Topic: Joseph Mohr

Joseph Mohr, sometimes spelt Josef (December 11, 1792 – December 4, 1848) was an Austrian priest and composer, who wrote the words to the Christmas carol "Silent Night".

Josef Franz Mohr was born in Salzburg on December 11, 1792, to an unmarried embroiderer, Anna Schoiberin, and a mercenary soldier, Franz Mohr who deserted the army and Joseph's mother before the birth.

As his musical talent was not recognized, he found a sponsor to set him upon the path to higher education. As an illegitimate child he needed the Pope's special permission to study for the priesthood and was ordained a priest in 1815. Rev. Mohr was sent to a pilgrim church in the remote Alpine village of Mariapfarr, where in 1816 he wrote a six-stanza poem that was to become the world's most popular carol. Mohr was moved to Oberndorf in 1817 to stay there for two years. When Franz Gruber agreed to compose a in churches in the Salzburg Diocese and folk singers from the Ziller Valley were taking the song on tours around Europe.