Father, We Praise Thee, Now the Night is Over

Author (attr.): Gregory the Great

Gregory I., St., Pope. Surnamed The Great. Was born at Rome about A.D. 540. His family was distinguished not only for its rank and social consideration, but for its piety and good works. His father, Gordianus, said to have been the grandson of Pope Felix II. or III., was a man of senatorial rank and great wealth; whilst his mother, Silvia, and her sisters-in-law, Tarsilla and Aemiliana, attained the distinction of canonization. Gregory made the best use of his advantages in circumstances and surroundings, so far as his education went. "A saint among saints," he was considered second to none in Rome in grammar, rhetoric, and logic. In early life, before his father's death, he became a member of the Senate; and soon after he was thirty and ac… Go to person page >

Translator: Percy Dearmer

Dearmer, Percy, M.A., son of Thomas Dearmer, was born in London, Feb. 27, 1867, and educated at Westminster School and at Christ Church, Oxford (B.A. 1890, M.A. 1896). He was ordained D. 1891, P. 1892, and has been since 1901 Vicar of S. Mary the Virgin, Primrose Hill, London. He has been Secretary of the London Branch of the Christian Social Union since 1891, and is the author of The Parson's Handbook, 1st edition, 1899, and other works. He was one of the compilers of the English Hymnal, 1906, acting as Secretary and Editor, and contributed to it ten translations (38, 95, 150, 160, 165, 180, 215, 237, 352, 628) and portions of two others (242, 329), with the following originals:— 1. A brighter dawn is breaking. Easter. Suggested by… Go to person page >

Nocte surgentes vigilemus omnes, p. 809, i. Additional versions are:—
1. Christ's loving children, for His hope abiding, an adaptation in the Tattendon Hymnal, 1899, No. 49, marked as " English by R. B."
2. Father, we praise Thee, now the night is over, by P. Dearmer, in The English Hymnal, 1906, No. 165.
3. Here in the House of God we take our station, in the Office Hymn Book , 1889, No. 703. In the New Office Hymn Book, 1905, No. 158, it begins, "Lo! with the morn¬ing here we take our station." [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

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• Father we praise thee, now the night is over