History of the Russian Mennonites

The 1788-89 start for Mennonites in New Russia was disastrous, and after four years colonists begged for ministerial leaders from Prussia to come and establish order ( note 1 ). On Good Friday, April 18, 1794, a Flemish church elder and a minister--Cornelius Regier of Heubuden and Cornelius Warkentin of Rosenort-- arrived in Chortitza to assist. After only three weeks of moderating, reconciling, teaching, ordaining and baptizing, Regier contracted an illness and died; Warkentin finished their work and returned to Prussia on July 10. Warkentin’s Prussian ministerial colleagues were skeptical. Would order last in that rag-tag group? But Warkentin returned with the conviction “that the future of the Mennonite Church was not in Prussia but in Russia” ( note 2 ). Why? During his visit to Chortitza, Warkentin met Russian State Counsellor Samuel Contenius—the son of a German Westphalian Protestant pastor—responsible for the oversight and care of foreign colonists. Warkentin was convinced of t...