Story Behind The Hymn, “Art Thou Weary, Art Thou Languid”
Written by G Njuguna on April 24, 2022
This hymn was written by John Mason Neale. In 1840 Neale became a minister of the Church of England. He was a man of mystical temperament, and his practices were so close to Roman Catholicism that he aroused much popular prejudice. At one time he was attacked by a mob as he was attending the funeral of one of the sisters of St. Margaret.
Dr. Neale was particularly fond of the songs of the old monks written in Greek and Latin, and he did more than anyone else to make them known to the present world.
The hymn, Art thou weary, art thou languid, is a translation from the Greek of St. Stephen the Sabaite, who was a monk who lived near Bethlehem, overlooking the Dead Sea. The monk, who was born in 725 A.D., was placed in that solitary monastery at the age of ten years by his uncle and left there for fifty years. He died in 794. Here is the beautiful hymn that he wrote:
