Christian David

• Name — Christian David • Born — 17 February 1692 • Birthplace — Ženklava, Moravia, Habsburg monarchy • Died — 3 February 1751 • Place of death — Herrnhut, Electorate of Saxony • Occupation — Missionary, writer, hymnwriter • Organizations — Moravian Church

David was born on 17 February 1692 in Ženklava. His mother was Czech and his father was German. He was raised in the Catholic Church. He worked as a carpenter and a soldier. He was impressed by the pietist movement and converted in 1714. In 1722, he helped refugees from Moravia to escape the Counter-Reformation to Saxony. There, he was a co-founder of the Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine, working closely with of Count Nicolaus Zinzendorf. David went as a missionary of the Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine to Greenland and to Native Americans, among other places. On a mission to Greenland, he cofounded in 1733 the settlement Neu-Herrnhut, with Matthias Stach and Christian Stach. David wrote a hymn "Seyd gegrüßt, zu tausendmahl" (Be welcome, a thousand times), published in 1728. Two centuries later, Otto Riethmüller chose two of its stanzas for the hymn "Sonne der Gerechtigkeit", published first in 1932 in a song book for young people, Ein neues Lied (A new song), and later in many hymnals. An additional stanza was added to the hymn in an ecumenical version in 1971.