which has been translated into nearly 300 languages, has become an anchor for Christmas celebrations throughout the world. Its lullaby-like melody and simple message of heavenly peace can be heard from small town street corners in mid-America to magnificent cathedrals in Europe and from outdoor candlelight concerts in Australia to palm thatched huts in northern Peru.

Although we may never know the exact circumstances and emotions which inspired Joseph Mohr to write his poem, we do know that he wrote the words in 1816. At that time he was assigned to a pilgrimage church in Mariapfarr, an Alpine village near the home of his grandfather in the southern part of the province of Salzburg, Austria.

We hear many fairytales concerning the composition of what has become the world's best loved Christmas carol. These include silly stories about mice eating the bellows of the organ and Fr. Mohr being forced to quickly composesome words for a new carol so there could be music at Midnight Mass.

Did mice really chew the organ bellows and thus prevent it from working on
Christmas Eve in 1818? Probably not.  Hungry mice were an ongoing problem in the harsh winter environment of an unheated church and repairs could be easily made to organ bellows. A Franz Gruber sketch of mice nibbling the organ bellows has been published in several book.