An "FAQ" about the Christmas Hymn:
         "Silent Night"

Who was Father Joseph Mohr?
Where was “Silent Night” first sung?
What instrument was used to accompany the choir?
Who helped make the carol well known?
Can I visit the church where it was first sung?

Father Joseph Mohr was born on Dec 11, 1792 in Salzburg, Austria. He grew up in a small damp room with his mother Anna Schoiber, his grandmother Maria, his two half-sisters and his cousin Theresia. They earned their living by spinning and knitting. His father, Franz Joseph Mohr, came from the alpine village of Mariapfarr and at age 28 joined the army in Salzburg. All he did for his son was to give him his name before he left.

The rich town executioner, Franz Joseph Wohlmuth, adopted Joseph as his godchild. But even so, with humble origins, young Joseph would never have been allowed to learn even a menial craft. However, when the Salzburg Cathedral choirmaster heard Joseph singing, and recognized the boy’s musical talent, he helped him receive an education and guided him into the priesthood.

Joseph Mohr was ordained in 1815 and sent to his first parish in Mariapfarr, Austria. This was the village of his father and here he met his grandfather for the first time. Sadly his grandfather died only a few months later, but they were able to spend one Christmas together.

The priest of the church in Mariapfarr was pioneering what we would call today a “Contemporary Service,” for the mass on Christmas Eve included German singing and folk instruments as well as the usual Latin litany. This was very unusual for its time, and made a deep impression on Joseph. It was while he was the assistant priest in 1816, that he wrote the poem, which — because of events that happened in his next parish — were to become the gentle carol, “Silent Night.”

In 1817 Father Joseph was reassigned to St.Nikolas Church in Oberndorf. He and the senior priest, Father Joseph Kessler (a liberal-minded man), worked well together arranging mixed German-Latin masses, of the sort Joseph had encountered in Mariapfarr. The parishioners were delighted as they could now understand what was being said in church for the first time and they attended mass in huge numbers.

But when the news of these experiments reached the church hierarchy, it was met with great disapproval and Kessler was promptly removed. He was replaced by Father Georg Nöstler, a traditionalist who rejected the use of German in church outright. For Joseph it became very difficult to work with the older priest and the two were in constant conflict. Joseph was by far the more popular of the two as he brought his God to the people in a way they could understand, and used his guitar to sing their songs. Nöstler found Joseph’s behavior inappropriate for a priest and issued a formal complaint to the consistory in Salzburg. When the conclusion of the inquiry fell greatly in Joseph’s favor, Nöstler was outraged. It was said that he resorted to spreading untrue rumors about Joseph in an attempt to undermine the younger man’s popularity. He succeeded. For moral reasons, the majority turned their backs on Joseph. Even the organist Franz Gruber, who had been his closest friend until then, was reluctant to be seen at his side.

Just before Christmas in 1818, when Joseph‘s situation was most bleak, the church organ broke down. Officially mice were held to blame, but rot and mildew from frequent flooding may have contributed. Either way, it was impossible to hold the Christmas celebrations in the traditional way. Father Nöstler was at his wits end and had no choice but to accept Mohr and Gruber’s offer of an alternative mass. It was then that Father Mohr showed Franz Gruber the poem he had written two years earlier. Gruber studied the poem softly strumming a melody that came to him. Next he put the words to the melody and sang them. When he finished, “Silent Night” had been born. So, on Christmas Eve 1818 “Silent Night” was sung for the first time, with guitar accompaniment.

His problems with the senior priest continuing, Father Mohr applied for a transfer to another parish. In October 1819 he left Oberndorf and within nine years had moved through eleven parishes, finally being given his own parish in Hintersee in 1827.

He died there on December 4th 1848, leaving this world as poor as he had entered it because he had given away all that he had to people who needed help. But he left a simple, beautiful carol celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, with words that continue to move those who sing it. Rather than leaving this life poor, Father Joseph Mohr bequeathed a treasure of great worth to all following generations.

Addendum: It was not until years later in 1825, when Carl Mauracher was rebuilding the organ at St. Nikolas, that a handwritten copy of the words and music was found in the organ loft. Mauracher was from an area in the mountains of Tyrol which had many traveling folk choirs who performed throughout Europe. He carried the carol back home, where it became a popular song with the choirs, and they spread the popularity of “Silent Night” wherever they went.

St.Nikolas Church in Oberndorf, the original church where “Silent Night” was first sung, no longer exists. In this 1880 photograph (courtesy of an Internet Archive, the old St. Nikolas Church is to the right), the church was almost at water level with the nearby Salzach River, one that had a bad habit of overflowing its banks from time to time!

Floods in the 1890s finally took their toll, damage was extreme, and the decision was made to relocate St. Nikolas to higher ground. The original church was torn down between 1906 and 1910. The steeple remained as a landmark until 1913 when it too was removed. Only the altars were preserved in the new church.

Today, a small chapel (and Museum - this website is written in German, but has beautiful pictures of the area, the chapel, and even a Webcam) has been built on the site of the original St. Nikolas Church, to honor the site where “Silent Night” was first sung. The chapel was begun in 1924, the 106th anniversary of the carol’s birth. This tiny building has six small pews, an altar, stained glass windows depicting Mohr and Gruber, and a guest book signed by people from all over the world. Every year at 5 p.m. on Dec 24th, a service in honor of the composers of “Silent Night,” takes place in front of the Chapel. People from all over the world attend the Service, which concludes by the singing of “Silent Night” in many languages.