Christian History Almanac · 1517 Podcasts
The CHA Weekend Edition Presents—O Sacred Head: The Curious Story Behind a Beloved Passion Hymn
·28 min·2 clips
Paul Gerhardt translated a 13th-century Latin poem that meditated on Christ's bleeding feet, knees, hands, side, breast, heart, and face.
As heard by us
A hymn-history tour that turns a Passion classic into a lively, slightly digressive church archive.
Christian History Almanac uses its weekend slot to follow the odd afterlife of "O Sacred Head Now Wounded," moving from an old love-song melody to a Passion text shaped by medieval Latin devotion and 17th-century Lutheran hymnody.
Why you'd press play
You want the strange life and afterlife of a passion hymn that moves from a medieval poem into Lutheran hymnody.
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