of his followers decided to be completely solitary with him. With a congregation eager for his teachings and following him wherever he went, the would-be hermit became the leader of a new religion, unique in the world, as well as the founder of a new community in Pennsylvania's countryside: Ephrata.
By 1746, the Ephrata Congregation grew to 80 celibate members, known as the Solitary, and living in large dormitories, while as many as 200 family members lived in homes surrounding the community. The families, or "house-holders" joined the congregation for Saturday worship, and for Beissel's fiery sermons, but did not adhere to the requirements for celibacy or abstention from Earthly goods. The relationship between the two groups was a good one, however, and the house-holders provided financial support to the monastic part of the community.
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| Calm yourself, ladies. He's celibate. |
While the lifestyles of the house-holders were like that of any other rural community, life for the Solitary in Beissel's congregation was strict and regimented. Each day would begin at 5am with an hour of prayer, then three hours of work.... no breakfast. Another hour of prayer came at 9am, but still no breakfast. At noon, the members took another hour for prayer, but not for lunch. Dinnertime brought yet another break for prayer, but no food. It wasn't until quite late in the evening that the first and only meal of the day was eaten. It was small, and vegetarian.
9pm was bedtime for the celibate members. They would file into their rooms in either the men's or women's dormitory, and lay themselves down on the previously mentioned board and wooden pillow. Their sleep would be short lived, however, as they were expected to wake up at 12am for a religious service of sermons and the singing of hymns until 2am, after which they would return to their wooden beds for another 3 hours of rest.
The unusual sleeping habits were the result of Beissel's very literal interpretation of a Biblical passage that states Jesus will return to the Earth "like a thief in the night." Since thieves usually strike between 12am and 2am, the congregation made sure they would be wide awake to greet Him. Amazingly, the Solitary didn't seem to suffer any ill effects from their malnourishment and sleep deprivation, but lived several years longer than the average house-holder.
Conrad Beissel passed away in 1768, and leadership of the community passed to Peter Miller. Miller had difficulty in attracting new members to the celibate order, and the community dwindled. Eventually the house-holders supported the Solitary members in an arrangement very much like a retirement home for elderly celibates. The last remaining celibate members died in 1813, and in the following year the members of the married congregation formed the German Seventh Day Baptist Church.
The church continued to make use of the original buildings as housing for their poorer congregants, until property disputes in 1929 prompted the courts to revoke the Ephrata community's incorporation charter and place the lands in the custody of a court-appointed receiver. 28 acres of the historic site were sold to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1941, and it has since been fully restored and opened for public tours.
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| The Saron, or Sisters' House One of numerous preserved buildings on this historic site. |
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| Conrad Beissel's home at Ephrata |
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| Just a small portion of the books, food, art, and memorabilia available in the Ephrata Cloister Gift Shop. |
Oh my, I need my comfy bed and soft pillow to hug.
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