Saint Patrick's Day

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All praise to St. Patrick

Author: Frederick W. Faber
Tune: [All praise to St. Patrick, who brought to our mountains]
Published in 17 hymnals

Representative Text

1 All praise to St. Patrick, who brought to our mountains,
The gift of God's faith, the sweet light of His love!
All praise to the Shepherd who showed us the fountains
That rise in the heart of the Savior above!
For hundreds of years,
In smiles and in fears,
Our Saint hath been with us, our shield and our stay;
All sins may have gone,
St. Patrick alone,--
He hath been to us light, when earth's lights were all set,
For the glories of faith they can never decay,
And the best of our glories is bright with us yet,
In the faith and the feast of St. Patrick's day.

2 There is not a Saint in the bright courts of Heaven,
More faithful than he to the land of his choice,
Oh, well may the nation to whom he was given,
In the feast of their sire and apostle rejoice.
In glory above,
True to his love,
He keeps the false faith from his children away,
The dark false faith--
Far worse than death--
Oh, he drives it far off from the green sunny shore,
Like the reptiles which fled from his curse in dismay,
And Erin, when Error's proud triumph is o'er,
Will still be found keeping St. Patrick's day.

3 Then what shall we do for the heaven-sent father?
What shall the proof of our loyalty be?
By all that is dear to our hearts, we would rather
Be martyred, sweet Saint, than bring shame upon thee.
But oh, he will take
The promise we make,
So to live that our lives, by God's help, may display
The light that he bore
To Erin's shore.
Yes! Father of Ireland! no child wilt thou own
Whose life is not lighted by grace on its way;
For they are true Irish, ah, yes, they alone,
Whose hearts are all true on St. Patrick's day.

Source: Laudis Corona: the new Sunday school hymn book, containing a collection of Catholic hymns, arranged for the principal seasons and festivals of the year #196

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Author: Frederick W. Faber

Raised in the Church of England, Frederick W. Faber (b. Calverly, Yorkshire, England, 1814; d. Kensington, London, England, 1863) came from a Huguenot and strict Calvinistic family background. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and ordained in the Church of England in 1839. Influenced by the teaching of John Henry Newman, Faber followed Newman into the Roman Catholic Church in 1845 and served under Newman's supervision in the Oratory of St. Philip Neri. Because he believed that Roman Catholics should sing hymns like those written by John Newton, Charles Wesley, and William Cowpe, Faber wrote 150 hymns himself. One of his best known, "Faith of Our Fathers," originally had these words in its third stanza: "Faith of Our Fathers! Mary'… Go to person page >

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