Christian and his brother Benjamin’s birth place of Fulneck is a Moravian Settlement in Pudsey in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, West Yorkshire England. Established in 1744 it is named after Fulneck, the German name of a town in Northern Moravia, Czech Republic.

Members of the Moravian Church settled at Fulneck in 1744; they were descendants of the Czech Unity of Brethren, which in 1722 had found refuge in Saxony on the estate of Nicolaus Ludwig Count von Zinzendorf. Within the next few years after settling, housing as well as a school and a chapel were built.

The chapel building was completed in 1748. In 1753 and 1755 the Boys' and Girls' Schools were opened. In 1994[?] the two became one school.

A number of famous alumni attended the Fulneck school where Christian also studied, including english actress Diana Rigg.1549
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Christian is the only member of his father’s children to remain in the Moravian Church as an adult.

Music was to play a large part in his life and was a cause of his religious awakening which began at school in Fulneck when, as a child of six, he became enchanted by the choir's singing of hymns.

During Christian’s lifetime he would compose a large number of works for the Moravian church. He was most famous for editing a Selection of Sacred Music in six volumes between 1806 and 1826, introducing music from the works of the most eminent composers of Germany and Italy icluding Haydn, Mozart and Pergolesi to English audiences.

Three of Latrobe's piano sonatas were dedicated to the classical composer Joseph Haydn whom he had a “fairly close friendship” with. Christian also wrote clarinet concertos, duets and arias, and more than a hundred vocal pieces. Among them "Lord of Life Now Sweetly Slumber", "How Shall a Mortal Song Aspire", "Psalm 51" and "We Praise Thee, Oh God."

When thirteen, Christian entered the Moravian high school in Niesky, Saxony, Germany, going on to complete his education at the Church's seminary, also in that country. He did not return to England until he was 27.

In 1779 he became a tutor at the high school in Germany, “that dear place to which my heart is so much attached,” he later recalled. When Christian surrendered his teaching position in 1784 he faced a considerable change moving to London to assist his father. While in London he was elected to the Moravian missionary society in the city, the Brethren's Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel (the SFG). Rather than the ministry, he was to find his life's work chiefly through the missionary efforts of the SFG; but not yet.

Christian enjoyed a vigorous social life in London, living for the first time beyond the confines of a Moravian community sometimes sharing lodgings with his brother, Benjamin Henry, who had left the Church. This is not to suggest that he neglected his duties, or that he led a frivolous life, for he regularly was in the company of serious-minded men and women.

Most of Christian's friends were noted for their piety, but one exception was Dr Charles Burney, a famous English music historian, whom he worked with. Their affectionate and fruitful collaboration continued until Burney's death in 1814. Christian's three piano sonatas of 1787, dedicated to Burney, are among his very few secular pieces that he published and didn’t destroy.

In January of 1786 William Wilberforce a British politician, philanthropist and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade called on Christian to discuss the slave issue. However a rule against church members meddling in politics meant that Christian could not ally himself with the cause of abolition. Moravians it was written had learned in a hard school to avoid controversy.

In the winter of 1788 he was ordained in Germany. His many acquaintances in London had been a cause for concern, but he returned to Britain secure in the knowledge that he was authorised to develop his contacts with the pious in other denominations.

The Church urgently needed to raise funds in England from other Christians for its missions. Ignatius called on William Wilberforce, a man well known for his charity, who immediately made a substantial donation. Although Ignatius was not comfortable in the role of fundraiser, he recorded that “My success with Mr Wilberforce kindled up the flame of zeal for the furtherance of the affairs of our missions within me & I resolved to leave no stone within my reach unturned.”

In 1792 Christian's true place within the Church was recognized. Ministerial responsibilities, which had been so unwelcome to him, were cancelled, and he was made secretary of the Moravian Church in Britain. This important position gave him the necessary legal standing and status to represent the Church to government, and it complemented his work on behalf of missions overseas.

In 1815 William Wilberforce, in a letter of commendation, described Christian as “the head & hand, as I may truly term him of the Moravian missions in England, who manages much of their correspondence all over the world.” He also was “a man of education, gentlemanly manner, good sense & piety.” Wilberforce wrote further, “if there were not better heads & hands employed in the missions, woe betide us.”

With the Wilberforce letter Christian traveled to South Africa in 1815-16, to visit Moravian missions. He described that journey with colored illustrations in his “Journal of a Visit to South Africa in 1815 and 1816: With Some Account of the Missionary Settlements of the United Brethren, Near the Cape of Good Hope.” This event was one of the most completely satisfying in his life and his work paved the way for the establishment of the Moravian Church in that nation.

His journal, with an affectionate dedication to his children, leaves no doubt that family, friendship and music were all matters which he cared very much about.

Christian had been “in no hurry” to marry but, early in 1790, Hannah Syms had emerged as a suitable candidate for him. Hannah's father was a minister of the Moravian Church, and she was an assistant among Moravian women at Fulneck. Very little more is known about her, but this marriage seems to have worked out quite as well as most others arranged by the Church.

Shortly after his marriage, Christian wrote to Charles Burney to announce the news and to explain that he had left the choice of bride to his mother and sister, telling them: “I wished for a sensible house wife (if I must have one at all) who could love a quiz like me and be beloved by such a fellow — & make home agreeable to me … the longer I know my wife, the more … I consider myself rich in possessing her.” Their marriage was a rewarding partnership producing six children and lasting 35 years.

In 1794 Christian wrote his “History of the Mission of the United Brethren Among the Indians in North America”.

His children were raised as Moravians, of course, but Christian cared more for their souls than the denomination to which they belonged. Of his four sons, only Peter followed him into the Moravian ministry. However, they all seem to have grown into devout men and he was not dismayed when John Antes, his second son, became a clergyman in the Church of England, for he had long respected the Anglican liturgy.

His son Charles Joseph never entirely broke his connection with the Moravian Church, and the youngest boy, Frederic Benjamin, who became a doctor of medicine, married into a family with Moravian connections.

Ministers’ children, as well as those of missionaries, were educated by the Church gratis. The LaTrobes were poor. A hint of what all this meant for him appears in an 1813 letter by Christian in which he wrote about his son Peter who was eighteen and completing his studies at Fulneck. Christian wrote “better versed in classical, literature, mathematics, even the higher branches of it ... than any young men I have known at our schools.” Peter also was “a very good performer on the Organ & Pianoforte’, and his father was thankful that “all my children have musical souls.”

In another letter to his brother Frederick Joseph, also a musician, Christian explained “My Acquaintance are of the most respectable kind,” and that he received “a great deal more friendship, & honor” than was his due. In fact, he seems to have been a most welcome visitor wherever he went. Regularly staying with friends at the University of Cambridge he was welcomed, it was said, because of his “extraordinary conversational powers, his benevolent and lively temperament,” and last but not least his “musical talents.”

Christian attributed his publication of choral music, which he adapted for family use with piano accompaniment, partly to friends in London. This innovative and successful venture was launched in 1806 with the appearance of his first Selection of Sacred Music from the works of the most eminent Composers of Germany and Italy. By 1826, when the last of the six volumes in the Selection appeared, the public had been introduced, mostly for the first time, to a total of 250 works from 50 composers. It is on this achievement that Christian's reputation for “a quiet influence on music” in Britain rests.

During the 1820s Christian lost the use of at least his right arm, and probably more. Peter his son was his assistant and eventually filled his place. His disability meant that he could no longer devote, as he always intended, “all those talents, which God has been pleased to bestow upon me, to his service.”

He had only two more years to live when he withdrew in 1834 to Fairfield, the Moravian settlement in Lancashire, and where he had the comfort of seeing all his children. On the day he died an entry in the settlement's diary reads:

“He was indeed one of the few, whether viewed as a private man; or as a public character. The Lord raised him up among us as an eminent instrument for his work, particularly the spreading of the gospel among the Heathen.” 1545
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In one of the letters written by Christian Ignatius to Julia Latrobe [n. 1804], the sister of Mr. John H. B. Latrobe [1803-1891], he gives a description of his family and says that he understands that she is like the rest of the Latrobes of large stature; that he himself was frequently mistaken for his brother Benjamin Henry Latrobe, after the latter came to this country; and that when his family walked through the streets of London they drew attention, from the fact that he himself was six feet two inches, [his son] Peter six feet one inch, [son] Charles Joseph six feet one inch, [son] Frederick six feet two inches, and [son] John six feet one inch. Their magnificent appearance always created a sensation when they were together, and it appears as if, in fact, they belonged to the Patagonian breed. This characteristic of size seems to have been a heritage of the Latrobes in this country.1550