Matthäus Stach (sometimes

anglicized Anglicisation or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English language ...

to Matthew Stach) (March 4, 1711,

Mankovice Mankovice () is a municipality and village in Nový Jičín District in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 500 inhabitants. History The first written mention of Mankovice is from 1374. During World War II, the Germa ...

– December 21, 1787, Bethabara) was a Moravian

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

Life

Matthäus Stach was born in Mankendorf in

Moravia Moravia ( ; ) is a historical region in the eastern Czech Republic, roughly encompassing its territory within the Danube River's drainage basin. It is one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The medieval and early ...

(today

in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

). He was home schooled since his parents did not want to send the family to attend the Roman Catholic schools. In 1728, he arrived at the Moravian community of

Herrnhut Herrnhut (; ; ; Upper Lusatian: ''Harrnhutt'', ''Harrnutt'') is a town of around 6,000 inhabitants in Upper Lusatia, in the district of Görlitz, in eastern Saxony, Germany. The town is mainly known as the place of origin of the community of t ...

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

. In 1733, Stach traveled to Greenland together with

Christian David Christian David (; 17 February 1692 – 3 February 1751) was a German-Czech missionary, writer and hymnwriter. He travelled as a missionary of the Moravian Church to Greenland and to Native Americans. He is known as the author of hymn stanzas th ...

and his cousin Christian Stach where they were greeted by the Danish-Norwegian pioneer missionary

Hans Egede Hans Poulsen Egede (31 January 1686 – 5 November 1758) was a Denmark–Norway, Danish-Norwegian Lutheran missionary priest who launched mission efforts to Greenland, which led him to be styled the Apostle of Greenland. He established a succes ...

. Together they founded the settlements of New Herrnhut (modern

Nuuk Nuuk (; , formerly ) is the capital and most populous city of Greenland, an autonomous territory in the Kingdom of Denmark. Nuuk is the seat of government and the territory's largest cultural and economic center. It is also the seat of gove ...

) and Lichtenfels. In 1741, he made a return trip to Germany where he was both ordained into the ministry and became married. Matthäus and Rosina Stach left the Greenland mission and returned to Germany in 1771. The following year he was called to the Moravian settlement in Bethabara, North Carolina. Over the rest of his life, he and his wife Rosina operated the local Moravian boys' school. Stach died in 1787 at Bethabara.

References

Other sources

*Vormbaum, Reinhold (1853) ''Matthäus Stach und Johann Beck: Missionare der Brüdergemeinde in Grönland und ihre Mitarbeiter'' (W. H. Scheller)

External links

Moravian Settlers in North Carolina
1711 births 1787 deaths German city founders Moravian Church missionaries Greenlandic Moravian clergy Protestant missionaries in Greenland Translators to Inuit German Protestant missionaries German people of the Moravian Church Moravian-German people People from Nový Jičín District Missionary linguists {{Greenland-bio-stub