Father Joseph Mohr was only twenty-six years old. But for three years he had been priest at the Roman Catholic church of St. Nicholas in the little Austrian town of Oberndorf.
Franz Gruber was thirty-one years old. Besides being schoolmaster, Gruber played the organ at Father Mohr's church when the anitquated instrument was in playing condition.
As concert artists, the Strasser sisters were known throughout Europe, their fame resting largely on their specialty of rendering mountain folk songs.
Except that he didn't always repair organs when he promised, little is known of an itinerant organ mechanic who made his headquarters in the city of Salzburg.
This ancient city lies in a valley in Austria between towering slopes of the Salzburg Alps. A few miles to the north lies the tiny village of Oberndorf.
During the week before Christmas in 1818, a group of wandering actors stopped at Oberndorf to give a play based on the Nativity. They would have given the play at the Catholic church, but the organ was broken down and the mechanic from Salzburg had parts strewn all over the floor. So everybody in town, including Father Mohr, gathered in a home, where the play was given.
The sincerity of the actors moved Father Mohr. After the performance he strolled to a foothill of the Salzburg Alps that overlooks the tiny village.
It was a still night, a clear night, a holy night. So inspired was Father Mohr that in his mind he formed the lines of a poem that is destined to live as long as Christmas is observed by mankind.
Reaching home near midnight, the young priest put his poem on paper. It began, "Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!" The next morning he called at the home of Franz Gruber. He gave the musician his poem as a Christmas present and slyly suggested that the organist try his hand at setting it to music.
Came Christmas Eve night. Father Mohr met his flock at the little church. The organ mechanic was there, with apologies for not having completed his job. Franz Gruber was there, with his guitar and a tune he had written for Father Mohr's poem.
Gruber plunked the strings of his guitar. He motioned for the priest to come to his side. And there in the tiny Catholic church at Oberndorf, Austria, the two young men sang for the first time one of the most beautiful of all the Christmas carols.
So moved was the organ mechanic that he memorized both the words and music. Back in Salzburg he sought out the Strasser sisters. The concert singers added the number to their list of mountain folk songs and sang it all over Europe. Thus "Silent Night, Holy Night" spread around the world. But it might never have gotten out of the Salzburg Alps had not an organ broken down in a little Catholic church in Austria.