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Saint Patrick

372 - 466 Person Name: St. Patrick Scripture: Genesis 1 Author (attributed to) of "This Day God Gives Me" in Gather Comprehensive Patrick, St., the 2nd Bishop and Patron Saint of Ireland, was the son of Calpurnius, a deacon, and grandson of Potitus, a presbyter, and great grandson of Odissus, a deacon, was born most probably near Dumbarton, in North Britain, in 372. According to his epistle to Coroticus, his father was also a decurio, a member of the local town council, and a Roman by descent. Hence probably the name Patricius. St. Patrick alludes in Coroticus, § 5, to his having been originally a freeman, and of noble birth. His birthplace is termed in his Confession, § 1, Bannavem Taberniæ. Some have identified that place with Boulogne-sur-Mer, in France. His mother's name was Concessa, said to have been sister of St. Martin of Tours. According to Tirechan's Collections (circa A.D. 690), Patrick had four names—-(1) Magonus, which Tirechan explains by clarus, illustrious; (2) Sucat (Succetus), god of war, or brave in war, said to have been his baptismal name; (3) Patricius; and (4) Cothraige (Cothrighe), given because he had been a slave to four masters. At the age of 16 he was carried off with many others to Ireland, and sold as a slave. There he remained six years with Milcho, or Miliuc. He was engaged in feeding cattle (pecora), though the later writers say that he fed swine. In his captivity he became acquainted with the Irish language. His misfortunes were the means of leading him to Christ, and be devoted himself to prayer, and often frequented, for that purpose, the woods on Mount Slemish. Having escaped after six years, he spent some years with his parents, and then was stirred up, when still a youth (puer), to devote himself to the evangelisation of Ireland. According to Secundinus's Hymn (St. Sechnall), which is probably not much later than the age of St. Patrick himself, the saint received his apostleship "from God," like St. Paul. No reference is made in that hymn, or in the later so-called Hymn of St. Fiacc, to any commission received from Pope Celestine, as is asserted by later writers. St. Patrick does not in his own writings allude to the external source whence he obtained ordination, and, as he speaks of his Roman descent, it would be strange for him not to have mentioned his Roman consecration, if it had been a fact. From some “sayings" of his, preserved on a separate page of the Book of Armagh, it is probable that he travelled through Gaul and Italy, and that he was ordained in Gaul as deacon, priest, and, afterwards, as bishop. He was probably a bishop when he commenced his missionary labours in Ireland. There were, however, Christians in Ireland before that period. Palladius, the senior Patrick, who preceded our saint by a few years, was, according to the chronicle of Prosper (the secretary of Pope Celestine), "ordained and sent to the Scots (the Irish) believing in Christ, by Pope Celestine, as their first bishop." Palladius's mission was a failure, while that of the second Patrick, which was quite independent of the former, was successful in a high degree. Its success, however, has been greatly exaggerated; for St. Patrick, in the close of his Confession, or autobiography, written in old age, speaks of the high probability of his having to lay down his life as a martyr for Christ. The date of St. Patrick's mission is not certain, but the internal evidence of his writings indicate that it was most probably about A.D. 425. The day and month of his death (March 17), but not the year [466] is mentioned in the Book of Armagh. St. Patrick's claim to a record in this Dictionary is associated with the celebrated hymn or “Breastplate," a history of which we now subjoin. 1. St. Patrick's Irish Hymn is referred to in Tirechan's Collections (A.D. 690). It was directed to be sung in "all monasteries and churches through the whole of Ireland," "canticum ejus scotticum semper canere," which is a proof that it was at that time universally acknowledged to be his composition. That regulation was very naturally lost sight of when the old Celtic Church lapsed into the Roman, (a) The expressions used in the hymn correspond entirely with the circumstances under which St. Patrick visited Tara. (b) Moreover, although all the ancient biographies of St. Patrick (with the exception of his own Confession, and of Secundinus's Hymn) speak of him as a worker of miracles, and as having performed miracles at Tara, there is no trace of such a fact in St. Patrick's Hymn, (c) Further, the phrase, "creator of doom," which twice occurs in it, according to the most approved translation, curiously corresponds with another fact that, "my God's doom," or “the doom," or "judgment of my God," was, according to the ancient biographies, one of St. Patrick's favourite expressions. 2. The first notice of the existence at the present time of an ancient manuscript copy of St. Patrick's "Hymn or Breastplate," was made known by the late Dr. Petrie in his Memoir of Tara, published in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, 1839, vol. xviii. Dr. Petrie gave the original in Irish characters, an interlineary Latin version and an English translation by himself, together with copious notes. Dr. Petrie found the original in the Liber Hymnorum, in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin (iv. E. 4, 2, fol. 19 b). “The tradition respecting its primary use by the saint is that he recited it on Easter Sunday, when proceeding to encounter the droidical fire-worshippers, with their pagan king, Laoghaire, and his court, at Tara, the royal residence." (Lyra Hibernica Sacra, 1878, p. 2.) 3. Dr. Todd in his work, S. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland, 1864, gives a metrical rendering of the “Breastplate” which begins:— "I bind to myself today, The strong power of an invocation of the Trinity, The faith of the Trinity in Unity, The Creator of the elements." The translation, which extends to 78 lines, was mainly the work of Dr. Whitley Stokes. A more correct version by the same scholar is given in the Rolls's edition of the Tripartite Life, 1887; and that revised version, with a few modifications, accompanied with critical notes, explanatory of the alterations made on the former version, is given in the 2nd and 3rd editions of the Writings of St. Patrick, by Dr. V. H. H. Wright. Dr. Whitley Stokes, therefore, is to be regarded as the real translator from the original Irish. Dr. Petrie's translation, though highly meritorious as a first attempt, has been proved in many particulars to be erroneous. There is no mention of Tara in the hymn. An uncertainty yet exists as to the meaning of a few words. 4. In Dr. W. MacIlwaine's Lyra Hibernica Sacra, 1878, Dr. Todd's translation was repeated (with notes), together with a second translation by James Clarence Mangan, the opening lines of which are:— "At Tara to-day, in this awful hour, I call on the Holy Trinity! Glory to Him Who reigneth in power, The God of the elements, Father, and Son, And Paraclete Spirit, which Three are the One, The everlasting Divinity." 5. A popular version of the hymn for congregational use was written by Mrs. Cecil F. Alexander, for St. Patrick's Day, 1889, and sung generally throughout Ireland on that day. The opening lines are:— "I bind unto myself to-day The strong Name of the Trinity, By invocation of the same, The Three in One and One in Three. ”I bind this day to me for ever, By power of faith, Christ's Incarnation; His baptism in Jordan river; His death on Cross for my salvation; His bursting from the spiced tomb; His riding up the heav'nly way; His coming at the day of doom; I bind unto myself to-day." Mrs. Alexander's version is given, along with that of James Clarence Mangan, in the Appendix to the Writinqs of St. Patrick, edited by Dr. C. H. H. Wright (R.T.S.), 1889. 6. Another metrical version of this hymn was given in the Irish Ecclesiastical Gazette for April 5, 1889. It is by Joseph John Murphy, and the opening lines are:— "I bind as armour on my breast The Threefold Name whereon I call, Of Father, Son, and Spirit blest, The Maker and the Judge of all." 7. The translation in Stokes and Wright's edition of St. Patrick's writings was set to music as a cantata by Sir R. Stewart, and was performed for the first time in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, on St. Patrick's Day, 1888. 8. Mr. Thomas French, Assistant Librarian of Trinity College, Dublin, writes as follows respecting this hymn:— "The manuscript called the 'Liber Hymnorum' belonged to Archbishop Ussher, and forms one of the volumes of the Ussher Collection now in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin. There is no interlineary Latin translation in the original. It was given by Petrie in his account of the hymn 'for the satisfaction of the learned’ [The St. Patrick authorship is tradition only, so far as I know.] Dr. Todd in his S. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland, p. 426, says ‘It is undoubtedly of great antiquity, although it may now be difficult, if not impossible, to adduce proof in support of the tradition that St. Patrick was its author.'...... Petrie and Todd make the age of the manuscript 9th or 10th century, Whitley Stokes 11th or 12th." We may add that St. Patrick's Latin works were published by Sir James Ware, 1656, in the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandist Fathers, 1668, by Villanueva, 1835, and by others, as B. S. Nicholson, 1868, Miss Cusack, 1871, and, above all, by Dr. Whitley Stokes, in the Rolls' Edition of the Tripartite Life, 1887. The latter three works contain also translations. Translations of the whole, or a portion of St. Patrick's writings, have been published by Rev. T. Olden, 1876; Sir S. Ferguson, LL.D. Transactions of Royal Irish Academy, 1885, and more completely in the Writings of St. Patrick, edited by Prof. G. T. Stokes and Dr. C. H. H. Wright, 1st ed. 1887, 2nd ed. 1888, 3rd ed., edited, with notes critical and historical, and an introduction by Dr. C. H. H. Wright revised and enlarged. London: Religious Tract Society, 1889. [Rev. Charles H. H. Wright, D.D., Ph.D.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ==================== Patrick, St., p. 885, ii. (l) In the Oxford University Herald of April 6, 1889, is an anonymous paraphrase in 7 stanzas of 4 lines of a portion of "St. Patrick's Hymn," beginning- "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! May Thine overshadowing might Be as armour to my soul, Be my weapon in the fight." (2) Note concerning § 3, on p. 885, i., that Dr., W. Stokes's translation appeared in its original form in the Saturday Review, Sept. 5, 1857. In his Goidilica, Calcutta, 1866, p. 66, in an altered form to that of 1857 and 1864. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)

Randall Keith DeBruyn

b. 1947 Person Name: Randall DeBruyn, b. 1947 Scripture: Genesis 1 Arranger (choral) of "NETTLETON" in Glory and Praise (3rd. ed.)

Sylvia G. Dunstan

1955 - 1993 Person Name: Sylvia G. Dunstan (1955-1993) Scripture: Genesis 1:3-5 Author of "O Laughing Light, O first-born of creation" in Church Hymnary (4th ed.) After a brief, arduous battle with liver cancer, Canadian Sylvia Dunstan died in 1993 at the age of 38. For thirteen years, Dunstan had served the United Church of Canada as a parish minister and prison chaplain. She is remembered by those who knew her for her passion for those in need, her gift of writing, and her love of liturgy. Sing! A New Creation

Marty Haugen

b. 1950 Person Name: Marty Haugen, b. 1950 Scripture: Genesis 1 Author of "Song over the Waters" in Gather Comprehensive Marty Haugen (b. 1950), is a prolific liturgical composer with many songs included in hymnals across the liturgical spectrum of North American hymnals and beyond, with many songs translated into different languages. He was raised in the American Lutheran Church, received a BA in psychology from Luther College, yet found his first position as a church musician in a Roman Catholic parish at a time when the Roman Catholic Church was undergoing profound liturgical and musical changes after Vatican II. Finding a vocation in that parish to provide accessible songs for worship, he continued to compose and to study, receiving an MA in pastoral studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul Minnesota. A number of liturgical settings were prepared for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and more than 400 of his compositions are available from several publishers, especially GIA Publications, who also produced some 30 recordings of his songs. He is composer-in-residence at Mayflower Community Congregational Church in Minneapolis and continues to compose and travel to speak and teach at worship events around the world. Emily Brink

Carolyn Winfrey Gillette

b. 1961 Scripture: Genesis 1, 2 Author of "God Made the Heavens and the Earth" in Gifts of Love Carolyn Winfrey Gillette has been a pastor in rural, small town, suburban, and city churches; she has also served as a hospice chaplain, a hospital chaplain, and a school bus aide helping children with special needs. She and her husband Bruce are pastors of the First Presbyterian Union Church in Owego, NY. Carolyn is a gifted hymn writer who has written over 400 hymns. These hymns have been sung by congregations throughout the United States and around the world — from the Washington National Cathedral to St. Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland to St. George's Cathedral in Cape Town, South Africa to small town churches and small household congregations; they have also been sung at national church and international ecumenical meetings. She has written four books: "I Sing to My Savior: New Hymns from the Stories in Luke's Gospel", "God's World is Changing: New Hymns for Advent and Christmas", "Gifts of Love: New Hymns for Today's Worship" (Geneva Press) and "Songs of Grace: New Hymns for God and Neighbo"r (Upper Room Books). Her hymns have been published in over 20 books. Two of her hymns have been published by the Choristers Guild as anthems. Carolyn was commissioned to write the lead article for the special issue on "Singing Our Lives" for Baylor University's "Christian Reflectio"n journal. Her hymns have also been in "Call to Worship" journal, "The Chorister" (cover story), "Reformed Worship," "The Presbyterian Outlook" and posted on thousands of web sites. All of her hymns can be found on her website with indices to scriptural references, topics, tunes, and the three-year cycle of the Revised Common Lectionary: http://www.carolynshymns.com The World Council of Churches, National Council of Churches, Church World Service and Churches Uniting in Christ have asked her to write hymns. Habitat for Humanity International used a hymn by Carolyn for their 30th anniversary celebration. Family Promise (Interfaith Hospitality Network) did a music video of her hymn for their ministry with homeless families. The Humane Society of the United States did a music video contest of her hymn for their Blessing of the Animals service. The Presbyterian Church (USA) 216th General Assembly presented her with the "Ecumenical and Interreligious Service Recognition." Sojourners did a short video about her hymn writing. A Canadian scholar wrote her biography for the "Cambridge Dictionary for Hymnology." Feature stories about Carolyn's hymns addressing concerns facing the Church, nation and world, were done by The New Yorker, The Christian Century, America, National Public Radio, national PBS-TV, and newspapers (Philadelphia Inquirer, Washington Post, New Jersey Courier Post, Delaware News Journal, and others). Carolyn is a graduate of Lebanon Valley College and Princeton Theological Seminary. She finds joy in parish ministry, hymn writing, and most of all in her family as a wife, mother (and foster mother), grandmother, sister, and human parent to a rescue dog, "Annie." Carolyn sees her hymn writing as a partnership and is very grateful for prayers for her hymn writing, suggestions for hymns, gifts for hymn use and commissions, and invitations to speak at conferences, workshops, and church gatherings (in person and online). She hopes her hymns nurture people in their discipleship and support churches in their worship and service in the world. Sing to the Lord a new song! Copied from "About the Author" in "I Sing to My Savior: New Hymns from the Stories in Luke's Gospel." Email from Bruce Gillette

Catherine Cameron

1927 - 2019 Scripture: Genesis 1:31 Author of "God, Who Stretched the Spangled Heavens" in Scripture Song Database

James Quinn

1919 - 2010 Person Name: James Quinn, SJ, b. 1919 Scripture: Genesis 1 Author of "This Day God Gives Me" in Gather Comprehensive James Quinn (b. Glasgow, Scotland, April 21, 1919; d. Edinburgh, Scotland, April 8, 2010) was a Roman Catholic Jesuit priest who was ordained in 1950. As a consultant for the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, sparked by Vatican II, he has exerted influence far beyond his native Scotland. A collection of his hymn texts is available from Selah Publishing company. Sing a New Creation

Michael Hewlett

1916 - 2000 Person Name: Michael Hewlett, b. 1916 Scripture: Genesis 1:1-2 Author of "Praise the Spirit in Creation" in With One Voice Michael Edward Hewlett (b. 1916; d. 2000) was ordained in England as an Anglican priest in 1949, and served several parishes as curate, vicar, or parish priest. For most of his career he was vicar in the diocese of Exeter. He was author of about seventy hymn texts and contributed to many hymnals in the UK and North America. Emily Brink

David Hurd

b. 1950 Person Name: David Hurd, b. 1950 Scripture: Genesis 1:1-2 Composer of "JULION" in With One Voice David Hurd (b. Brooklyn, New York, 1950) was a boy soprano at St. Gabriel's Church in Hollis, Long Island, New York. Educated at Oberlin College and the University of North Carolina, he has been professor of church music and organist at General Theological Seminary in New York since 1976. In 1985 he also became director of music for All Saints Episcopal Church, New York. Hurd is an outstanding recitalist and improvisor and a composer of organ, choral, and instrumental music. In 1987 David Hurd was awarded the degree of Doctor of Music, honoris causa, by the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale. The following year he received honorary doctorates from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley, California, and from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois. His I Sing As I Arise Today, the collected hymn tunes of David Hurd, was published in 2010. Bert Polman and Emily Brink

Jean Janzen

b. 1933 Person Name: Jean Janzen, b. 1933 Scripture: Genesis 1:1-2 Author of "O Holy Spirit, Root of Life" in With One Voice Jean Janzen was born on December 5, 1933, the seventh of Henry Peter Wiebe and Anna Schultz Wiebe's eventual eight children (Three Mennonite Poets 5). For the first five years of her life, Janzen lived in Dalmeny, Saskatchewan (A Cappella 25). In 1938, she moved to Mountain Lake, Minnesota when her schoolteacher father began his second ministry as a pastor (“Coming into Voice”). A year later, the family moved to Kansas (“Coming into Voice”). Janzen says she cannot remember when she wrote her first poem, but the first evidence of her work is a handwritten book of five poems that she made in third or fourth grade, which was saved by her mother through the family’s many moves (E-mail Interview). She had very little exposure to poetry and literature as a child, except for hymns and Bible stories. She values these elements of her childhood and “treasure[s] the artful rhythms of the King James [Bible]” (E-mail Interview). Janzen attended Meade Bible Academy, Tabor College, and Grace College (A Cappella 25). It was in college that she had her first real exposure to literature. She was “thrilled, and became a literature major.” She remembers being “enamored” with Emily Dickinson and writing papers about her whenever given the chance. However, she never considered writing poetry as a possible career (E-mail Interview). Janzen--then Jean Wiebe--married Louis Janzen, a medical student, and the couple moved to Chicago where she worked as a medical secretary while taking courses at Northwestern University (Hostetler, A Cappella 25). Janzen cites this period of her life as the beginning of her love for visual art, calling the Chicago Art Institute the “open gate” for her and her husband where they “became hooked” (Mennonite Life Interview). In 1961, they moved to Fresno, Cal., where Louis worked as a pediatrician in a private practice. Here they raised their two daughters and two sons. When her youngest child was in school, Janzen “joined a writer’s group at the encouragement of [her] husband and nephew after they read some poems [she] had written as a gift to [her] husband” (E-mail Interview). As her children became older, Janzen went back to college, earning a BA in English from Fresno Pacific College and an MA in Creative Writing and English from California State University at Fresno in 1982. There she studied with poets Peter Everwine, Philip Levine, and C.G. Hanzlicek. Janzen says that after one semester of writing poetry in college, she took the work “seriously” and “imagined the possibility of growing into a poet,” but it took her several years “to be willing to say that out loud” (E-mail Interview). Rudy Wiebe, a Mennonite novelist, served as a mentor who influenced Janzen's writing career. She received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1995 (“Coming into Voice”). Janzen grew up in the Evangelical Mennonite Brethren Church and many of her relatives, including her father, were pastors (“Coming into Voice”). This strong connection with the church has had a significant influence on her poetry. Music has also played an important role in Janzen’s life. Her mother loved music and music was an important part of worship in her church. She learned to play the piano when she was young, later studying music in college and teaching piano for many years (“Coming into Voice”). Janzen finds harmony between the religious and artistic elements of her life, integrating them in a way that enriches both. She also uses her gifts in the church, serving as a minister of worship at the College Community Mennonite Brethren Church in Clovis, Cal., as well as writing hymn texts, which have been set to music and are included in several hymn books. Other prominent themes in her work include art, history, family, the earth, and her Russian Mennonite ancestors (“Coming into Voice”). Janzen says that “the sensual and spiritual are inevitably intertwined” (Mennonite Life Interview) and it is this element of her work that has attracted the most attention from critics and readers. She emphasizes “the presence of spirit in the flesh,” using rich description of physical objects to reveal deeper emotions and truths. Janzen has taught poetry writing at Fresno Pacific University and Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia. --www.goshen.edu/mennonitepoetry/