Ye Olde History Snippets…… “All Things Bright and Beautiful”.
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Our first hymn today is “All Things Bright and Beautiful”, which was composed by Cecil Frances (Humphries) Alexander.
Cecil composed over 400 hymns, including the popular hymns, including “All Things Bright and Beautiful” and the Christmas carol “Once In Royal David’s City”. As a small girl, Cecil (b. Redcross, County Wicklow, Ireland, 1818; Londonderry, Ireland, 1895) wrote poetry in her school’s journal. In 1850 she married Rev. William Alexander, who later became the Anglican primate (chief bishop) of Ireland. She showed her concern for disadvantaged people by traveling many miles each day to visit the sick and the poor, providing food, warm clothes, and medical supplies. Cecil and her sister also founded a school for the deaf. Alexander was strongly influenced by the Oxford Movement and by John Keble’s Christian Year. Her first book of poetry, Verses for Seasons, was a “Christian Year” for children. She wrote hymns based on the Apostles’ Creed, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, the Ten Commandments, and prayer, writing in simple language for children. Her more than four hundred hymn texts were published in Verses from the Holy Scripture (1846), Hymns for Little Children (1848), and Hymns Descriptive and Devotional ( 1858). This text courtesy of Bert Polman at https://hymnary.org/person/Alexander_CF |
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Photos taken at Derry City Cemetery, Londonderry, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland
