The Memoir of Johanna Susanna Grote and the Stockholm Moravian Society in Transition, ca. 1740–1760

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the role of Moravian memoirs and translation in the context of the Sifting Time and the reorganization of the Moravian Society in Stockholm. During the 1740s and throughout the 1750s, consequences of the Sifting Time crisis and subsequent factional strife led to the fragmentation of the society. Reorganization began with a new minister from Herrnhut, Christian Gotthelf Ike, in 1760, but it was a gradual, drawn-out process. An important factor that intervened in the relation between Herrnhut and Stockholm was local religious and other traditions. These are reflected in a Swedish translation of the memoir of Johanna Susanna Grote, widow of Bishop Polycarp Müller. The translation differs in layout, contents, and style compared to extant German versions of the text, which conform to the usual format of Moravian memoirs. The article concludes that the deviation from format in the translation signaled the autonomy of the local diaspora. The Swedish translation of Grote’s memoirs articulates a specific group identity typical of the Moravian community in Stockholm by the mid-1700s, and, because of this, the text can also be considered a challenge against increased supervision by the Moravian Church.