At the age of six, Ludwig was sitting at the table with his Bible open, reading and praying, when suddenly a detachment of Swedish soldiers burst into the castle. Ludwig looked up, saw the soldiers, and returned to his prayer and Bible reading. The soldiers stopped and said they could not plunder a place guarded by God.
Exceptionally mature from a very young age, Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf did not follow the course dictated by his noble birth, but obeyed God's call to the point of being banished from his native Saxony.
The count welcomed persecuted Moravian Christians onto his property and launched the modern missionary movement. Departing from Herrnhut for Africa, America, and Russia, believers from the Moravian Church planted seeds that are still bearing fruit (1700-1760).
