Sven Rosén (Pietist)

Through his acquaintance with Christians influenced by Johann Konrad Dippel, such as Carl Michael von Strokirch and others, and by diligent studies of mystical Christian works, Rosén was brought into the Radical Pietism, where he, after some soul struggling, joined the so-called Gråkoltarna ("gray robes"), who held mystical-apocalyptic and schismatic gatherings (forbidden by law in Sweden at that time), in the house of the widow of the Dutch artist Jan van den Aveelen.

When some of the participants were arrested and imprisoned, friends of Rosén sent him to Riga (then part of the Swedish Empire), where he, as in Copenhagen at his journey home 1732, met with the Moravian Brethren movement, which for a while had a calming influence on him.

During the trial he wrote several writings to his defence, which later were illegally printed and spread over the country, read as Christian literature by the revived followers.

At every stop during the long and cold journey, Pietists came to say farewell to their beloved leader, and he preached to them and to large gatherings of people, from the prisoner wagon, to which he was chained.

After having pleaded to the Swedish king for a return to Sweden in 1745, (which he was denied), he was sent to Pennsylvania in North America in 1746, where he had a blessed, short time preaching and working in the surrounding areas among fellow Christian believers.