Faber

Faber, FREDERICK WILLIAM, hymn-writer, was born at the Yorkshire vicarage of Calverley, 28th June 1814, passed from Shrewsbury School to Harrow, and thence to Balliol College, Oxford, and in 1834 was elected a scholar of University College. He carried off the 'Newdigate' in 1836 with his poem, 'The Knights of St John,' graduated with a second class the same year, and was elected to a fellowship in University College the year after. Already he had come under the potent spell of Newman, and in November 1845, after three years' tenure of the rectory of Elton in Huntingdonshire, he followed his master into the fold of Rome. He next founded a community of converts at Birmingham as Brothers of the Will of God, but called commonly Wilfridians, as he himself was Brother Wilfrid, from his Life of St Wilfrid, published in 1844. Together with his companions he joined in 1848 the Oratory of St Philip Neri, and next year a branch under his care was established in London, which was finally located at Brompton in 1854. He was created D.D. by Pius IX. in 1854, and died at the Brompton Oratory, 26th September 1863. Faber wrote many theological works, stamped by profound learning and lightened by unusual grace of style. But his lasting fame will rest upon his hymns, which have warmed the piety of thousands of English-speaking Christians beyond their writer's own communion. 'The Pilgrims of the Night,' and 'The Land beyond the Sea,' have been among the most popular hymns of the 19th century. A complete collection, containing 150 hymns, was published in 1862. See the Lives by J. E. Bowden (1869; new ed. 1892) and his brother, F. A. Faber (1869).