Third Baptism of Felix Manz

481 years ago on 5 January 1527, at the River Limmat in Zurich, Felix Manz was pulled into the cold waters and drowned as a condemned Anabaptist. His evil and heresy was nothing more than his faith and convictions that one must believe and baptized. In the poetic style of many of the persecutors of the faith over the centuries, death for the re-baptizer was via his third baptism.

Amazingly, Manz was not even thirty years old at his death. He only joined Zwingli in 1519 with Grebel to follow two years later. Grebel and Manz made a great team, and the addition of George Blaurock, the first to be re-baptized, the ministry of the Swiss Brethren flourished and impacted the region (and ultimately the future of Christianity worldwide). Blaurock went on after Manz’s death to move around, be imprisoned, banished, and ultimately burned at the stake on 6 September 1529. Manz is a true inspiration of faith and even his life’s work can be looked at with some awe; though short in time, it is long in legacy. Intelligent and driven for the way and truth of Christ.