Christoph Knoll

Knoll, Christoph, was born in 1563 at Bunzlau in Silesia, and entered the University of Frankfurt a. Oder in 1583. In 1586 he was appointed assistant (Signator) in the school at Sprottau in Silesia. He then became, in 1591, diaconus, and in 1620 archidiaconus, at Sprottau. On Nov. 23, 1628, he was ex¬pelled by the Lichtenstein dragoons, but was eventually allowed to become pastor at the neighbouring village of Wittgendorf, where he died in 1650 (S. J. Ehrhardt's Presbyterologie Schlesiens, 1780-89, iii. pp. 386, 505, &c). His well-known hymn:
Herzlich thut mich verlangen. For the Dying, is said to have been written during a pestilence in 1599, and was first printed at Gorlitz in 1605 (see Blatter für Hymnologie, 1887, pp. 8, 56, &c). In Wackernagel, v. p. 350 (from Buchwalder's Gesange-Buch, Görlitz, 1611, &c.) the Unverfälschter Liedersegen 1851, No. 822, &c, in 11 stanzas of 8 lines. Translated as "My heart is filled with longing," by Miss Winkworth in her Chorale Book for England, 1863, Appx. No. iv. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)