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Born: December 21, 1672 - Krobsdorf, Schlesien (Silesia), Germany (today in Poland)
Died: January 12, 1730 - Niederwiese (near Greifenberg), Schlesien (Silesia), Germany (today in Poland) |
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Johann Christoph Schwedler was the son of Anton Schwedler, farmer and rural magistrate at Krobsdorf, near Lowenberg, in Silesia. He enrolled at the University of Leipzig in 1695 (M.A. 1697). In 1698, he was appointed assistant minister at Niederwiese, near Greiffenberg, and began his duties there on the 18th Sunday after Trinity. He became diaconus in December 1698; following the death of his predecessor, Christoph Adolph in 1701, he became the pastor there. He died at Niederwiese, suddenly, during the night of January 12, 1730.
Johann Christoph Schwedler was a powerful and popular preacher, and peculiarly gifted in prayer. It is said that sometimes, beginning service at 5 or 6 a.m., he would continue the service to relays who in succession filled the church, till 2 or 3 p.m. He also founded an orphanage at Niederwiese. He was a near neighbour and great friend of Johann Mentzer and Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf. As a hymn-writer he was useful and popular. The principal theme of his hymns was the Grace of God through Christ, and the joyful confidence imparted to the soul that experienced it. Of his hymns, 462 appeared in his Die Lieder Mose und des Lammes, oder neu eingerichtetes Gesang-Buch, Budissin, 1720, Nos. 345-806. Others are in his Wöchentliche Hauss-Andacht, 1112, in his various devotional works, and in the hymn-books of the period.
His works include:
Die Lieder Mose und des Lammes, oder neu eingerichtetes Gesang-Buch (Songs of Moses and the Lamb) (Budissin: 1720)
Wöchentliche Hauss-Andacht, 1712
Hymns:
Wollt ihr wissen, was mein Preis?
Unser Wandel ist im Himmel, richte doch dein [mein] Herz dahin |
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On the hymn Komm, Jesu, komm, mein Leib ist müde, usually atrributed to Paul Thymich (1684), Charles Sanford Terry wrote in his Johann Sebastian Bach, Bach’s Chorals, Vol. 2 The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the Cantatas and Motetts [1917], pp 473-474: "In the Jakob-Richter Allgemeines vierstimmiges Kirchen-und Haus-Choralbuch (Berlin [1873]) the Hymn is printed to a melody that is said to come from the ms. Hymn book of the Church at Nieder Wiese, 1773. Johann Christoph Schwedler (1672-1730) was assistant there in 1698, after taking his degree at Leipzig in the previous year. Can he be the author of the Hymn, and have communicated it to Wagner at Leipzig? It is not found in any earlier Hymn book." |
