Commemoration of
Catherine Winkworth, Hymn Translator
Sunday, July 1, 2012
The Lord be with you
For those of you who follow the liturgical calendar keyed to
the Lutheran Service Book, which is
the one I follow, you may be scratching your head about this commemoration.
Catherine Winkworth is not on our list of saints to be commemorated. However, she
is commemorated as a hymnwriter with John Mason Neale on the liturgical
calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) (August 7) and on the Calendar of Saints
of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America
(July 1).
When it comes right down to it, there are a countless number
of saints worthy of being remembered and included on a liturgical calendar. If
all were thus recognized, we would have hundreds for each day. Such a practice
would hopelessly clutter a liturgical calendar, crowding out the regular days
(Lent 4; Pentecost 10; etc), becoming impractical to use. So the people who
make these calendars, for any denomination, have to make difficult choices. In
the LC-MS, Catherine didn’t make the cut. However, each local church may select
what saints they wish to remember (if any), and those saints do not have to be
on their denomination’s official calendar (at least, that is how it works in
the LC-MS). As I believe the contributions of Catherine are well worth
remembering, I am providing this post and we, at Lamb of God, remembered her
and her contributions in our worship service today.
I first became aware of Catherine Winkworth back in the days
we used The Lutheran Hymnal. I
noticed that her name kept appearing as a translator at the bottom of different
hymns. In fact, for 73 of the hymns in that hymnal, she was either the
translator, or her translation was modified slightly. In subsequent hymnals her
work was not used as much, but still a significant number of hymns bear her
mark. Lutheran Worship: 41; Lutheran Service Book: 49. This, in my
opinion, is reason enough to remember her for her work has certainly been a
blessing to the LC-MS.
Catherine Winkworth was born in London
on September 13, 1827. She
was the fourth daughter of Henry Winkworth, a silk merchant. She was a
life-long member of the Church of England. After her birth, the family soon
moved to Manchester where she lived
most of her life. Her mother died in 1841, and in the spring of 1845, when her
father remarried, she went to Dresden
to stay for a year with an aunt. It was during her time in Dresden
that she first became interested in German hymnody.
Apparently after her return to England,
Bunsen, the German ambassador to England,
gave her a copy of Andachtsbuch, a
German devotional book with German hymns which, it is said, “opened [the]
treasures of German hymnody to her.” She went on to publish two series of Lyra Germanica, 1855 and 1858. The first
series had 103 translations of German hymns and the second had 121 more. Both
books saw many editions. “Winkworth had a remarkable ability to preserve the
spirit of the great German hymns while rendering them in English, and she has
remained the foremost translator of German hymns into English.” (Pfatteicher)
She published several other books related to hymns.
Her interests were not limited to German hymns. In 1852,
Catherine undertook active work among the poor in the newly-established Sunday
School & District Visiting Society. She was regarded with extreme affection
by the poor. Long after she left the neighborhood, she used to receive
occasional letters from them.
She was also interested in promoting issues relating to
women. To that end, she translated two German biographies: The Life of Pastor Fliedner (1861) and The Life of Amelia Sieveking (1863). These two were founders of
sisterhoods for the poor and the sick. She became the secretary of the Clifton
Association for Higher Education for Women, a supporter of the Clifton
High School for Girls (where a
house is named after her), a member of the Cheltenham Ladies’ College, and
governor of the Red Maids' School in Westbury-on-Trym in the city of Bristol,
England. In 1869,
the year her father died, Catherine went with her sister Susanna to Darmstadt,
Germany as delegates to
the German Conference of Women’s Work, presided over by Princess Anne. In 1870
she was made secretary of the Committee to Promote the Higher Education of
Women.
According to her niece, Catherine went to Mornix near Geneva
in 1878 where she joined Annie Shaen to help her in the care of their nephew
Frank Shaen, then an invalid. She arrived on June 17, and on the 21st
they proceeded to Monnetiex in Savoy,
France. On the morning of the July 1 she was suddenly attacked by a pain at the
heart, and in half-an-hour all was over. A few days later, Catherine was laid
to rest in the corner of the churchyard set aside for Protestants. In her
memory her friends raised a sum sufficient to endow two "Catherine
Winkworth" scholarships for women at the Bristol
University College,
and also to erect a memorial tablet to her in Bristol Cathedral.
Catherine’s translations (either straight or altered a bit)
can be found in the following hymns in the Lutheran
Service Book.
333 Once He Came
in Blessing
340/1 Lift Up Your
Heads, Ye Mighty Gates
347 Comfort,
Comfort Ye My People
352 Let the Earth
Now Praise the Lord
358 From Heaven
Above to Earth I Come
360 All My Heart
Again Rejoices
390 Let Us All
with Gladsome Voice
420 Christ, the
Life of All the Living
439 O Dearest
Jesus, What Law Hast Thou Broken
448 O Darkest Woe
516 Wake, Awake,
for Night is Flying
590 Baptized into
Yo0ur Name Most Holy
592 Dearest Jesus,
We Are Here
607 From Depths of
Woe I Cry to Thee
608 Lord, to You I
Make Confession
615 When in the
Hour of Deepest Need
636 Soul, Adorn
Yourself with Gladness
642 O Living Bread
from Heaven
655 Lord, Keep Us
Steadfast in Your Word
663 Be Strong in
the Lord
666 O Little
Flock, Fear Not the Foe
674 Jerusalem,
O City Fair and High
694 Thee Will I
Love, My Strength, My Tower
696 O God, My
Faithful God
708 Lord, Thee I
Love with All My Heart
732 All Depends on
Our Possessing
734 I Trust, O
Lord, Your Holy Name
741 Jesus Christ,
My Sure Defense
742 For Me to Live
Is Jesus
743 Jesus,
Priceless Treasure
745 In God, My
Faithful God
750 If Thou But
Trust in God to Guide Thee
790 Praise to the
Lord, the Almighty
818 In Thee is
Gladness
819 Sing Praise to
God, the Highest Good
820 My Soul, Now
Praise You Maker
839 O Christ, Our
True and Only Light
862 Oh, Blest the
House
895 Now Thank We
All Our God
897 O Rejoice, Ye
Christians, Loudly
901 Open Now Thy
Gates of Beauty
902 Lord Jesus
Christ, Be Present Now
904 Blessed Jesus,
at Your Word
913 O Holy Spirit,
Enter In
953 We All Believe
in One True God
Prayer: Lord God,
throughout the ages You have granted to Your children many gifts and called us
to use them in Your kingdom. Grant that we, inspired by the examples of Your
children who have gone before us, may place our talents into Your service in
Your Church, and beyond. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Other appropriate
prayers:
- For musicians
- For composers of Christian music
- For translators
- For the use of good Christian music in our spiritual life
- Thanks for the rich musical heritage of the Church
Blessings in Christ,
Pastor John Rickert
No comments:
Post a Comment