Be Thou My Vision

Be Thou My Vision An Irish hymn, c. 8th Century, an Irish Folk Melody “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” -Matthew 28:19 Once there was a missionary who spent most of his life preaching to the people to Ireland, and his work eventually was honored with a global holiday filled by his own distinct color of green. That minister is none other than St. Patrick. St. Patrick was born along the banks of the River Clyde, modern day Scotland, in A.D. 373. When Patrick was around 16, pirates raided and torched his home town, seizing Patrick in the process, and hauled him to Ireland to sell him as a slave. Later he wrote about his time as a slave in Ireland, “The Lord opened my mind to an awareness of my unbelief, in order that I might remember my transgressions and turn with all my heart to the Lord my God.” Eventually, Patrick escaped his master and returned home to his family, who begged him to never leave home again. However, this was not God’s plan; one night Patrick had a dream (similar to that of Paul's vision of the Macedonian Man in Acts 16) where he saw an Irishman begging him to come and preach in Ireland. It wasn't an easy decision to make, and much to his family’s horror, Patrick (that time around 30) returned to Ireland with only one book in his hand, the Latin Bible. As he preached in the countryside, many people came to listen, but not everyone was pleased with his words, like the superstitious Druids who opposed his preaching and sought his death. Patrick’s preaching was so powerful that he became one of the most impactful evangelists of all time, planting about 200 churches and baptizing around 100,000 new believers. His work endured, and even after his death, the Irish church was still producing hymns, prayers, sermons, and songs of worship inspired by his preaching, and sometime in the eighth century, a poet wrote a prayer asking God to be his Vision, his Wisdom, and his Best Thought day or night. In 1905, a scholar in Dublin, Ireland, Mary Elizabeth Byrne, translated this ancient Irish poem into English, inspiring yet another scholar, Eleanor Hull of Manchester, England, to craft it into verses with rhyme and meter. Shortly thereafter it was set to a traditional Irish folk song, "Slane," (named after an area in Ireland where Patrick allegedly challenged local Druids with the gospel) giving us the traditionally recognized song Be Thou My Vision. Even though, to this day, the original writer of the beautiful poem that inspired this hymn remains unknown, it is still one of our most moving hymns: Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart, Naught be all else to me save that Thou art. Thou my best though by day or by night Waking or sleping, Thy presence my light.