Introduction

Biography

August was the son of Ge­org Spang­en­berg, Lu­ther­an pas­tor at Klet­ten­berg.

He en­tered the Uni­ver­si­ty of Je­na in 1722 as a law stu­dent, but soon shift­ed his stu­dies to theo­lo­gy. He lived in the home of a Pro­fess­or Bud­de­us, gra­du­at­ed MA in 1726, and for some time lec­tured there.

In Sep­tem­ber 1732 he went to Hal­le as an ad­junct of the theo­lo­gy fa­cul­ty, and su­per­in­ten­dent of the Or­phan­age schools. There he as­so­ci­at­ed him­self with the Se­pa­ra­tists.

By an ed­ict from Ber­lin, he was re­moved from of­fice and, on Ap­ril 8, 1733, ex­pelled from Halle. He went from there to Herrn­hut and was re­ceived by the Mo­ra­vi­an com­mu­ni­ty.

In 1735, he ac­com­panied the Mo­ra­vi­an co­lo­ny which set­tled in Georg­ia, and served al­so in Penn­sy­lva­nia and on the is­land of St. Tho­mas.

He re­turned to Ger­ma­ny in 1739, and was for some time at Ma­rien­born, Hess­en.

In Sep­tem­ber 1741, he at­tend­ed an im­port­ant Mo­ra­vi­an Con­fer­ence in Lon­don, and there be­came a mem­ber of the Un­i­ty’s Di­rect­ion, and di­rect­or of their fi­nan­cial af­fairs.

In 1742, he found­ed the first Eng­lish Mo­ra­vi­an set­tle­ment, at Smith House in York­shire.

On June 15, 1744, he was con­se­crat­ed at Herrn­haag, Hess­en, as Mo­ra­vi­an bi­shop for North Am­er­ica.

From that time un­til 1762, he was for the most part in Am­er­ica, work­ing main­ly in Penn­syl­van­ia, and among the In­di­ans, and mak­ing two vi­sits to Eur­ope.

In 1762, he be­came the sen­ior mem­ber of the Un­i­ty’s Di­rect­ion, suc­ceed­ing Zin­zen­dorf. He there­af­ter lived most­ly at ei­ther Herrn­hut or Bar­by.

He spent the last years of his life near Herrn­hut, and re­tired from active work in Sep­tem­ber 1791.