THEY SAY IT’S all the fault of a poor church mouse. It was the winter of 1818 in the village of Oberndorf near the Austrian Bavarian border. It’s a poor region and often the people starve.
Silent Night, the most beloved of all Christmas carols, came from Austria. It was performed for the first time on Christmas Eve in the year 1818 at the Roman Catholic Church of St. Nicholas in Oberndorf. The words were penned two years earlier by a young ordained minister, Joseph Mohr, during his first church assignment. The music was composed by his friend and fellow music lover Franz Gruber on Dec. 23, 1818, a mere one day before its debut in the small country church.
Joseph was born on Nov. 12, 1792, in Salzburg, just one year after the death of Mozart, who was born in the same city. Joseph was an illegitimate child, born into poverty. His mother Anna Schoiberin earned a meager living as a seamstress. His father, Franz Mohr, abandoned Anna once she became pregnant and refused to assist with financial support of the child.