On Transfiguration Hymns in the Lutheran Tradition
And a hymn, "O Lord, the Sole-Begotten"
NOTE: This article was originally published this morning, but a few errors were detected. I previously noted that “O Morning Star” was written by Johann Heermann, a careless and avoidable mistake. It was written by Philipp Nicolai, another revered Lutheran hymnwriter. Because they are often honored together, alongside the beloved Paul Gerhardt, I mistakenly recorded the wrong name. Additionally, I erroneously and unintentionally conflated the Baptism of our Lord with the Transfiguration in a verse of the hymn I wrote. Apologies!
This Sunday, in keeping with the historic lectionary of the Western Church, is the Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord. As I searched for an appropriate and well-attested chief hymn for my devotion for the Transfiguration, I found that Transfiguration hymns are sorely lacking in the Lutheran tradition. The Lutheran Hymnal (TLH) includes only one hymn for the occasion, while Lutheran Service Book (LSB) includes five. Nicolaus Selnecker, in his reliable Scheme for Chief Hymns, does not include the Feast of the Transfiguration in his selection. Some hymn selection guides, including LSB, suggest a few Epiphany hymns to be used for the Transfiguration, a helpful and appropriate substitute.
The evolution of the liturgical celebration of the Feast of the Transfiguration is comparatively unestablished in the Western Church. Traditionally, the Transfiguration account was read on Ember Saturday in Lent. In the middle of the fifteenth century, however, the Kingdom of Hungary repelled an Ottoman invasion of the Balkans. The news of their victory arrived on August 6. This led Pope Callixtus III to elevate the Feast of the Transfiguration as a Roman rite because of the political significance of the Christians’ triumph over the Muslims.1 The celebration of the Feast of the Transfiguration on August 6th then became the uniform Western practice.
Since the Transfiguration had not been firmly established long before the Reformation, Lutherans were flexible with its observance. While some Lutherans still observed it on August 6th, others found the final Sunday in Epiphanytide to be a suitable option. This remains the conventional Lutheran practice. Regardless, its calendrical flexibility and liturgical novelty proved a hindrance to the production and promulgation of accessible hymnody for the feast. Very few known Lutheran hymns for the Transfiguration have been discovered.
One of the earliest known hymns for the Transfiguration is “O Wondrous Type! O Vision Fair!” It first appeared in the 1495 Sarum Breviary.2 LSB includes a translation of this traditional Latin hymn by John Mason Neale (1818-66). It is also appointed as the chief hymn for the Transfiguration by LSB. Neale also translated an eleventh-century hymn, “Alleluia, Song of Gladness” (LSB 417), which, if our historical estimation is correct, predates “O Wondrous Type!” by over two-hundred years.
“Alleluia, Song of Gladness” is a reliable liturgical hymn. Its allusion to the Church’s suspension of Alleluias during Lent (and pre-Lent, where local customs apply) is a reminder that the splendorous appearance of Christ in the Transfiguration leads us to consider His Passion and death. The hymn ends, however, with a needful reminder that our Easter song cannot die; Alleluia is the Church’s eternal anthem:
3. Alleluia cannot always
Be our song while here below;
Alleluia, our transgressions
Make us for a while for-go;
For the solemn time is coming
When our tears for sin must flow.4. Therefore in our hymns we pray Thee,
Grant us, blessed Trinity,
At the last to keep Thine Easter
With Thy faithful saints on high;
There to Thee for ever singing
Alleluia joyfully.3
Other well-known hymns may be suitable for the Transfiguration. “Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies” (LSB 873), a Wesleyan hymn, reads rather well for the Transfiguration. Philipp Nicolai’s excellent Epiphany hymn, “O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright,” though far more suitable for the Feast of the Epiphany, is a reliable and appropriate Lutheran text for the Transfiguration. Nicolai’s hymnic foundation of the Morning Star “aglow with grace and mercy” presents a wonderful perspective on the heavenly mystery of Christ’s Transfiguration. Verses one and two speak well to this appropriate theme:
1. O Morning Star, how fair and bright!
You shine with God's own truth and light,
Aglow with grace and mercy!
Of Jacob's race, King David's son,
Our Lord and master, You have won
Our hearts to serve You only!
Lowly, holy!
Great and glorious,
All victorious,
Rich in blessing!
Rule and might o'er all possessing!2. Come, heav'nly Bridegroom, Light divine,
And deep within our hearts now shine;
There light a flame undying!
In Your one body let us be
As living branches of a tree,
Your life our lives supplying.
Now, though daily
Earth's deep sadness
May perplex us
And distress us,
Yet with heav'nly joy You bless us.4
Other Epiphany hymns are wonderful supplementary selections for the Transfiguration. “O Savior of our Fallen Race” (LSB 403), for instance, is an enduring testament to the splendor of our Lord’s Incarnation in the flesh and the revelation of our salvation, on which we appropriately ponder on the Transfiguration. It is a Latin text, originating sometime between the fifth and tenth centuries. Consider verses three and four of this marvelous text:
3. Remember, Lord of life and grace,
How once, to save our fallen race,
You put our human vesture on
And came to us as Mary's son.
Alleluia!4. Today, as year by year its light
Bathes all the world in radiance bright,
One precious truth outshines the sun:
Salvation comes from You alone.
Alleluia!5
It is worth noting that Eucharistic hymns are, by their nature, especially suitable for the Transfiguration. The veiled presence of Christ in the Eucharist nevertheless reveals His power and glory to us. Saint Thomas Aquinas’ beautiful Eucharistic poem, “Thee We Adore, O Hidden Savior” (LSB 640), is an excellent choice for the Transfiguration. Though our truly-present Savior is hidden by the Eucharistic elements, “we devoutly hail” His glorious and gracious presence. The fifth verse is especially suitable:
5. O Christ, whom now beneath a veil we see,
May what we thirst for soon our portion be:
To gaze on Thee unveiled and see Thy face,
The vision of Thy glory, and Thy grace.6
His glory, though temporarily veiled from our faltering eyes, has been revealed to us—and we one day shall experience the full glory of His presence in the life to come. Aquinas also wrote “Now, My Tongue the Mystery Telling” (LSB 630), keeping a similar pattern. “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence,” which originally appeared in the ninth-century Liturgy of St. James, is another excellent choice.
The lack of Lutheran hymns on the Transfiguration, while regrettable, is both understandable and rectifiable. The Transfiguration’s historical liturgical obscurity understandably yet regrettably creates a lack of hymns for the occasion. Greater liturgical observances have long dominated the sanctoral and temporal calendars. Nevertheless, the emerging prominence of the Transfiguration as a liturgical feast may indicate that a shift in its hymnic tradition may soon occur.
Though the historic mark of traditional hymns cannot be undone, the continuing tradition of Lutheran hymnody is useful when hymnic voids must be filled. The lack of Transfiguration hymns generally, no less in the Lutheran tradition, is a void that may rightly be filled. The hymnic prowess of modern hymnwriters may well be eclipsed by the historic school of traditional, orthodox Lutheran hymnody, yet this does not mean that contributions cannot be made to its timeless tradition wherever needful.
Any readers aware of Lutheran—or otherwise theologically integrous—Transfiguration hymns are encouraged to share them in the comments. Lutheran hymnody is necessarily communal; hymns teach us about Christ and therefore serve the entire body of Christ. Hymnody is a blessing. Let us share that gift with one another.
To that end, I would like to share a hymn I have written for the Transfiguration; it is copied below. The tune is HERR JESU CHRIST, MEINS, the tune of “Renew Me, O Eternal Light” (LSB 704) and “Lord, Help us Ever to Retain” (LSB 865). It is twelve verses. I pray that it is edifying to you.
1. O Lord, the sole-begotten Son,
The Father’s chosen Holy One,
Though Thou art veiled in splendor bright,
May we behold Thy glorious light.2. As Moses and Elijah stood
Upon the mountain, as is good,
The radiance of Thy sacred face
Illumined every darkened place.3. The men who to the mount had come
Would make upon that mount a home,
For as Thou didst in glory stand
They saw Thy splendor in the land.4. “This is My Son, belov’d and dear:
By faith Him only shalt thou hear,”
The Father said in light ablaze
On which those present set their gaze.5. They lifted up their wearied eyes
To see Thee only in the skies;
Yet may this glory never cease
And be for us our light and peace.6. At Thy Transfiguration, Lord,
We see the splendor of Thy Word:
For Thou alone art Word made flesh,
The Virgin’s offspring, pure and fresh.7. As Thou had taken on our frame
To set us free from guilt and shame,
The union of our flesh with Thee
Remains a sacred mystery!8. May we this grace learn to behold,
That we, Thy servants true and bold,
Proclaim the Word in every land
And firm in faith be called to stand.9. How good it is to be here, Lord,
How excellent to hear Thy Word!
For where Thou art, there light shalt be.
Grant us this glorious truth to see.10. And when at last our course is run,
We rest secure—new life is won!
Thou art the Savior of our race,
By whom we are redeemed by grace.11. Lord, when Thy glory we shall see
And shall forever worship Thee,
May we behold Thy sacred face,
Illumined by Thy love and grace.12. Praise we the Father and the Son
And Holy Spirit, Three in One!
Thy pow’r we praise forevermore:
Thou only, Lord, shalt we adore!Text: Andrew Harrill, 2025.
Tune: HERR JESU CHRIST, MEINS, As hymnodus sacer, Leipzig, 1625.
Rev. William P. H. Kitchin, “Priests as Soldiers,” The American Ecclesiastical Review; A Monthly Publication for the Clergy (Philadelphia: The Dolphin Press): 431.
Rev. Jacob Sutton, “About Sunday’s Music—The Transfiguration of our Lord,” uploaded to Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church’s website, 7 February 2019, https://www.ielcth.org/about-sundays-music-transfiguration-of-our-lord/.
“Alleluia! Song of Gladness,” in Lutheran Service Book, prepared by the Commission on Worship of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (St. Louis: Concordia, 2006), 417 (vs. 3-4).
“O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright,” in Lutheran Service Book, prepared by the Commission on Worship of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (St. Louis: Concordia, 2006), 395 (vs. 1-2).
“O Savior of our Fallen Race,” in Lutheran Service Book, prepared by the Commission on Worship of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (St. Louis: Concordia, 2006), 403 (vs. 3-4).
“Thee We Adore, O Hidden Savior,” in Lutheran Service Book, prepared by the Commission on Worship of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (St. Louis: Concordia, 2006), 640 (vs. 5).