Lyricist: John Mason Neale

From HymnsWithoutWords

Biography

John Mason Neale (1818 - 1866) born in London, studied at Cambridge, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1842. Because of chronic ill health he never served as a parish priest and in 1846 he was made warden of Sackville College an almshouse - a charitable residence for the poor.

1854 Neale co-founded the Sisterhood of St. Margaret, an order of women in the Anglican Church dedicated to nursing the sick.

Neale translated the Eastern liturgies into English, and wrote a mystical and devotional commentary on the Psalms. However, he is best known as a hymn writer and translator, having enriched English hymnody with many ancient and mediaeval hymns translated from Latin and Greek.