The year 2025 marks a historic stage: the five-hundredth anniversary of the anabaptist movement, a celebration called to bring together evangelical communities around the world. The origin of this event found its roots at the beginning of the 16th century, in the heart of the Protestant reform, in the city of Zurich in Switzerland. The following article traces the emergence, the striking figures, the founding facts, as well as the developments and the globalized scope of this fundamental movement of Protestant Christianity.
Origin and founding message
Anabaptism is officially born on January 21, 1525 in Zurich, in a context of religious and social upheavals crossing Europe. Within the reform movement, a group of reformers, dissatisfied with the prudence of the religious leader Ulrich Zwingli in the face of the expected changes, chooses to embark on a distinct path. Among them are Conrad Grebel and Felix Manz, known for their determination to follow the teaching of the New Testament in a literal way and to promote a voluntary religious commitment.
Their most striking decision is to administer baptism only to adults capable of confessing their faith in full awareness. This gesture, which occurred during a cult kept secretly, is considered to be the official starting point of the anabaptist movement. The term “anabaptist”, meaning “rebaptizer”, will later be attributed by their opponents. According to the legislation of the German Roman Empire, the practice of rebaptism is then punishable by death.
Development and persecution
Very quickly, anabaptism is distinguished by the affirmation of several founding principles: the strict separation between Church and State, the constitution of autonomous communities, insistence on non-violence and pacifism, and the priority given to the individual and community reading of the Scriptures. This radicality attracts the hostility of the powers in place. Catholic and Protestant authorities severely condemn the movement: the first anabaptists are arrested, banished, or even executed for heresy.
Despite the persecution, anabaptism spreads. During the 1540s, three main currents emerged:
- The Swiss brothers, in German -speaking territories.
- Hutteritis, refugees in Moravia.
- Mennonites, under the influence of Menno Simons, in the Netherlands and in Northern Germany.
Global inheritance and expansion
Over the centuries, anabaptism gave birth to lasting groups: mennonites, Amish, Hutteritis and other free churches from the baptism of believers. Their expansion is first observed in Europe, then in North America and Latin America, under the effect of migration and the search for religious freedom. Emphasis on community vocation, peace and autonomy in relation to the State shapes their identity on a global scale.
The date of May 29, 2025 sees the culmination of commemorations in Zurich with gatherings, workshops, conferences and ecumenical liturgy at the Grossmünster cathedral. Other events dot the year, including exhibitions, panels, local commemorations and interconfessional initiatives. The World Mennonite Conference, a federative body founded a hundred years ago, plays a crucial role in the coordination and visibility of this anniversary internationally. The central theme, “the courage to love”, expresses both the historical experience of persecution and the peaceful ideal that always marks the anabaptist community through the continents.
Reason for commemoration
This global commemoration has a dimension of historical memory: it recalls the genealogy of a singular religious tradition, the fidelity assumed to convictions perceived as subversive in their time, and the anabaptist contribution to Protestant plurality and the defense of freedom of conscience. The celebration is thus part of an actuality of ecumenical dialogue but also of identity affirmation for the millions of believers who, today, perpetuate these teachings.
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