Did you know that the man who wrote O Holy Night and the man who wrote the music for the song weren’t Christians? If you know the song, which I bet you do, that might surprise you. The lyrics and music have touched millions since it was penned in 1843 by French poet Placide Cappeau.
Chappeau was commissioned to write a Christmas poem for a church Christmas service to commemorate the renovation of the church organ. He admitted that he didn’t attend church often, but said yes to the request. Chappeau asked Adolphe Adams, his Jewish friend and famous composer, to write the music for his poem. Adams didn’t celebrate Christmas because of his Jewish heritage. For some reason, Adams agreed. O Holy Night has been sung in churches worldwide for hundreds of years. Very few people know that it was written by two men who knew very little about Jesus.
After writing the lyrics to “O Holy Night,” Cappeau is said to have denounced the church to join a socialist movement. Having a popular Christian church song whose authors weren’t religious was unacceptable to the Catholic Church in France, so the song was banned for more than two decades.
American writer, John Sullivan Dwight, discovered “O Holy Night” in 1855. Inspired by the lyrics, Dwight slightly revised the third verse to read, “Truly, he taught us to love one another; his law is love and his gospel is peace. Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother; and in his name, all oppression shall cease.” He published the updated version in his magazine, “Dwight’s Journal of Music,” which popularized the song in the United States. As the Civil War began, abolitionists continued to make the song popular by promoting it for its anti-slavery sentiment.
Another bit of O Holy Night trivia is that some claim the song was the first to broadcast live on the radio. More than 180 years after Chappeau penned this song congregations around the world have and will continue to sing of the promise brought by Jesus’ divine birth by singing the words, “With a thrill of hope, a weary world rejoices.”
Adams and Chapeau remind us that God can work through unexpected people in unexpected ways. God has always and will always use unexpected people and unexpected circumstances to fulfill his will in this world. After all, God used star-worshiping wisemen and outcast shepherds to usher in the birth of his son! Listen to the song O Holy Night. As you listen, commit yourself to looking for Jesus in the unexpected this week!
Luke 1:26-35
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin who pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
Mary was greatly troubled by his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.