Conditor [Creator] alme siderum. [Advent.] This hymn is sometimes ascribed to St. Ambrose, but on insufficient evidence. It was rejected as such by the Benedictine editors; and with this the best authorities agree. It is known in various forms…
Translation in common use:— i. The Sarum Breviary Text: Conditor alme siderum.
1. Creator of the stars of night, by J. M. Neale, in the first edition of the Hymnal Noted, 1852, No. 10, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines. This is repeated without alteration in later editions of the Hymnal Noted; in Skinner's Daily Hymnal, 1864; in the Hymner, 1882, and others. It is also given as "Creator of the starry height, Thy people's," &c, in Hymns Ancient & Modern, 1861 (the alterations being by the compilers, who had printed another arrangement of the text in their trial copy of 1859), and Allon's Supplemental Hymns, 1868, &c. In Mercer, Oxford ed., 1864, it is rewritten by Mercer. Another rendering, slightly altered, from the Hymnal Noted is, "Creator of the starry height, Of faithful hearts," &c, in the Hymnary, 1872.
--Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
John M. Neale's life is a study in contrasts: born into an evangelical home, he had sympathies toward Rome; in perpetual ill health, he was incredibly productive; of scholarly temperament, he devoted much time to improving social conditions in his area; often ignored or despised by his contemporaries, he is lauded today for his contributions to the church and hymnody. Neale's gifts came to expression early–he won the Seatonian prize for religious poetry eleven times while a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, England. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1842, but ill health and his strong support of the Oxford Movement kept him from ordinary parish ministry. So Neale spent the years between 1846 and 1866 as a warden of Sackvi… Go to person page >
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