Historical Foundations of a Frederick Faber Hymn

Faith of our fathers, living still
In spite of dungeon, fire, and sword,
O how our hearts beat high with joy
When-e'er we hear that glorious word!

Our fathers, chained in prisons dark
Were still in heart and conscience free;
And truly blest would be our fate
If we, like them, should die for thee.

Faith of our fathers! Mary's prayers
Shall win our country back to thee;
And through the truth that comes from God
England shall then indeed be free.

Faith of our fathers, we will love
Both friend and foe in all our strife,
And preach thee too as love knows how,
By kindly words and virtuous life.

- Frederick W. Faber, “Faith of Our Fathers” from Jesus and Mary; or Catholic Hymns for Singing and Reading, 1849

About Father Frederick Faber and "Faith of Our Fathers":

Frederick W. Faber was born in England, June 28, 1814.  His father is thought to have been a strictly Calvinist English clergyman.  Faber became an Anglican priest, during a time when many Anglican clergy were involved in the Catholic-leaning Oxford Movement.  Faber converted to Roman Catholicism three years after his ordination.  In so doing, he joined a number of other Oxford Movement Anglicans who either became Catholic (such as Cardinal John Henry Newman) or who pursued a more Anglo-Catholic form of Anglican worship.

The intensity of Father Faber's faith was recognized both within and outside of the Catholic Church. The Evangelical author A.W. Tozer wrote of Faber, "His love for the Person of Christ was so intense that it threatened to consume him.  It burned within him as a sweet and holy madness and flowed from his lips like molten gold." (A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God)

As a Catholic priest, Faber became known as "Father Wilfrid."  However, he regretted that the Catholics had no collection of hymns comparable to those he had found to be influential in Anglican churches.  He made it his life's mission to write hymns to promote Roman Catholicism.  He wrote 150 such hymns, including “Faith of our Fathers.”

Faber did not actually write "Faith of our Fathers" about the Church Fathers of the Early Church, about the "fathers" of Psalm 22:3-5, the "fathers" of Exodus 3, or the cloud of witnesses of Hebrews 12:1-2.  Rather, he wrote it about the Catholics who were killed during the reign of Henry VIII during the early days of the creation of the Church of England.  The verse about Mary's prayer has to do with his hope that England would eventually return to reunite with the Roman Catholic Church.

The refrain to the hymn, as it is now commonly sung, was added by James G. Walton for Watson’s arrangement of it, published in 1874 in Plain Song Music for the Holy Communion Office.  The third verse has been altered in several different texts, and the second verse often omitted.  The Protestant adaptation of the hymn offers the following verse in place of the third verse:

Faith of our fathers, God's great power
Shall win all nations unto thee,
And through the truth that comes from God
Mankind shall then indeed be free.

Not only are Protestants more familiar with an adaptation of the second verse, but there are one or two Irish adaptations sung in Catholic churches and other variations on the lyrics.

Reflections:

This is a hymn to keep in mind now as we may feel the Church under various new kinds of attacks ("Faith of our fathers, living still . . .").  Sometimes the hymn, with the Protestant second verse, is sung in U.S. churches with thoughts of our American "founding fathers", and it might turn up here and there this coming week-end as we celebrate Memorial Day.  Knowing something of the hymn's real history could be a conversation starter!

The poem, as given here, is as close as I could get to the original by drawing from sources online.  However, I have not had access to an actual 1849 edition of Father Faber's book Jesus and Mary, and thus cannot be sure that I have the hymn exactly as it was originally written.  If someone else has access to an actual 1849 edition of "Jesus and Mary", I would appreciate your sending me corrections.

Here are a few websites with information about the hymn:

Truth in History Ministries

Cyberhymnal midi file

Cybrerhymnal Bio

Variations

Adoremus Bulletin: What Happened to My Hymn?

Comments

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