Creator of the Stars of Night

Representative Text

1. Creator of the stars of night,
Your people's everlasting light,
Jesu, Redeemer, save us all,
And hear your servants when they call.

2. In sorrow at the helpless cry
Of all creation doomed to die,
Did save our lost and guilty race
By healing gifts of heav'nly grace.

3. When Earth was near its evening hour,
You did, in love’s redeeming pow’r,
Like bridegroom from his chamber, come
Forth from a virgin mother’s womb.

4. At your great name, exalted now,
All knees in lowly homage bow;
All things in Heav’n and Earth adore
And own you King forevermore.

5. To you, O Holy One, we pray,
Our Judge in that tremendous day,
Ward off, while yet we dwell below,
The weapons of our crafty foe.

6. To God the Father, God the Son,
And God the Spirit, Three in One,
Praise, honor, might, and glory be,
From age to age eternally.

Source: Hymns and Devotions for Daily Worship #8a

Translator: J. M. Neale

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 >

Text Information

First Line: Creator of the stars of night
Title: Creator of the Stars of Night
Latin Title: Conditor alme siderum
Translator: J. M. Neale
Meter: 8.8.8.8
Source: Latin Hymn, 9th Century; Latin, 6th-7th c.
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Notes

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)

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Instances (1 - 93 of 93)
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Ancient and Modern #33a

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Anglican Hymns Old and New (Rev. and Enl.) #148a

Anglican Hymns Old and New (Rev. and Enl.) #148b

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Common Praise (1998) #96

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Common Praise #25a

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Common Praise #25b

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CPWI Hymnal #39b

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English and Latin Hymns, or Harmonies to Part I of the Roman Hymnal #117

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Text InfoAudio

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Hymns Ancient and Modern, New Standard Edition #23b

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The Book of Common Praise #66b

The Book of Common Praise #822

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The Book of Common Praise #60

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The Book of Praise #111

The Book of Praise #117

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The Christian Life Hymnal #76

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The Cyber Hymnal #1089

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The English Hymnal #1

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The English Hymnal #1

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The Hymnal of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America 1940 #6b

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The Lutheran Hymnary #174

The Methodist Hymnal #d107

The New English Hymnal #1a

The New English Hymnal #1b

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The Parish Hymnal #2

The Parochial Hymnal #d18

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Exclude 51 pre-1979 instances
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