7 August
John Mason Neale, Priest, Hymn Writer, 1866

Creator of the stars of night
A great and mighty wonder
Of the Father's love begotten
Alleluia, song of gladness
All glory, laud and honor
Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle
Thou hallowed chosen morn of praise
Come, ye faithful, raise the strain
The day of resurrection
O sons and daughters, let us sing
O wondrous type! O vision fair
Stars of the morning, so gloriously bright
Blessed feasts of blessed martyrs
Let us now our voices raise
Now that the daylight fills the sky
Come, Holy Ghost, with God the Son
O God of truth, O Lord of might,
O God, creation's secret force
O blest Creator of the light
To thee before the close of day
O Trinity of blessed light
The day is past and over
Draw nigh and take the Body of the Lord
Jesus, Name all names above
Blessed city, heavenly Salem
Christ is made the sure foundation
Christian, dost thou see them
Those eternal bowers
Light's abode, celestial Salem
O what their joy and their glory must be
Brief life is here our portion
Jerusalem the golden
For thee, O dear, dear country

and many others. More than anyone else, he made English-speaking congregations aware of the centuries-old tradition of Latin, Greek, Russian, and Syrian hymns.

A portion of an article by him follows:

Among the most pressing of the inconveniences consequent on the adoption of the vernacular language in the office-books of the Reformation, must be reckoned the immediate disuse of all the hymns of the Western Church. That treasury, into which the saints of every age and country had poured their contributions, delighting, each in his generation, to express their hopes and fears, their joys and sorrows, in language which whould be the heritage of their Holy Mother until the end of time--those noble hymns, which had solaced anghorets on their mountains, monks in their cells, priests in bearing up against the burden and heat of the day, missionaries in girding themslves for martyrdom--henceforth became as a sealed book and as a dead letter. The prayers and collects, the versicles and responses, of the earlier Church might, without any great loss of beauty, be preserved; but the hymns, whether of the sevenfold daily office, of the weekly commemoration of creation and redemption, of the yearly revolution of the Church's seasons, or of the birthdays to glory of martyrs and confessors--those hymns by which day unto day had uttered speech, and night unto night had taught knowledge--could not, by the hands then employed in ecclesiastical maters, be rendered into another, and that a then comparatively barbarous, tongue. One attempt the Reformers made--the version of the VENI CREATOR SPIRITUS in the Ordinal; and that, so far perhaps fortunately, was the only one. Cranmer, indeed, expressed some casual hope that men fit for the office might be induced to come forward; but the very idea of a hymnology of the time of Henry VIII may make us feel thankful that the prelate's wishes were not carried out.

The Church of England had, then, to wait. She had, as it has well been said, to begin over again. There might arise saints within herself, who, one by one, should enrich her with hymns in her own language; there might arise poets, who should be capable of supplying her office-books with versions of the hymns of earlier times. In the meantime the psalms were her own; and grievous as was the loss she had sustained, she might be content to suffice herself with those, and expect in patience the rest.