This hymn for Candlemas (The Presentation of Christ in the Temple) was written by Elizabeth Cosnett (1936-2024), who was educated in schools in Liverpool, where she was born, and at St Hugh’s College, Oxford. She later took an M.A. in the University of Liverpool, writing on the poets George Wither, William Cowper, and Robert Bridges as hymn writers. She taught English literature in various places for four decades, retiring in 1996 from what is now Liverpool Hope University. Cosnett began writing hymns only as she neared 50; in 1985 and again in 1988 she won competitions on the BBC’s Songs of Praise with hymns set to music by Ian Sharp (b. 1943), another Liverpudlian, and a Music Lecturer colleague. Their collaboration continued. Both Cosnett and Sharp were also colleagues in the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland. In 2001 Cosnett published Hymns for Everyday Saints: 36 Hymns with commentaries. In 2005 she wrote “Poetry as hymnody,” for the publication of Strengthen for Service, a book marking the centenary of The English Hymnal.

This hymn was written at the request of the Vicar of Liverpool Parish Church, where Cosnett was a Warden and bell ringer. Ian Sharp suggested pairing the text with the French tune, Lourdes, or Lourdes hymn, sometimes known as Immaculate Mary. The melody, probably a traditional tune from an area in the present département of Hautes Pyrénées, may have existed before the late 19th century, but it became much more widely known after 1873, when Jean Gaignet (1839-1914), a priest and professor in the Grand Séminaire de Luçon, wrote words to fit the tune for pilgrims going to the site of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes.

Join us as we sing all 13 verses this Sunday!