A single communion service in Herrnhut in 1727 is credited with starting a prayer effort that then ran, in shifts, for over a hundred years without a recorded gap.
The 1727 renewal
On 13 August 1727, a communion service at Herrnhut produced what the community remembered as a powerful shared spiritual experience, an event since referred to as the Moravian Pentecost, which the community treats as its true spiritual founding moment, distinct from its earlier practical founding as a settlement of refugees under Count Zinzendorf's patronage.
A prayer chain that did not stop
Shortly afterward, community members began an organised, continuous prayer watch, with individuals and small groups taking scheduled shifts around the clock so that prayer was, according to Moravian tradition, maintained without interruption for over a hundred years, an unusually sustained and organisationally demanding devotional commitment.
A book still updated every day
Herrnhut also originated the Daily Watchwords, a short scripture verse selected for each day of the year, first published in 1731 and continuously produced ever since, now translated into dozens of languages and used by Christians well outside the Moravian tradition, making it one of the longest continuously published texts of its kind anywhere.