The Moravian Church, also known as the Herrnhut Movement, is a Protestant awakening movement that got its name from its centre, the town of Herrnhut in Saxony. This movement introduced joyful, but at the same time very emotional, piety to the Lutheran Church. The heyday of the Moravian Brotherhood's activities in Estonia was the 18th-19th centuries. The Moravians arrived in the 1730s, initially under the guidance of one of their leading figures, Christian David. After Count Zinzendorf, the head of the movement, visited Tallinn in 1736, more members started to arrive here. The Moravians were welcome guests in a land ravaged by the Great Northern War, where religious life was on the decline. The Brotherhood developed the custom, gradually introduced by the Pietists, of holding prayer meetings outside the Sunday service. Landowners invited the Moravians to their manors, primarily because of their excellent handicraft skills; their piety was an extra bonus.

In the 1740s, about 12 000 people in Estonia were involved in the movement initiated by the Brotherhood. Saaremaa became one of the most significant centres of the movement. The popular claim among church historians that not a single criminal case was brought to court in Saaremaa between 1740 and 1745 has been refuted by more recent research. The Moravians built a large number of prayer houses, supported by money sent from Germany for the "Livonian Project". Sacrificial sites, jewellery and items of luxury connected with the local pre-Christian faith were destroyed. Problems arose when the Brotherhood expressed a wish to separate from the Lutheran Church. The Lutheran Church was also uncomfortable with manifestations of extreme ecstasy within the movement. For these reasons the Brotherhood's activity was banned between 1743 and 1764. This, however, did not mark the termination of the movement; during the prohibition period a lot of literature was published, e.g. a song book in the northern Estonian dialect. In 1764 the Russian empress Catherine II allowed the Moravian Brotherhood to operate, although in the Baltic provinces this permit was only valid for foreigners, i.e. immigrant Moravians. The movement nevertheless gained momentum, although notable popularity only arrived in the 19th century after the peasantry was liberated. In 1817 Alexander I granted the Moravian Church full freedom of action. A reform movement within the Lutheran Church, which was opposed to the burgeoning rationalism, found allies among the Brotherhood. The period 1817-1857 can be regarded as the second boom of the Brotherhood in Estonia, whereas the movement was already losing momentum in Western Europe and America. By 1839, it embraced around 74 000 Estonians, who practised their faith in 256 prayer houses. Such success worried the authorities, Lutheran pastors and theologians at the University of Tartu. However, success also had a self-destructive aspect: it was not possible to finance the increasing number of prayer houses and schools from outside, and the local peasantry was in no position to help. The decline of the Moravian movement was thus caused by both conflicts with the local Church and financial difficulties, which led to the termination of the missionary project in 1857. When the Republic of Estonia was established in 1918, there were still about 3000 active members; in 1948 the Soviet authorities banned the prayer houses, and the Moravians operated as a branch within the Lutheran Church. When Estonia regained its independence in 1991, the Moravian movement included only about 100 members.

In the popular opinion of church historians, the main contribution of the Moravian Brotherhood was to bring Christianity closer to people. Largely thanks to Zinzendorf, it was possible to publish an Estonian translation of the Bible in 1739. The first Estonian men of letters (e.g. the pastoral assistants/schoolmasters Michel Ignatius and Mango Hans) translated and wrote Moravian texts. The Brotherhood later influenced the Lutheran Church to move in the direction of what could be called "low church". Lutheran theologians started discussing the importance of vocation in the Lutheran Church. Ordinary church members acquired greater rights of action. Although the idea of a folk church was greatly influenced by folk ideology and nationalism, the Moravian Brotherhood played a part here as well - it was time to create a simpler church, closer to the people. After the Moravian church was banned in 1948, the nucleus of many congregations was made up of people with a Moravian background.

The Moravian Brotherhood also contributed to Estonian culture and everyday life. They helped to introduce choir singing to congregational life, which can be seen as a forerunner of choral singing in Estonia. This, however, has another side to it - the songs of the fraternity of Moravians proved fatal to traditional Estonian regilaul (runo song), which was given up in favour of singing hymns. In his book "Estonian history in early modern times, 1550-1800", Mati Laur summarises the role of the Moravian movement: "The fraternity of Moravians offered the peasantry an opportunity for self-realisation. It is significant that both Estonians and Latvians accepted the Moravian term "awakening" as a synonym for their national movements. The habit of keeping diaries and writing letters, encouraged by the Moravians, encouraged Estonians to learn to write. There are, for example, the letters of Urvaste peasants to their beloved father Zinzendorf. The Brotherhood greatly helped spread choir singing and brass band music among Estonians. Mention should also be made of the moral aspect of the movement. It is well worth remembering that Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald, Carl Robert Jakobson, Jakob Hurt, Villem Reiman and Jaan Tõnisson all came from families belonging to the Moravian Church."

Riho Altnurme (1969) studied history and theology at Tartu, Leuven and Helsinki Universities, graduating from Tartu University as a historian in 1994; he received his M.A. in Theology in 1997 and Ph.D. in Theology in 2000 with a thesis entitled "The Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Soviet State, 1944-1949". Since 2001 he has been a reader of church history at the Department of Theology at Tartu University, and since 2003, Dean of Theology.