From Florida-
If you look carefully inside St. John’s Episcopal
Church on Monroe Street, the red brick edifice that on the busy
thoroughfare seems so peacefully removed, you will find a precious photo
of an organ.
It is a special photo of a special
organ because the instrument is dedicated to Bishop John Freeman Young.
It was an organ upon which at Christmas time was played what is now the
world’s most popular hymn, "Silent Night" — the very hymn translated by
John Freeman Young himself, a man with a special connection to
Tallahassee.
With original Germanic words, written
in 1818 by Austrian Joseph Mohr and set to music by Franz Gruber,
"Silent Night" has now been translated into over 300 languages according
to FSU Assistant Professor of Musicology, Sarah Eyerly. John Freeman
Young gave us the hymn in English.
Young was born
in Maine in 1820 and converted to the Episcopal faith. Following
graduation from Virginia Theological Seminary, he made his way South to
Jacksonville, Florida, where he served as Deacon at St. John’s Church
there.
More here-
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