Mir nach, spricht Christus, unser Held

"Mir nach, spricht Christus, unser Held" (Follow me, says Christ, our hero) is a Christian hymn in German with a text by Angelus Silesius in 1668. It is based on sayings of Jesus, used in direct speech. Although the poet had left the Protestant church, the song was used continually there, but was introduced for Catholicism only in 1938, in the collection Kirchenlied. In appears in common hymnals in German of both Protestants and Catholics.

"Mir nach, spricht Christus, unser Held"
Christian hymn
Textby Angelus Silesius
LanguageGerman
Melodyby Bartholomäus Gesius
Composed1605
Published1668

History

The text of "Mir nach, spricht Christus, unser Held" was written by Angelus Silesius in 1668.[1][2][3] It deals with the call of Jesus to his disciples to follow him.[1] He first published it in 1668 in the fifth volume of his collection Heilige Seelen-Lust. A melody with a figured bass was composed by Georg Joseph from Breslau. In 1695 the text was assigned to be sung to the melody of "Machs mit mir, Gott, nach deiner Güt", first composed by Bartholomäus Gesius in 1605, and adapted by Johann Hermann Schein in 1628. This melody is retained in modern publications, while several other arias setting the text in the early 18th century failed to become popular.[4]

Although Silesius had left the Protestant church, his song was first popular there, used continually from the Baroque period until the present time. In the Catholic Church, the hymn was introduced with the 1938 publication of the collection Kirchenlied.[4] It is part of the common Protestant hymnal in German, Evangelisches Gesangbuch as EG 385 and of the 2013 Catholic hymnal Gotteslob as GL 461.[1] The hymn also appears in many songbooks.[1]

Content

The main topic of "Mir nach, spricht Christus, unser Held" is following Christ (imitatio Christi) in carrying the Cross, based on sayings of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, speaking about the Cross (Matthew 10:38 and 16:24), and in the Gospel of John, about the "light of the world" (John 8:12). Another topic is the militia Christi, fight of Christ, meaning a spiritual fight, not violence. The sayings of Jesus are rendered as direct speech in stanzas 1 to 5. In the final stanza 6, the singers express a willingness to follow Jesus.[4]

References
  1. "Mir nach, spricht Christus, unser Held". evangeliums.net (in German). Archived from the original on 5 June 2023. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  2. "Mir nach, spricht Christus, unser Held". hymnary.org. Archived from the original on 1 April 2022. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  3. "Mir nach, spricht Christus, unser Held". liederdatenbank.de (in German). Archived from the original on 15 August 2022. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  4. Fischer, Michael (2007). "Mir nach spricht Christus". Liederlexikon (in German). Archived from the original on 9 October 2023. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
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