On The Feast Of Stephen

[poliphilo]

           


This is the Rev'd John Mason Neale, photographed with his family at Sackville College, an almshouse in East Grinstead of which he was, for a time, the warden.

Neale was a priest, scholar, medievalist and religious reformer, best remembered today as a writer of hymns. Anyone brought up in the Anglican church is likely to have sung some of his compositions.

Neale's practice as a hymnwriter was to dig out mediaeval tunes and either translate their texts into English or furnish them with new words. His best loved hymn is the one about the king who looked out "on the feast of Stephen" and saw a poor man, "gathering winter fuel." The tune can be found in various sources, including the Carmina Burana, but the words and sentiments are entirely Neale's own. They have been deplored as doggerel, but there's something about them that sticks in the mind- maybe it's just that they tell such a good story.....

And when is the Feast of Stephen?

Why today, Dec 26th, Boxing Day.

Comments

[cmcmck]

Like Henry John Gauntlett of 'once in royal David's city' fame. He was born in Wellington where his dad was vicar of All Saints.

Vaclav (Wenceslas) was a young royal murdered as a teenager so sadly the story is a myth even though he became the Czech national saint.

[paserbyp]

Who killed Vaclav and why?

[cmcmck]

The usual thing with medieval royalty- you killed your brothers or cousins to get to the top.

In this case he was murdered by his brother, Boleslaus (known as 'the cruel'). He'd have been about 15.

[paserbyp]

Thank you!

[poliphilo]

But he's buried in Sussex. Next time I'm in East Grinstead I must look for his grave.