Saint Who?
Saints Who Wrote Hymns
Blessed Notker Balbulus
Religious († 912) Feast: April 6
Notker became known by the unfortunate nickname Notker the Stammerer. Was that because he had a speech impediment or because he humbly considered his musical works to be mere stammering in comparison to God’s beauty? Both are possible.
Notker was born in Switzerland and was educated at the Abbey of Saint Gall. He spent the rest of his life as a Benedictine monk in that same abbey and served his community as a guest-master, librarian, and teacher. Although the monks of his abbey repeatedly tried to make him their abbot, he always refused. Instead, he devoted most of his time to writing.
Notker was widely acclaimed as a scholar, and he wrote important literary works, such as an early biography of Charlemagne and a catalog of martyrs. But he was also an excellent musician. Inspired by his research into the musical works of others and with the aid of his own musical talent, he composed both words and melodies for several liturgical sequences and collected them in the Liber Hymnorum, a work which influenced later medieval Catholic composers. When Notker died, he was so greatly loved by his brother monks that for a long time after his death it is said they couldn’t speak of him without weeping.
Christ our Redeemer, may we praise you
and thank you through our singing.
