For thy dear saints, O Lord,Who strove in thee to live,
Who followed thee, obeyed, adored,
Our grateful hymn receive.
They all in life and death,
With thee, O Christ, in view,
Learned from thy Holy Spirit’s breath
Thy healing work to do.
Thine earthly members fit
To join thy saints above,
In one communion ever knit,
One in the bond of love.
Jesus, thy Name we bless,
And humbly pray that we
May follow them in holiness,
Who lived and died for thee.
Richard Mant, 1837; alt.
Tune: ST. HELENA (S.M.)
Benjamin Milgrove, 1769
These "lesser"saints rarely have multiple hymns for their feast days, and for the most part, the useful ones have already been seen here (though I'm always looking). There are a great number of St. Bartholomew's Churches out there, but I'd imagine that many of them would be more likely to sing a general saints' day hymn like this one on their patronal feast.
The hymn presented here two years ago (see link below) is a good one, I think, but clearly not everyone agrees. Though technically it remains in the Episcopal Hymnal 1982 it has been cut to half its original length, turning a hymn of four eight-line stanzas to one of four four-line stanzas, but maybe somewhere some church actually sings the whole thing. That's the nice thing about the internet - more resources are avaiilable than ever before and no one is really limited to the hymnal they happen to own.
Two Years Ago: Saint Bartholomew
1 comment:
While it's true that "lesser saints" rarely have more than one hymn in a given hymnal, and of course fewer than that amongst us Baptists with our unsaintly views, but I think if you root around in the cellars of churches named for them, you may find that over the years a number of people have been moved to write hymns for their particular patron's feast.
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