Adam Thebesius

Thebesius, Adam, son of Peter Thebes or Phebesius, pastor at Sciffersdorf near Liegnitz in Silesia, was born at Sciffersdorf, Dec. 6, 1596. After studying at the University of Wittenberg (M.A. 1617) he was instituted, on Nov. 24, 1619, as pastor at Mondschütz, near Wohlau, and in 1627 became pastor at Wohlau. Finally, in 1639, he was appointed pastor of Saints Peter and Paul, the principal church in Liegnitz, and in 1642 he also bcame assessor of the consistory. He died at Liegnitz suddenly, after a double stroke of paralysis, on the evening of Dec. 12, 1652. (Koch, iii. 64; S. J. Ehrhardt's Presbyterologie Schlesiens, 1780-89, vol. iv. p. 265, &c.)

Thebesius was a diligent, faithful and popular preacher. He was much tried by family afflictions (his wife and four children predeceased him), and by the misfortunes of these times of war and pestilence. He was crowned as a poet in 1638.

Mützell, 1858, prints two pieces as his. One of these, which, according to Koch, outweighs all his other poetical productions is:—
Su grosser Schmerzensmann. Passiontide. This appears in Martin Janus's Passionate melicum, Gorlitz, 1663 [Wernigerode Library], No. 239, in 7 stanzas of 8 lines, marked as by “M. Adam Thebesius." Included in Mützell, 1858, No. 318, and in the Berlin Geistliche Lieder, ed. 1863, No. 224. Translated as “Thou Man of Sorrows, hail! "This is a good translation of st. i.. iv., vii., by A. T. Russell, as No. 89 in his Psalms & Hymns, 1851. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

--John Julian Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)