Fairest Lord Jesus

"Fairest Lord Jesus", also known as "Beautiful Savior", is a Christian hymn.

History

According to some accounts, it was called "Crusader's Hymn" because it was sung by German Crusaders as they made their way to the Holy Land. But William Jensen Reynolds dismisses as "completely erroneous" any association of this hymn with the Crusades. The words may have originated in the Jesuit Order, which came into being after the Crusades. The tune emerges in Franz Liszt's oratorio Legend of Saint Elizabeth—wherein the tune forms part of the "Crusader's March"—but no evidence of the tune exists prior to 1842, when the hymn appeared in Schlesische Volkslieder.

Melody

The tune, originally a Silesian folk song, and the German text were printed for the first time in 1842 by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben and Ernst Richter under the name Schönster Herr Jesu (Most beautiful Lord Jesus).

In 1850 the Danish hymnwriter B. S. Ingemann wrote Dejlig Er Jorden, which he set to the same melody. An English translation by Jens C. Aaberg was published as Fair Is Creation. Apart from their musical setting, the Danish and German lyrics are unrelated.