The story behind the classic Christmas Carol "Silent Night"

How poetry by Josef Mohr set to music composed by Franz Gruber became famous worldwide?

"And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night" -- Luke 2:8

A broken church organ was the reason "Silent Night" was created -- How the world's most famous Christmas carol came to be written and set to music

While Barbara and I were serving as missionaries in Europe, we visited the small Silent Night Chapel near Salzburg, Austria. An older church building not far away which was destroyed by floods in the 1890s was actual birthplace of "Silent Night." Here's the story of how this most famous of Christmas carols came to be written:


Unfortunately, the St. Nicholas' church organ wasn't working and would not be repaired before Christmas. (Note: some versions of the story point to mice as the problem; others say rust was the culprit) Because the church organ was out of commission, the actors presented their Christmas drama in a private home. That Christmas presentation of the events in the first chapters of Matthew and Luke put assistant pastor Josef Mohr in a meditative mood. Instead of walking straight home that night, Mohr took a longer way to his house. The longer path took him up on a hill overlooking the village.

From that hilltop, Mohr looked down on the peaceful snow-covered village. Reveling in majestic silence of the wintry night, Mohr gazed down at the Christmas-card like scene. His thoughts about the Christmas play he had just watched made him remember a poem he had written a couple of years before. That poem was about the night when angels announced the birth of the long-awaited Messiah to shepherds on a hillside.

Bas relief sculpture
of Gruber and Mohr leading the singing of Silent Night
Sculpture of Gruber and pastor Mohr

Mohr decided those words might make a good carol for his congregation the following evening at their scheduled Christmas eve service. The one problem was that he didn't have any music to which that poem could be sung. So, the next day Mohr went to see the church organist, Franz Xaver Gruber. Gruber only had a few hours to compose a melody which could be sung with a guitar. However, by that evening, Gruber had managed to compose a musical setting for the poem. That the church organ was inoperable no longer mattered to Mohr and Gruber. They now had a Christmas carol that could be sung without an organ.

On Christmas Eve, the small Oberndorf congregation heard Gruber and Mohr sing their new composition to the accompaniment of Gruber's guitar.


Silent night! holy night!
All is calm, all is bright,
'Round yon virgin mother and Child!
Holy Infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.

The Strasser sisters spread the carol across northern Europe. In 1834, they performed "Silent Night" for King Frederick William IV of Prussia. He liked it so much that he ordered his cathedral choir to sing it every Christmas eve.

Twenty years after "Silent Night" was written, the Rainers brought the song to the United States, singing the original German version at New York City's Trinity Church.

In 1863, nearly fifty years after being sung in German, "Silent Night" was translated into English by either Jane Campbell or John Young. Eight years later, that English version made its way into print in Charles Hutchins' Sunday School Hymnal. Today, the words of "Silent Night" are sung around the world in in more than 300 different languages.

small Austrian
church building
Photo of original church building near Salzburg, Austria, in which "Silent Night"was first performed

Image sources: and

"The time came for the baby to be born, and [Mary] gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger." -- :Luke 2:6-7

The original song

arrow pointing right   See a copy of the song as originally written by Mohr and Gruber.

Want to sing "Silent Night" in another language?

arrow pointing right   Words to "Silent Night" in more than 100 languages, including Italian and Spanish click here.

Dave Hartley and Keith White playing "Silent Night" on pedal steel guitars

Live web cam from Austrian church

arrow pointing right    Each year on December 24th at 5 pm Central Europe Time (11 a.m. CST in the USA), the city of Oberndorf near Salzburg (Austria) honors the two creators of the carol "Silent Night", Franz Xaver Gruber and Joseph Mohr. This celebration - audio inclusive - is broadcast live by webcam.

Presents or presence?

arrow pointing rightAre we more interested in His presents than we are His presence? [more ]

    -- Howard Culbertson

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