December 15: Joseph Mohr and Franz Gruber

Silent night! Holy night!
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin, mother and Child.
Holy Infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace; sleep in heavenly peace.
Hymn No. 204

Says Karen Lynn Davidson in her description of this hymn, "As we sing [this hymn], our hearts and memories fill in what is missing, and our sense of that sacred night is complete." How right she is! She goes on to tell the story of this hymn:

It is amazing to realize that this best-known of all Christmas carols was virtually an "instant hymn." The words were written, set to music, and first performed all in a single day.... On December 24, 1818, Father Joseph Mohr, the assistant parish priest at the st. Nikolaus Catholic Church in Oberndorf, Austria, decided to write a new hymn for the evening service. Because the church organ could not be repaired in time, he needed a Christmas hymn that the organist, Franz Gruber, could accompany on his guitar. He took the words to Franz Gruber, who wrote the music, and the two of them sang the hymn at the evening service, with the choir joining in on the last two lines.
--Karen Lynn Davidson, Our Latter-day Hymns: The Stories and Messages, 216

The hymn went on to instant fame and success and was eventually translated into English by John Freeman Young. The verses we sing now were the 1st, 6th, and 2nd of the original.