Georg Vetter (1536-99) was a minister of the Bohemian Brethren (Unitas Fratrum), the heirs of Jan Hus, and nearly everything else he wrote was in Czech. He published this German Easter hymn in 1566, a year before his ordination. His thirteen stanzas formed an acrostic: their first letters spelled "Mediator Jesus," perhaps from Hebrews 9:15. The hymn fell out of use for centuries until Otto Riethmüller revived four stanzas in 1932, and in 1950 the German Evangelical hymnal made it the Hymn of the Day for Jubilate, as LSB does today. Martin Franzmann (1907-76) translated it for the Missouri Synod's Worship Supplement of 1969, keeping Vetter's demanding rhyme scheme, in which lines 3, 6 and 11 of every stanza rhyme with one another. The tune has a surprising pedigree. It began as a French love song, "Une pastourelle gentille," written by the court poet Clément Marot by 1519; Marot adapted it for Psalm 138 in the Genevan Psalter, and the Brethren joined it to Vetter's text. The LSB harmony is simplified from The English Hymnal (1906). The LSB companion suggests introducing it early in the Easter season and repeating it so the congregation comes to know it.
Sung at Our Saviour
2026