Valerius Herberger

HERBERGER, Valerius. b. Fraustadt, Silesia (now Wschowa, Poland), 21 April 1562; d. Fraustadt, 18 May 1627. He was educated at Fraustadt and Freystadt (Kożuchów), before university study at Frankfurt-an-der-Oder and Leipzig. He returned to Fraustadt as a Latin teacher (1584), and was appointed deacon of the town church (1590). Sometime before 1599 he became ‘Oberpfarrer’ (chief pastor) of the town church, but in 1604 the Roman Catholics succeeded in evicting the Lutherans from it: Herberger opened a small church for his flock, which acquired the name ‘Kripplein Jesu’ (‘little crib of Jesus’), or ‘Kripplein Christi’. He published many sermons (Evangelische Herzpostille, Epistolische...