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John Mason Neale was born in London in 1818, studied at Cambridge, and was ordained to the priesthood
in 1842. He was offered a parish, but chronic ill health, which
was to continue throughout his life, prevented him from taking
it. In 1846 he was made warden of Sackville College, a position he held for
the rest of his life. Sackville College was not an educational
institution, but an almshouse, a charitable residence for the
poor.
In 1854 Neale co-founded the Sisterhood of St. Margaret, an order of women
in the Anglican
Church dedicated to nursing the sick. Many Anglicans in his
day, however, were very suspicious of anything suggestive of
Roman Catholicism.
Only nine years earlier, John H. Newman had encouraged Romish practices
in the Anglican Church, and had ended up joining the Romanists
himself. This encouraged the suspicion that anyone like Neale
was an agent of the Vatican,
assigned to destroy the Anglican Church by subverting it from
within. Once Neale was attacked and mauled at a funeral of one
of the Sisters. From time to time unruly crowds threatened to
stone him or to burn his house. He received no honor or preferment
in England, and his doctorate was bestowed by
an American college (Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut).
However, his basic goodness eventually won the confidence of
many who had fiercely opposed him, and the Sisterhood of St.
Margaret survived and prospered.
Neale translated the Eastern liturgies into English, and wrote
a mystical and devotional commentary on the Psalms. However,
he is best known as a hymn writer and translator, having enriched
English hymnody with many ancient and mediaeval hymns translated
from Latin and Greek, including the hymns listed at right, and
many others. More than anyone else, he
made English-speaking congregations aware of the centuries-old
tradition of Latin, Greek, Russian, and Syrian hymns.
A portion of an article by Neale follows:
Among the most pressing of the inconveniences
consequent on the adoption of the vernacular language in the
office-books of the Reformation, must be reckoned the immediate
disuse of all the hymns of the Western Church. That treasury,
into which the saints of every age and country had poured their
contributions, delighting, each in his generation, to express
their hopes and fears, their joys and sorrows, in language which
whould be the heritage of their Holy Mother until the end of
time--those noble hymns, which had solaced anghorets on their
mountains, monks in their cells, priests in bearing up against
the burden and heat of the day, missionaries in girding themslves
for martyrdom--henceforth became as a sealed book and as a dead
letter. The prayers and collects, the versicles and responses,
of the earlier Church might, without any great loss of beauty,
be preserved; but the hymns, whether of the sevenfold daily office,
of the weekly commemoration of creation and redemption, of the
yearly revolution of the Church's seasons, or of the birthdays
to glory of martyrs and confessors--those hymns by which day
unto day had uttered speech, and night unto night had taught
knowledge--could not, by the hands then employed in ecclesiastical
matters, be rendered into another, and that a then comparatively
barbarous, tongue. One attempt the Reformers made--the version
of the Veni Creator Spiritus in the Ordinal; and that, so far
perhaps fortunately, was the only one. Cranmer, indeed, expressed
some casual hope that men fit for the office might be induced
to come forward; but the very idea of a hymnology of the time
of Henry VIII may make us feel thankful that the prelate's wishes
were not carried out.
The Church of England had, then, to wait.
She had, as it has well been said, to begin over again. There
might arise saints within herself, who, one by one, should enrich
her with hymns in her own language; there might arise poets,
who should be capable of supplying her office-books with versions
of the hymns of earlier times. In the meantime the psalms were
her own; and grievous as was the loss she had sustained, she
might be content to suffice herself with those, and expect in
patience the rest.
J M Neale, "English Hymnology:
Its History and Prospects," in the periodical The Christian
Remembrancer, 1849.
Neale died on 6 August 1866 (age 48). Since
6 August is the Feast of the Transfiguration, he is remembered
on 7 August.
Prayer
Grant, O God, that in all time of our testing
we may know your presence and obey your will; that, following
the example of your servant John Mason Neale, we may with integrity
and courage accomplish what you give us to do, and endure what
you give us to bear; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and
ever.
written by James Kiefer
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Notes for this article:
Places:
London
Cambridge
Sackville College
Vatican
England
Trinity
College, Hartford
People::
Sisterhood
of St. Margaret
John H. Newman
References:
Anglican
Church
Roman Catholicism
Eastern liturgies
Neale translation of Eastern hymns
devotional
commentary on the Psalms (4 volumes for purchase from the
publisher)
The Hymns:
all music starts automatically
A
great and mighty wonder
All
glory, laud and honor
Alleluia, song of gladness
Blessed
city, heavenly Salem
Blessed
feasts of blessed martyrs
Brief
life is here our portion
Christ
is made the sure foundation
Christian,
dost thou see them
Come,
Holy Ghost, with God the Son
Come,
ye faithful, raise the strain
Creator
of the stars of night
Draw
nigh and take the Body of the Lord
For
thee, O dear, dear country
Jerusalem
the golden
Jesus,
Name all names above
Let
us now our voices raise
Light's
abode, celestial Salem
Now
that the daylight fills the sky
O
blest Creator of the light
O
God, creation's secret force
O
God of truth, O Lord of might
O
sons and daughters, let us sing
O
Trinity of blessed light
O
what their joy and their glory must be
O wondrous
type! O vision fair
Of
the Father's love begotten
Sing,
my tongue, the glorious battle
Stars
of the morning, so gloriously bright
The
day is past and over
The
day of resurrection
Those
eternal bowers
Thou
hallowed chosen morn of praise
To
thee before the close of day
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