"They followed the stars and waited patiently for all their efforts to be destroyed."

Apocalypse Now

Is America really a land of creation? Or is this just the place we all came to wait for the end? Why the apocalypse is in America's DNA.

By Stefany Anne Golberg

"We are taught that America began as a home for exiles — but what does that really mean? The words “home” and “exile” are as seemingly opposed as two words could be. For Johannes Kelpius, those coming to America to make it into their home were missing the point. Kelpius saw America as temporary and transitory, a mere pit stop between the world and a more eternal Home.

Kelpius’ Apocalyptic approach to life does not seem conducive to building monuments or governments or making sure credit card debts are paid. And yet, it is interesting to note that the first mission of Kelpius and his monks when they came to Philadelphia was to build an Hermitage of stone. Though they intended to live there in solitude, the monks — respected scholars in Europe with training in medicine, science and music — found their lives immediately entangled with the small community of settlers around them. In the great hall of the Hermitage, they held public nondenominational religious services twice a day. The monks built a schoolhouse for the children of settlers and were consulted for medicinal cures. They offered all of their services for free and refused to trade for profit. In the evenings, the Monks of the Wissahickon would meditate and look through the telescope they had erected on the roof of the Hermitage. They followed the stars and waited patiently for all their efforts to be destroyed."