Milestones
Follow the events that connect the people, source accounts, and traditions.
Acts begins this history with the preaching of Christ, repentance, baptism, fellowship, prayer, and care for one another. Martyrs’ Mirror’s first-century account brings together the baptisms at Pentecost, in Samaria, of the Ethiopian, of Saul, and in other households and communities.
Read the storyOn 21 January 1525, Conrad Grebel baptized George Blaurock at a gathering associated with Felix Manz in Zürich. This is a central starting point for Swiss Anabaptist history.
Read the storyFelix Manz was drowned in Zürich on 5 January 1527. His story is central to the memory of persecution among the Swiss Brethren.
Read the storyThe Schleitheim Articles set out seven points of agreement for a gathered Anabaptist community, including baptism, communion, church discipline, and refusal of the sword.
Read the storyA community of Anabaptist refugees in Moravia began sharing their possessions. This practice became a defining feature of Hutterite life.
Read the storyJakob Hutter was executed in Innsbruck in 1536. His leadership and organization helped give the Hutterite tradition its lasting name.
Read the storyMartyrs’ Mirror recounts how Dirk Willems turned back to rescue a pursuer who had fallen through the ice. He was recaptured and later executed.
Read the storyThe account of Hans Landis in Martyrs’ Mirror shows that persecution of Swiss Anabaptists continued into the seventeenth century.
Read the storyThieleman J. van Braght’s collection preserved accounts of Christian witnesses and Anabaptist martyrs, along with letters, confessions, and reflections.
Read the storyDisagreement over communion, church discipline, and relations with sympathetic outsiders divided the Swiss Brethren.
Read the storyA group baptized in the Eder River at Schwarzenau began a movement shaped by both Anabaptist convictions and Pietism.
Read the storyRenewal within Mennonite communities in the Russian Empire contributed to the formation of the Mennonite Brethren in 1860.
Read the storyHutterite communities began migrating from the Russian Empire to North America in the 1870s after changes affecting military exemption and community life.
Read the storyEberhard and Emmy Arnold, together with Else von Hollander, founded the Bruderhof in Germany in 1920.
Read the storyThe first Mennonite World Conference gathering was held in Basel in 1925. Later assemblies form part of the story of worldwide Anabaptist fellowship.
Read the storyThe present-day story includes communities across continents and many different traditions. Local histories, migrations, mission, and relationships between churches are part of the record still being gathered.
Read the storyThe 1683 Germantown settlement opened an important North American chapter in Mennonite migration.
Read the storyCommunities established in the Russian Empire developed several church traditions and later migrated to the Americas and elsewhere.
Read the storyA reform movement in the Molotschna settlement that began in 1812 under Klaas Reimer and later developed different national histories.
Read the storyJohn Holdeman and others began worshiping separately in Ohio in 1859, forming a distinct Mennonite church history.
Read the storyOld Order Mennonite fellowships developed through several regional divisions beginning in the later nineteenth century.
Read the storyMennonite Central Committee began in 1920 as a cooperative response to hunger among communities in Ukraine.
Read the storyThe Beachy Amish history began with a 1927 division in an Amish congregation in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
Read the storyA renewal movement among Sommerfeld Mennonites organized as the Rudnerweider church in 1937.
Read the storyThe Rudnerweider church adopted the Evangelical Mennonite Mission Conference identity on 1 July 1959.
Read the storyThe Canadian Kleine Gemeinde adopted the name Evangelical Mennonite Conference in 1960.
Read the storyThe exhibit’s Mennonite Brethren in Christ line developed into United Missionary Church and joined a union in 1969.
Read the storyMennonite Church USA formed in 2002 through the union of U.S. congregations of MC and GC.
Read the storyBelievers’ baptism, discipleship, brotherly love, a gathered church, and nonresistance stand at the center of this history.
Read the storyPerpetua and Felicitas are remembered together in the third-century accounts. Martyrs’ Mirror describes them as Christian women of Tuburbi in Mauritania, one nursing a child and the other pregnant when they were imprisoned.
Read the storyMartyrs’ Mirror recounts the condemnation of fourteen people at Orleans, naming Stephen as their chief figure. The account discusses accusations concerning baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and other beliefs, and records their execution in the presence of King Robert.
Read the storyLay Bible study in Zürich brought believers together around the Scriptures before the baptisms of 1525. The supplied overview dates these beginnings to 1522 and follows the participation of Conrad Grebel and Felix Manz, with George Blaurock later joining them.
Read the storyAnabaptist refugees found protection around Nikolsburg under the Lords of Liechtenstein. The supplied overview describes a large fellowship whose members disagreed about the use of the sword and payment of war taxes.
Read the storyThe Ausbund grew from hymns written by imprisoned believers. The supplied overview dates the core prison songs to 1535–1540 and the earliest printed collection it describes to 1564.
Read the storyThe supplied overview connects Menno Simons’s study of Scripture with his decision to leave the priesthood and identify openly with the Anabaptists. It dates his public commitment to 30 January 1536.
Read the storyThe supplied history overview describes a period of renewed pressure on the Hutterites from 1547 to 1552. An imperial edict forced believers from communal homes in the regions of Moravia, Austria, and Hungary.
Read the storyHutterite communities in Moravia developed schools, religious writing, agriculture, and skilled crafts. The institutional Hutterite history identifies 1565–1592 as a flourishing period, with communal work supporting the life and teaching of the congregations.
Read the storyDuring the winter of 1553–1554, Mennonites at Wismar helped Reformed refugees whose ship had become ice-bound. The supplied overview remembers practical assistance across a difference of confession.
Read the storyThe supplied overview describes the beginning of an official Hutterite chronicle in 1560 at Austerlitz in Moravia. The work gathered accounts of the community’s beginnings, leaders, migrations, and suffering for preservation by later generations.
Read the storyThe supplied overview follows attacks on Hutterite communities during the wars that afflicted Moravia and the surrounding lands from the beginning of the seventeenth century. It describes killing, captivity, plunder, and the loss of homes and communal resources.
Read the storyJohn Smyth and John Robinson led English religious refugees to the Netherlands in 1607–1608. The supplied overview follows their communities to Amsterdam and, in Robinson’s case, to Leiden in 1609.
Read the storyThe Third Confession printed near the beginning of Martyrs’ Mirror identifies itself as a statement drawn up at a peace convention at Dort on 21 April 1632. Its eighteen articles set out a shared confession of Christian faith and practice.
Read the storyAndreas Ehrenpreis took leadership after a period of great disruption in Hutterite community life. The supplied overview dates his election as bishop to 1639 and describes his work to restore the fellowship’s order and discipline.
Read the storyThe supplied overview describes an Anabaptist commission at Bern in 1659 and increasing pressure on Swiss Brethren to conform or leave. Arrest, removal, and the loss of a settled home continued the persecution into a period beyond many of the book’s individual martyr accounts.
Read the storyIn 1534–1535, leaders at Münster proclaimed the city a new Jerusalem and organized an armed religious community. The supplied overview names Jan Matthijs and Jan van Leyden and follows the siege, the fall of the city, and the punishment of its leaders.
Read the storyPennsylvania offered Mennonites and other persecuted communities a place to worship and establish new homes.
Read the storyThe end of some executions did not end the coercion of Anabaptist believers; forced labor and exile continued.
Read the storyBounties, confiscation, hidden worship, and forced migration shaped the lives of Swiss Anabaptists in the early eighteenth century.
Read the storyA log meetinghouse gave the Germantown Mennonites a settled place for congregational worship.
Read the storyMennonites at Krefeld established a community whose weaving and trade brought a measure of protection.
Read the storyDutch Mennonites worshiped in meeting places whose outward appearance was restricted even as congregational life continued within.
Read the storyScouts, wagon journeys, and new villages linked Prussian Mennonites to settlements in the Russian Empire.
Read the storyArrest and compulsory religious instruction disrupted Hutterite communal life in Austria and Hungary.
Read the storyA revival among Pennsylvania Mennonite communities contributed to the gathering of the River Brethren.
Read the storyThe Ephrata printing of Martyrs’ Mirror carried the memory of faithful witnesses to German-speaking readers in Pennsylvania.
Read the storyRevolution, conscience, and the search for farmland contributed to Mennonite and Amish settlement in Canada.
Read the storyAmish and Mennonite families formed new settlements across the expanding American Midwest.
Read the storyA Dutch mission association helped begin a Mennonite mission in Java with support across national boundaries.
Read the storyThe first Amish meetinghouse in Holmes County became part of wider debate about congregational change.
Read the storyMennonites near the Crimean War cared for wounded people while declining active military service.
Read the storyTwo scouts investigated North American farmland before the major migration from the Russian Empire.
Read the storyA newspaper founded in Sugarcreek helped Amish and Mennonite communities remain in contact through local letters.
Read the storyGeneral Conference Mennonites began mission work among several Native American peoples in the American West.
Read the storyMilitary-service changes and the search for secure community life contributed to migration from the Russian Empire.
Read the storyPlanning in 1911 was followed by the arrival of the first Congo Inland Mission workers in 1912.
Read the storyMennonite communities founded colleges and church schools to join academic learning with faith, congregational life, and preparation for service.
Read the storyA winter Bible school at Pleasant View Mennonite Church became a continuing work of Bible study and preparation for Christian service at Rosedale, Ohio.
Read the storyProsperous settlements faced revolution, hunger, and displacement, drawing Mennonite congregations into coordinated relief and renewed migration.
Read the storyA mission begun in 1917 established a center at Pehuajó and became part of the growth of Mennonite congregational life in Argentina.
Read the storyWartime hostility and the costs of refusing military participation helped drive Hutterite colonies toward new homes in Canada.
Read the storyThe Volendam carried displaced Mennonites toward refuge in South America after the Second World War, with Peter and Elfrieda Dyck helping lead the transports.
Read the storyThe photographed account connects Amish homes, schools, work, marriage, and burial with a shared life shaped by Christian conviction and community tradition.
Read the storyA community rebuilding after fire or disaster makes visible the mutual care that the photographed history associates with Christian love.
Read the storyThe worship scenes present Amish, Hutterite, and Mennonite communities gathering in different settings while sustaining a shared life of faith.
Read the storyThe final globe scene joins the future of the church with the call to make God’s love in Jesus Christ known through both the gospel and practical service.
Read the storyThe Jorists appear in the Dutch portion of the chart as a distinct movement whose teachings nonresistant witnesses examined against Scripture.
Read the storyThe Batenburgers’ separate line in the chart supplies context for the accusations of religious violence that peaceful Anabaptists had to answer.
Read the storySt. Gallen became an early centre of believers’ baptism as public Scripture readings led townspeople to examine faith and the shape of the church.
Read the storySwiss Mennonite congregations continued through local worship, new meetinghouses, shared conference work, and the preservation of their community records.
Read the storyThe Wisler name connects the Indiana–Ohio Old Order beginnings with a later conference that retained the name after a further division.
Read the storyWoolwichers was a local name for Ontario Old Order Mennonites associated with Bishop Abraham Martin and the division of 1889.
Read the storyPennsylvania's Martinite fellowship became the shared historical background of the Weaverland or Horning and Groffdale or Wenger conferences.
Read the storyWadsworth’s short-lived school joined biblical instruction, languages, and practical work in an early General Conference project.
Read the storyHalstead’s Mennonite school prepared students for teaching and church service before its work passed to Bethel College.
Read the storyGretna’s Mennonite school grew from teacher preparation into a residential Christian secondary institution.
Read the storyFreeman’s Mennonite school expanded from elementary and secondary education into teacher training and a junior college.
Read the storyTabor College joined Mennonite Brethren Christian formation with broad education at Hillsboro, Kansas.
Read the storyHesston developed a Mennonite academy and Bible school into a college serving congregations and students in the western United States.
Read the storyThe Brethren in Christ founded Messiah as a Bible and missionary school that developed into a broader Christian university.
Read the storyWitmarsum organized a shared Mennonite theological school at Bluffton before its assets supported a later seminary at Chicago.
Read the storyBeulah College became Upland College, a Brethren in Christ educational community whose work later joined Messiah.
Read the storyElim provided Bible teaching and preparation for congregational service through several institutional forms in southern Manitoba.
Read the storySteinbach’s Bible school developed from congregational classes into an inter-Mennonite institution for Christian service.
Read the storyGoshen’s Bible department developed graduate ministerial study before joining a shared Mennonite seminary campus at Elkhart.
Read the storyColumbia Bible Institute united Mennonite Brethren and General Conference Bible-school work in British Columbia.
Read the storySwift Current Bible Institute trained congregational workers and brought together several western Canadian Mennonite educational efforts.
Read the storyCanadian Mennonite Bible College grew from wartime planning into a Winnipeg institution for theological and church education.
Read the storyThe chart’s 1943 Grace institution is the Mennonite-founded Bible institute at Omaha, later Grace University.
Read the storyWinnipeg’s Mennonite Brethren Bible College developed ministerial and academic education before becoming Concord College and joining CMU.
Read the storyA small Mennonite Brethren Bible institute in Fresno developed a wider college program while retaining Christian education at its center.
Read the storyMennonite Biblical Seminary revived General Conference theological education in Chicago and prepared the way for cooperation at Elkhart.
Read the storyBethel in Mishawaka arose from Mennonite Brethren in Christ efforts to establish Christian higher education.
Read the storyMennonite Brethren established a graduate seminary for church leadership and later joined its Fresno operation to Fresno Pacific University.
Read the storyTwo Mennonite seminaries built an academic partnership that gradually became one institution at Elkhart.
Read the storyJakob Mannhardt’s periodical joined historical remembrance, Christian instruction, and news from scattered Mennonite congregations.
Read the storyPeter M. Friesen gathered documents and historical interpretation into a major account of Russian Mennonite church life.
Read the storyJohn H. Oberholtzer’s German-language newspaper opened a durable channel for teaching and communication between American Mennonite congregations.
Read the storyJohn Fretz Funk’s newspaper served the Mennonite Church for forty-four years before joining Gospel Witness to form Gospel Herald.
Read the storyHarold S. Bender and the Mennonite Historical Society established a lasting forum for Anabaptist and Mennonite historical research.
Read the storyThe Brethren in Christ began Evangelical Visitor to share teaching, news, and the work of congregations separated by distance.
Read the storyDer Zionspilger carried the life of Swiss Mennonite congregations into a wider German-reading community, including readers in America.
Read the storyMartyrs’ Mirror remembers Maria and her sister-in-law Ursula refusing to abandon Christ and praying for those who condemned them.
Read the storyAn Amsterdam boatman made room for persecuted believers to encourage one another from Scripture, and was condemned for his faith.
Read the storyDutch Mennonite refugees established a congregation at Altona under privileges that protected worship and trade.
Read the storyA disagreement over allegiance and support for the American Revolution divided Pennsylvania Mennonites and left a long search for reconciliation.
Read the storyBible courses and open fellowship on Mennonite estates contributed to the Allianz-related church organized in 1905.
Read the storyTwo Mennonite aid committees united to help families travel from the Russian Empire and establish new homes in North America.
Read the storyCanadian Mennonites organized relief and immigration assistance for families affected by revolution, famine, and displacement.
Read the storyDutch Mennonite gatherings and brotherhood houses grew from a desire to renew shared spiritual life.
Read the storyMennonites organized international cooperation to support conscientious objectors and strengthen their peace witness.
Read the storyCongregations in Waterloo County introduced organized Sunday instruction alongside the worshiping life of the church.
Read the storyA Pennsylvania division over conference order and cooperation produced the fellowship later known as Eastern District Conference.
Read the storyDaniel Brenneman and John F. Funk conducted a series of meetings that became an early milestone in Mennonite Church revivalism.
Read the storyPreserved minutes document an 1882 conference concerned with ministry, publishing, mission, and common church discipline.
Read the storyA series of revival meetings in Pennsylvania developed into a continuing place of worship, Bible teaching, and fellowship.
Read the storyThe Church of God in Christ, Mennonite gathered at Lone Tree, Kansas, and recorded a common confession of faith.
Read the storyThe source map records a widening geographical horizon while leaving individual local histories to their own documented timelines.
Read the story