Meeting the Newborn @ Gottstreu

After our visit to the old Waldenser settlement Gewissenruh it was clear: we would continue our pilgrimage and pay our respect to that other very small historical place: Gottstreu. Founded as a gift to the fleeing Waldenser community. The Landgraf Carl of Hessen had this deep humanitarian and economic vision on materialising the urgent need for asylum. So he build Carlshafen for the Huguenots and established Gewissenruh and Gottstreu for the followers of Petrus Waldus.

We walked down the main street of this village. It has three of them. Because of the bad weather we met almost no one. A couple of old guesthouses and the museum were closed. Off season. A few fachwerk houses had survived the ages. But then: the small Waldenser Church had an unlocked door. A small simple mostly white room. Few benches. A modest pulprit. As we sat down for a while I felt familiar.  My heart felt filling with joy & relief.


There on came serenity in reading the words on the white wall: “The one that calls you is faithfull and he will do it” (1.Thess 5.24). This is about Gods Faithfullness and why Landgraf Carl named their settlement “Gottstreu”. I felt plunged into deep silence. The shield on the pulprit added: Lux lucet in tenebris. Their persecution, expulsion and diaspora lasted almost 700 years. And the light of their faith in absolute faithfullness was shining in the manifold darkness of those ages. Peter Waldes was a mediaeval wanderpreacher. Apostolic poverty and love, read your own Bible has been his message. Seriously heretic…


After closing the churchdoor behind us we took the one and only street up into the mountain forest. And we climbed to have some vista over the valley. But the trees had grown too high for any sight. And slowly we started to descend another way down. We saw two marvellous brooks dancing down in their wild dales. Silence reigned. Untill we arrived at a meadow full of sheep and newborn lambs. Black lambs mostly. It started to shower and an icy polar wind blew over the grasses. We tried to shelter a bit and so did many sheep. The lambs were so naked and chivered. It still would be a long way back from there to Gottstreu.