Hymn Writers of the Church

Faber, Frederick William, was born in Yorkshire, England, June 28, 1814. He was of Huguenot origin. He was educated at Harrow School and Balliol College, Oxford, which he entered in 1832. At Oxford he came under the influence of the Rev. John Henry Newman, then vicar of St. Mary's. He entered the ministry of the Church of England, taking deacon's orders in 1837 and priest's orders two years later. Most of his time for the next four years was 408 spent in traveling on the Continent, where he further developed his leaning toward Romanism. On his return to England he became rector of Elton, where he was popular and highly useful. Sunday evening, September 16, 1845, he told his people that he could no longer remain in communion with the Church of England. The next day he was admitted into the Roman Catholic Church at Northampton. In April, 1849, he went to London and took charge of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, where he remained until his death, September 26, 1863. In the preface to the 1849 edition of his Hymns he wrote: "It seemed then in every way desirable that Catholics should have a hymn book for reading. which should contain the mysteries of the faith in easy verse or different states of heart and conscience depicted with the same unadorned simplicity, for example, as the 'O for a closer walk with God' of the Olney Hymns." It was to satisfy this need that Dr. Faber wrote his hymns, and he not only succeeded in large measure in his undertaking to give Roman Catholics good modern hymns, but he wrote many which have had a wide circulation among Protestant Churches. It has been found necessary, however, to eliminate objectionable Romish expressions from many of his hymns in order to adapt them to use in Protestant worship.