Pennsylvania is known for its atypical religious history, but when you start to investigate, you begin to realize just how unusual this history is. For instance, there is a legacy of German Christian mysticism extending back to hermits who lived in the 1600s. In central Pennsylvania, this expression was dramatically marked by the foundation of a monastic community called the Ephrata Cloister, shown here.
The German hermit Condrad Beissel immigrated and founded the Ephrata Cloister in 1732. It became well known for its musical choirs who composed religious hymns — in fact, the scholar Chris Herbert recently discovered an 18th-century music manuscript with the names of three women (Sisters Föben, Laura, and Hanna) who probably wrote the tunes, making them the first known female composers in American history. The Cloister also produced the first samples of a type of calligraphic art known as _Frakturschriften_, which you can see on the second slide.
The founder Conrad Beissel was not your average Anabaptist (aka only adult baptism) monk: he not only led the community, advocating a simple and celibate life for men and women, but he was also vegan, and so the folks at Ephrata avoided all animal products in their diet (loooots of cabbage and potatoes). After Beissel died (1768), and with the Revolutionary War going on, the membership declined, with the last celibate dying in 1813.
The Cloister is now a museum run by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
Source(s): @npr.org, “A new album f-screates the work of the 1st known female composers in America,” July 24, 2020, Avery Keatley (This has a link to a choir piece); @ephratacloister.org, “History”. Wikipedia.
