Why ‘Silent Night’ and the stories around it endure 200 years later – RNS December 17, 2018 by Fulcrum It was the night before Christmas, and not a creature was stirring. Except for the mice at St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, Austria, who were busy chewing through the bellows of the organ. Their handiwork left the church’s priest, the Rev. Joseph Mohr, scrambling to find music for a Christmas Eve service. So he dashed off a few lines about the night Jesus was born and asked composer Franz Xaver Gruber to set the lyrics to a simple tune, played on guitar. Emily McFarlan Miller. Religion News Service. 14 December 2018 FulcrumShareTweetShare
