488 Be Thou my Vision

To understand the story of the Irish song, "Be Thou My Vision" it is necessary to start with St. Patrick.  He was born around 373 A.D. along the banks of the River Clyde in what is now Scotland.  His father was a deacon and his grandfather was a priest.  In 389, after his village was torched by pirates, he was hauled aboard their ship and taken to Ireland as a slave.

Patrick eventually escaped and returned home but not before he himself became profoundly aware "of my unbelief."  One night while he was asleep he had a vision of an Irishman pleading with him to come evangelize Ireland.  He returned to his captors when he was about 30 and set about evangelizing him with only the Latin Bible in his hand. The country was largely populated by Druids who were superstitious of him and sought his death.  However, his preaching was powerful and Patrick became one of the most effective evangelists of all time planting about 200 churches and baptizing 100,000 converts.

His writing and his preaching endured long after his death and the Irish church was still producing his hymns, prayers, sermons and songs of worship centuries later.  In the 8th century, an unknown poet wrote a prayer asking God to be his vision, his wisdom, and his best thought.

In 1905,Mary Elizabeth Byrne,a scholar in Dublin translated the Irish poem into English; Eleanor Hull of Manchester England crafted it into verses with rhyme and meter.  A short time after that, the re-worked, translated poem was set to a traditional Irish folk song, entitle "Slane," named for an area where Patrick reportedly challenged local Druids with the gospel. This video contains an extra verse that is typically not included in most hymnals--no modern day hymnals contain all 8 verses.This arrangement has a nice Celtic feel to it.