Joachim Neander (1650-1680; see Biographies) wrote the original of this hymn in German as a prayer for mealtime. Robert Seymour Bridges, appointed poet laureate of England in 1913, used only a portion of the first stanza of Neander’s poem as a basis for what in reality is an original hymn.

The hymn first appeared, along with some of his other hymns, in The Yattendon Hymnal, 1899, a supplement intended for use only in his own church at Yattendon, near Oxford. However, it later came to be considered one of the first attempts to improve the quality of English hymns, and editors of hymnbooks have been mining its riches ever since.

Born October 23, 1844, at Walmer, Kent, England, of a wealthy family, Bridges studied medicine at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. He served in several London hospitals before tuberculosis forced his retirement at age 37. During the year 1924, he and his wife, Mary, were guests at the University of Michigan, where he received an honorary doctorate. The same honor was accorded him at Harvard and at Oxford and St. Andrews universities. Death came on April 21, 1930, at Boar’s Hill in Oxford.

The tune MICHAEL, written by Herbert Howells, was first published in the Clarendon Hymnbook, 1936. Its freshness and creativity of harmony and melody went almost unnoticed until about 1964, when it began to appear in several hymnals, among them the hymnal of the United Church of Christ, U.S.A., 1974.

Howells, born October 17, 1892, at Lydney, Gloucestershire, studied with Herbert Brewer at Gloucester Cathedral and was his apprentice there from 1909 and 1911. The quality of his original compositions soon won him a scholarship at the Royal College of Music in London, where he studied with the great Charles V. Stanford (see SDAH 32), Hubert Parry, and Walford Davies. After a short stint as substitute organist at Salisbury Cathedral, he was in poor health for three years. Later he served as teacher of composition at the Royal College of Music for more than 50 years, and director of music at St. Paul’s Girls School, in London; he followed Gustav Holst in the latter position.

Howells’ long list of compositions includes work for chorus, organ, and piano, as well as solos and church service music. In 1923 he toured the United States and Canada. He was granted a D.Music. from Cambridge University in 1961. Before his death he was much in demand as adjudicator of music competitions. Having been raised in the Congregational church and later holding membership in both the Church of England and the Methodist Church, respectively, he brought to his involvement in hymnody a rich experience. In 1965 he was appointed treasurer of the British Hymn Society. He died February 23, 1983.

MICHAEL is used also for SDAH 59, “Great Our Joy as Now We Gather.”