Hymn: a song of praise to God. It seems simple, but have you ever read the stories behind the beloved lyrics of your favorite classic hymns? 

Each month in 2022 we are sharing the story behind one of our favorite classic hymns. We hope these stories will encourage you and help you worship, just like the hymnist, amid hurt, hope, fear, thanksgiving, joy, or loss.  

This month we’re sharing the story behind Silent Night, Holy Night

The story of this familiar Christmas carol began on Christmas Eve in 1818, in the village of Oberndorf in Upper Austria. Sometime during the day Father Joseph Mohr, at St. Nicholas Church, discovered that the organ would not play. This was a major crisis, because the music of the Christmas service depended so much on the instrument. As a partial solution to this situation, he decided to compose a new song and substitute it for the music previously planned. Father Mohr wrote out some lines which began “Stille nacht, heilige nacht,” and asked his organist friend, Franz Gruber to write the music. The complete song was sung for the first time at the Christmas Eve service as the two men sand the song accompanied by Gruber playing the guitar.

Later, Karl Mauracher came to Oberndorff to repair the organ. Father Mohr sang the song for him and told him of the Christmas Eve service. In the months that followed, Mauracher told others of the song as he traveled around servicing organs. A family of glovemakers, the Strassers, discovered “Stille naucht, heilige nacht,” as they worked various fairs displaying their beautiful gloves. The Strasser family was a singing group, and they sang the song at the Leipzig fair in 1831. From Leipzig the song traveled in every direction. In a Catholic hymnal published in Leipzig in 1838, the song appeared in print for the first time- 20 years after that “organless” Christmas Eve service at Oberndorff.

German-speaking immigrants brought the song to America, and the first English version appeared in an 1849 hymnal published for Methodists in America. Nine years later and English translation was published in England.

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.

Silent night, holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight.
Glories stream from heaven afar,
heav’nly hosts sing, Alleluia!
Christ, the Savior, is born!
Christ, the Savior, is born!

Silent night, holy night!
Son of God, love’s pure light
radiant beams from thy holy face
with the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth,
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth.

This story was included in Handbook to The Baptist Hymnal.

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