Center For Church Music, Songs & Hymns

Browse Hymns:

Browse by:

We Invite You To Sing

To sing with us, 1) Click on the music thumbnail icon to view the sheet music (you don't have to read music!), and 2) Engage the audio file by clicking on the Real audio or Mp3 file.

Find Songs And Hymns

Joseph Mohr

Birth: December 11, 1792, Salzburg, Austria
Death: December 5, 1848, Wagrain, Austria

Joseph Mohr, who wrote ">Silent Night, Holy Night", was born in 1792 in Salzburg, Austria, living in a single room with his mother, grandmother, his two half-sisters and his cousin. The cathedral choir-master happened to hear him sing, recognized his musical talent and helped him receive an education and Mohr became a priest in 1815, first serving in Mariapfarr.

In 1817 he was sent back to Salzburg because of poor health. When he recovered, he was moved to the parish of Oberndorf, where he was very popular with the people, as he and Father Joseph Kessler, a liberal-minded priest with whom he served, arranged mixed German-Latin masses. However, these reforms were not approved of by the archiepiscopal consistory, and the Father Kessler was replaced with a traditionalist who rejected the use of German in the mass. Mohr was the more popular priest and so Kessler spread rumors of his childhood and the people turned their backs on Mohr. He applied for a transfer in October 1819. Within the next nine years, he served eleven parishes. In 1827 he was given his own parish in Hintersee, then moving to Wagrain in 1837. He died in poverty, with not even enough money for a proper burial.