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Martin Stephan was pastor of St. John Lutheran Church in Dresden, Germany during the early 19th century. He organized the Saxon emigration to the United States in the early 1800s.

Stephan soon became embroiled in allegations of corruption and sexual misconduct, and was ejected from the settlement, leaving C.F.W. Walther as the senior clergyman. Following his removal from the colony, he served another congregation, Trinity Lutheran Church, at Horse Prairie near Red Bud, Illinois.

Martin Stephan was born August 13, 1777 in Stramberg, Moravia, presently the Czech Republic of Austrian, German and Czech parents. Martin attended St. Elizabeth's Gymnasium in Breslau, sponsored by local pietist and one of their Pastor Johannes Ephraim Scheibel, a professor at the University of Breslau.^[1] He attended the University of Halle and the University of Leipzig from 1804-1809.^[2] Stephan became pastor in Haber, Bohemia in 1809.^[3] In 1810, Martin became the pastor of a specially chartered church St. John's in Dresden which had its origins in those who had fled from Moravia and Bohemia in 1650 and were befriended by Count Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf, a pietistic bishop and missionary. For the next 30 years Martin was known for his teaching, preaching and compassionate counseling.^[4] He led the protest of oppressive practices by the Saxon consistory in the state-governed Lutheran Church. He came under attack by the rationalist pastors for his confessional and orthodox stand. Pastor Stephan continued to uphold biblical and sacramental practices in his church.

In 1824, Martin Stephan began to explore America as a place to practice the faith without harassment. Martin and ten other men formed a "Gesellschaft" or an emigration Society for travel from Dresden to St. Louis, Missouri.^[5] He helped organize 700 people and five ships for passage to America in November of 1838. When the ships landed at the Port of New Orleans, Martin Stephan was elected Bishop of this small band of Lutherans according to the travel regulations of the Emigration Society.

After two months, the Saxon immigrants purchased land in Perry County, Missouri at the mouth of the Brazos and Mississippi Rivers. Here they would build homes, towns, schools and churches. The organization of the community was disrupted when Martin was accused of sexual misconduct. Pastor G. H. Loeber and C.F.W. Walther told lay leaders of this confession. Walther made two trips to Perry County to prepare the Bishop’s deposition.

On May 30, 1838, Bishop Martin Stephan was deposed and excommunicated from the community on the grounds of sexual misconduct and embezzlement. He was put across the river to Kaskaskia, Illinois.

Stephan continued to hold worship in Kaskaskia county court house every two weeks. He taught German and guest preached in other Protestant churches until called as a pastor to Trinity Lutheran Church in Horse Praire, a rural church a few miles east of Red Bud, Illinois. Martin was pastor there for four months until his death on February 21, 1846.^[6] According to the custom Pastor Stephan's coffin was carried around the church three times before he was laid to rest in Trinity's cemetery. A fence was placed around the grave and a wooden 10 foot cross was erected. A memorial marker was erected by the congregation in 1988.^[7]

1. ^ Walter O. Forester, Zion on the Mississippi: The Settlement of the Saxon Lutherans in Missouri 1839-1841 (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953), 27.
2. ^ Forester, 28.
3. ^ Forester, 28.
4. ^ Lawrence R. Rast, Jr., "Demagoguery or Democracy? The Saxon Emigration and American Culture" Concordia Theological Quarterly 63 (1999) No. 4:253.
5. ^ Rast, 254.
6. ^ Christian Cyclopedia, s.v. "Stephan, Martin, Sr." (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2000).
7. ^ Trinity Lutheran Church 150th Anniverary, 1992.

1. Forster, W.O. Zion on the Mississippi. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953.
2. Meyer, Carl S. (ed). Moving Frontiers: Readings in the History of the Lutheran Church -- Missouri Synod. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1964.
3. Rast, Lawrence R. Jr. "Demagoguery or Democracy? The Saxon Emigration and American Culture." [online] Concordia Theological Quarterly 63.4 (1999), 247-268. Available from <http://www.ctsfw.edu/library/files/pb/1767>
   
4. Stephan, Martin. The Christian Faith. Dresden: The Royal Printers, 1825.
   
5. Todd, Mary. Authority Vested. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2000.