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Catherine Winkworth

1827 - 1878 Translator of "My Cause Is God's" in The Cyber Hymnal Catherine Winkworth (b. Holborn, London, England, 1827; d. Monnetier, Savoy, France, 1878) is well known for her English translations of German hymns; her translations were polished and yet remained close to the original. Educated initially by her mother, she lived with relatives in Dresden, Germany, in 1845, where she acquired her knowledge of German and interest in German hymnody. After residing near Manchester until 1862, she moved to Clifton, near Bristol. A pioneer in promoting women's rights, Winkworth put much of her energy into the encouragement of higher education for women. She translated a large number of German hymn texts from hymnals owned by a friend, Baron Bunsen. Though often altered, these translations continue to be used in many modern hymnals. Her work was published in two series of Lyra Germanica (1855, 1858) and in The Chorale Book for England (1863), which included the appropriate German tune with each text as provided by Sterndale Bennett and Otto Goldschmidt. Winkworth also translated biographies of German Christians who promoted ministries to the poor and sick and compiled a handbook of biographies of German hymn authors, Christian Singers of Germany (1869). Bert Polman ======================== Winkworth, Catherine, daughter of Henry Winkworth, of Alderley Edge, Cheshire, was born in London, Sep. 13, 1829. Most of her early life was spent in the neighbourhood of Manchester. Subsequently she removed with the family to Clifton, near Bristol. She died suddenly of heart disease, at Monnetier, in Savoy, in July, 1878. Miss Winkworth published:— Translations from the German of the Life of Pastor Fliedner, the Founder of the Sisterhood of Protestant Deaconesses at Kaiserworth, 1861; and of the Life of Amelia Sieveking, 1863. Her sympathy with practical efforts for the benefit of women, and with a pure devotional life, as seen in these translations, received from her the most practical illustration possible in the deep and active interest which she took in educational work in connection with the Clifton Association for the Higher Education of Women, and kindred societies there and elsewhere. Our interest, however, is mainly centred in her hymnological work as embodied in her:— (1) Lyra Germanica, 1st Ser., 1855. (2) Lyra Germanica, 2nd Ser., 1858. (3) The Chorale Book for England (containing translations from the German, together with music), 1863; and (4) her charming biographical work, the Christian Singers of Germany, 1869. In a sympathetic article on Miss Winkworth in the Inquirer of July 20, 1878, Dr. Martineau says:— "The translations contained in these volumes are invariably faithful, and for the most part both terse and delicate; and an admirable art is applied to the management of complex and difficult versification. They have not quite the fire of John Wesley's versions of Moravian hymns, or the wonderful fusion and reproduction of thought which may be found in Coleridge. But if less flowing they are more conscientious than either, and attain a result as poetical as severe exactitude admits, being only a little short of ‘native music'" Dr. Percival, then Principal of Clifton College, also wrote concerning her (in the Bristol Times and Mirror), in July, 1878:— "She was a person of remarkable intellectual and social gifts, and very unusual attainments; but what specially distinguished her was her combination of rare ability and great knowledge with a certain tender and sympathetic refinement which constitutes the special charm of the true womanly character." Dr. Martineau (as above) says her religious life afforded "a happy example of the piety which the Church of England discipline may implant.....The fast hold she retained of her discipleship of Christ was no example of ‘feminine simplicity,' carrying on the childish mind into maturer years, but the clear allegiance of a firm mind, familiar with the pretensions of non-Christian schools, well able to test them, and undiverted by them from her first love." Miss Winkworth, although not the earliest of modern translators from the German into English, is certainly the foremost in rank and popularity. Her translations are the most widely used of any from that language, and have had more to do with the modern revival of the English use of German hymns than the versions of any other writer. -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ============================ See also in: Hymn Writers of the Church

Johannes Leon

1530 - 1597 Person Name: Johann Leon Author of "My Cause Is God's" Leon, Johannes, was a native of Ohrdruf, near Gotha. He was for some time an army chaplain, then in 1557 pastor at Königsee (Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt), in 1560 at Gross-Muhlhausen, and in 1575 at Wolfis, near Ohrdruf. He died at Wölfis about Easter, 1597 (Allg. Deutsche Biographie, xviii. 298; Wachernagel, i. pp. 466, 654; iv. p. 490, &c). Leon's hymns appeared principally in his (1) Handbüchlin, Frankfurt-am-Main, 1566, and (2) Trostbülein. The edition printed at Nürnberg, 161-1, has a preface of Dec. 9, 1588, so that the first ed. was probably 1589. His hymns are reprinted in Wackernagel, iv., Nos. 671-715. The only hymn ascribed to him which has passed into English is:— Ich hab mein Sach Gott heimgestellt. For the Dying. Wackernagel, iv. p. 519, gives this, in 18 stanzas of 5 lines, from the Psalmen, geistliche Lieder und Kirchengesäng, Nürnberg, 1589; with a long note, in which he traces all the stanzas save xi., xiv., xv., viii., to Leon's Trostbüchlein, and to his Leich-Predigten [i.e. "Funeral Sermons"], 1581-82. Mützell, No. 347, cites it as in the Psalmen, geistliche Lieder und Lobgesänge, Strassburg, n.d., but apparently before 1587. In the Berlin Geistlicher Lieder Schatz, ed. 1863, No. 1460.This hymn has been frequently ascribed to Dr. Johann Pappus [b. Jan. 16, 1549, at Lindau on the Lake of Constanz; 1571, professor of Hebrew at the University of Strassburg; d. at Strassburg, July 13, 3610]; but this ascription has not been traced earlier than about 1640, e.g. in the Cantionale sacrum, Gotha, pt. iii., 1648, No. 18, and the Königsberg Gesang-Buch, 1650, p. 530. Lauxmann, in Koch, viii. 609, thinks that Pappus may have arranged the hymn in its present form. It was probably suggested by a song beginning, "Ich hab meine Sach zu Gott gestellt," which Wackernagel iii., Nos. 1242, 1243, quotes from a Leipzig broadsheet of 1555, and other sources. This hymn has been translated as:— 1. My Life I now to God resign. By J. O. Jacobi, in his Psalter Germanica, pt. ii., 1725, p. 56 (1732, p. 199), omitting st. vii., xv., xvi. Repeated in the Moravian Hymn Book, 1754, pt. i., No. 313 (1886, No. 1242, beginning with the translation of st. viii., "Teach us to number so our days"), and in J. A. Latrobe's Collection, 1841 and 1852. In the Bible Hymn Book1845, it begins with st. iii., "What is this life? a constant scene." 2. My all I to my God commend. A very good translation of stanzas i., iii., vi., viii., x., xi., xiv., xvii., by A. T. Russell, as No. 246, in his Psalms & Hymns 1851; repeated, abridged, in Dr. Pagenstecher's Collection, 1864, and Kennedy, 1863, No. 156. Dr. Kennedy, also gives a cento, beginning with the translation of stanza x., "Few are our days and sad below." 3. My cause is God's, and I am still. A good tr. of stanzas i., xi.-xiv., xvi.-xviii., by Miss Winkworth, in her Lyra Germanica, 2nd Ser., 1858, p. 210; repeated, omitting the translations of stanzas xii., xvii., in her Chorale Book for England, 1863, No. 127. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)