The Story Behind the Song O Holy Night

It was interesting finding out the story behind  “Mary Did You Know” one of the newer Christmas song  favorites. Then a reader suggested I look up the story behind the song “O Holy Night.” And what a story that is.

It seems that back in 1847 in a small French town,  a man named Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure  was known more for his talent at writing poetry than for his faithfulness in church attendance.  He might not be the first person one would suspect a priest would seek out to write a poem for Christmas mass, but the priest did ask him and the man took his request seriously. Just as in our story about “Mary, Did You Know” Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure began thinking about the birth of Jesus.  With that inspiration, he wrote “Cantique de Noel.” Placide was so pleased with how the poem came out that he decided it needed to be a song. Since he was a poet but not a musician, he turned to a friend, Adolphe Charles Adams, to see if he would set his poem to music.

Adolphe was a famous classical musician who had composed many works all around the world, but he agreed to come up with music for his friend’s poem. The interesting thing was that Adophe was a Jewish man who didn’t celebrate the birth of Jesus. Even so, he did compose music to go with the beautiful words and the song was performed only a few weeks later at a Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.

“Cantique de Noel” became popular in France and was sung in many Christmas services. But when Placide Cappeau completely left the church to join a socialist movement and it was discovered that Adolphe Adams was a Jew, the French Catholic church leaders decided “Cantique de Noel” was unfit for church services because of its lack of musical taste and “total absence of the spirit of religion.” But even though the church no longer allowed the song in their services, the French people continued to sing it.

A decade later, an American writer, John Sullivan Dwight, saw something in the song that moved him beyond the story of the birth of Christ. An abolitionist, Dwight strongly identified with the lines of the third verse: “Truly he taught us to love one another; his law is love and his gospel is peace. Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother; and in his name all oppression shall cease.” This verse mirrored Dwight’s view of slavery in the South. He published his English translation of “O Holy Night” in his magazine, and the song quickly found favor in America, especially in the North during the Civil War.

Back in France, the song continued to be banned by the church for almost two decades, while the people still sang “Cantique de Noel” at home. Legend has it that on Christmas Eve 1871, in the midst of fierce fighting between the armies of Germany and France, during the Franco-Prussian War, a French soldier suddenly jumped out of his muddy trench. Both sides stared at the seemingly crazed man who lifted his eyes to the heavens and began singing “Cantique de Noel.” Then a German soldier stepped into the open and answered the Frenchman’s song with Martin Luther’s “From Heaven Above to Earth I Come.”

The story goes that the fighting stopped for the next twenty-four hours while the men on both sides observed a temporary peace in honor of Christmas day. Perhaps this story had a part in the French church once again embracing “Cantique de Noel” in holiday services.

But the story of the song continued. Years later on Christmas Eve 1906, Reginald Fessenden–a 33-year-old university professor and former chief chemist for Thomas Edison–did something long thought impossible. Using a new type of generator, Fessenden spoke into a microphone and, for the first time in history, a man’s voice was broadcast over the airwaves: “And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed,” he began in a clear, strong voice, hoping he was reaching across the distances he supposed he would.

Shocked radio operators on ships and astonished wireless owners at newspapers were amazed as their normal, coded impulses, heard over tiny speakers, were interrupted by a professor reading the Christmas story. To those who caught this broadcast, it must have seemed like a miracle to hear a voice somehow transmitted to those far away. Perhaps they may have thought they were hearing the voice of an angel. Fessenden was probably unaware of the sensation he was causing on ships and in offices; he couldn’t have known that men and women were rushing to their wireless units to catch this Christmas Eve miracle. After finishing his recitation of the birth of Christ, Fessenden picked up his violin and played “O Holy Night,” the first song ever sent through the air via radio waves.

Since “O Holy Night” was first sung at a small Christmas mass in 1847, the song has been sung millions of times in churches in every corner of the world. And since the moment a handful of people first heard it played over the radio, the carol has gone on to become one of the most recorded and played spiritual songs. This incredible work, requested by a forgotten parish priest, written by a poet who would later split from the church, given soaring music by a Jewish composer, and brought to Americans to serve as much as a tool to spotlight the sinful nature of slavery as tell the story of the birth of a Savior has become one of the most beautiful, inspired pieces of music ever created. The Lord can work in amazing ways to his Word to proclaim.

(Information gleaned from Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas”  Zondervan)

Have you ever sung “O Holy Night?” Or heard its story before?

Thanks for reading.