Favourite Music

FAITH OF OUR FATHERS

Words

You all know this hymn by Frederick William Faber (1814 - 1863), usually sung to the tune Sawston, a traditional melody from ‘Crown of Jesus’ hymnal (1864).  The hymn appears in Liturgical Hymns Old and New as number 246.

1     Faith of our fathers, living still
in spite of dungeon, fire and sword;
O, how our hearts beat high with joy
whene’er we hear that glorious word!

Faith of our fathers!  Holy Faith!
We will be true to thee till death,
we will be true to thee till death.

2     Our fathers, chained in prisons dark,
were still in heart and conscience free;
how sweet would be their children’s fate,
if they, like them, could die for thee!

3     Faith of our fathers, Mary’s prayers
shall win our country back to thee;
and through the truth that comes from God
this land shall then indeed be free.

4     Faith of our fathers, we will love
both friend and foe in all our strife,
and preach thee too, as love knows how,
by kindly words and virtuous life.

Background Information

Faber sought to convert England to Catholicism with ‘Mary’s prayers’ and the ‘Faith of our fathers’.

A potted biography!  Faber was of Huguenot descent, and was brought up in the strictest school of Calvinism.  He became a fellow of Oxford University in 1837.  In his early writings he argues that the denomination of the ‘Archbishop of Rome’ is unscriptural and declares that Romanism has added falsehood to the sacraments.  He took orders in the Church of England and was for three years (from 1843) rector of Elton, Huntingtonshire (where he introduced confession and devotion to the Sacred Heart).  However eventually he abjured Protestantism, and became a Roman Catholic in 1845.  He studied for the priesthood and said his first Mass on 4 April 1847.  He worked closely with Newman, and in 1849 established in London a branch of the Oratory of St Philip Neri, which developed into the present Brompton Oratory. 

The last years of his life were troubled by ill health, and he said his last Mass just after Easter in 1863.  Newman, many years later, when near his own death, requested a hymn of Faber’s to be played when his last hours came, preferring ‘Eternal years’ to his own ‘Lead, kindly light’.

Faber wrote about 150 hymns, intended primarily for devotional reading and to reflect and promote the Catholic faith; and to supply Catholics with an equivalent to the Protestant hymns of Cowper, Newton and Wesley (the influence of which he knew by personal experience).  The first edition sold over 10,000 copies.

Apparently Faber was also a poet, although few of his poems became known, and a friend of Wordsworth.

There are those who would argue that Faith of our fathers is ‘unecumenical’ - but to a certain extent it depends how you read it!  However, it’s easy to see that its use at funerals when people from other churches are present may be less than completely tactful.

There is an article on our new website ‘Controversies Column’ about how you should (or shouldn’t!) sing it.

Matthew Wright adds:

The hymn tune is called ‘Sawston’ because (although it is of Dutch origin as the Crown of Jesus points out it is a Dutch Air) it was from Sawston Hall that Queen Mary of England began her claim to the throne overthrowing Lady Jane Grey and restoring England as a Catholic country.