Mohr, Joseph Franz

Author

b Salzburg, Austria 1792, d Wagrein, Austria 1848. Brought up by foster parents including an RC priest, he sang as a choirboy in Salzburg Cathedral. He went on to be ordained (RC) in 1815 and following a period of ill health as a hospital patient in Salzburg he served for 2 years at the new St Nicholas’ Ch in Oberndorf, his first and most famous appointment. After work in several other parishes he became Vicar of Hintersee (from 1828) and finally of Wagrein, where he remained from 1837 until his death. We know him as a singer and guitarist, but most widely for the text of his enduring carol. See also Silent Night, Holy Night, ed A Schmaus and L Kriss-Rettenbeck, Innsbruck, 1968. A great number of English translations are available including a ‘forgotten’ one beginning ‘Stilly night, starry and bright’ by F W Farrar (1831–1903) in 1881. A vividly pictorial memorial tablet commemorates him in the Oberndorf church. No.377.