16
Alea iacta est
A large oval silver bowl is placed on the table. It is April or May at Herrnhut and four people have gathered in the baroque conference room of the bailiwick. Out of more than 1000 verses from the bible they draw one for each day.
Count Zinzendorf provided the community with their first motto during the usual sing-along on May 3rd 1728: ” Love has driven him here, love dragged him from the throne and I should not love him?” This probably started the tradition of one brother going to each house in the village every morning to recite the motto for the day, a verse from the Old Testament. In fact since that day the verses are drawn from the traditional set of verses comprising 1829 cards – since the first printed booklet of mottos in 1731 they were drawn for an entire year in advance.
The daily motto was seen as a means to figure out the will of the Lord and the Herrnhut community considered marriage decisions to be part of his responsibilities, too. Therefore it was a motto that in 1859 settled the marriage of Maria Heyde with August Wilhelm Heyde, a missionary who lived in Tibet and was entirely unknown to her. The adventurous life of this woman who, at the age of 22, set out on her own and traveled to Tibet to meet her future husband is the topic of a special exhibition in the sisterhood homes in Kleinwelka.