Gräfin Benigna-Maria von Reuss-Ebersdorf

Benigna-Maria, daughter of Count Heinrich XXVIII. of Reuse-Ebersdorf, was born at Ebersdorf, Dec. 15, 1695. Under the tuition of Ulrica Bogislaus v. Bonin, she attained a high culture, and became conversant with Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. After the death of her parents she retired to a manor-house, near Pottiga, in the district of Lobenstein, and died there July 31, 1751.

She was during all her life an invalid, but bore her afflictions with a meek and quiet spirit, and was ever humble in heart, fervent in prayer, and loving to all whom she thought to be of the truth, rich and poor alike. She regarded her brother-in-law, Count N. L. von Zinzendorf, as a schismatic, yet her hymns breathe the Herrnhut spirit, and were mostly published in the Moravian hymn-books (Koch, iv. 486-489).

Of her hymns those translated into English are:—
Komm Segen aus der Höh. [Before Work.] First published as No. 522 in the Sammlung Geist-und lieblicher Lieder, Leipzig und Görlitz, 1725, in 4 stanzas of 8 lines. In the Württemberg Gesang-Buch, 1842, No. 516, altered and omitting stanza ii. This is translated as:—
Attend, 0 lord, my daily toil. A good translation from the Württemberg Gesang-Buch contributed by Dr. R. P. Dunn to Sacred Lyrics from the German, Philadelphia, 1859, p. 155, and thence, as No. 393, in Boardman's Selections, Philadelphia, 1861. Another translation is:—"God's blessing from on high descend," by Dr. G. Walker, 1860, p. 49.
ii. Das ist mir lieb, dass meine Stimm und Flehen. [Ps. cxvi.] 1725, as above, No. 14, in 11 stanzas. The translations are:—(1) "This yields me joy," No. 584, in the Moravian Hymn Book, 1801 (1849, No. 710). (2) "The time will come," of stanza v. as stanza ii., of No. 984, in the Moravian Hymn Book., 1801 (1849, No. 1235). [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)