Fairest Lord Jesus Lyrics Anonymous (German, 1677), translated by Anonymous, 1850

The German song Schönster Herr Jesu appears in a Jesuit manuscript from Münster dated 1662 and in the Münster Gesangbuch of 1677. Nobody knows who wrote the words or the first tune. Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben printed the song again in Schlesische Volkslieder in 1842, with a melody he said haymakers sang in the Glatz region of Silesia. He named the tune ASCALON. Richard Storrs Willis published the melody with an English translation in Church Chorals and Choir Studies in 1850 and renamed it CRUSADERS' HYMN. The Hymnology Archive says that name rests on a false assumption that crusaders sang it on the road to Jerusalem. Hymnary.org also finds no evidence for the legend that the words and tune date to the twelfth century. Joseph Augustus Seiss, a Lutheran pastor, published the translation titled Beautiful Savior in 1873. Lilian Stevenson made a new translation for the Cantate Domino hymnal in 1925. The Archive says about 60 percent of hymnals use the Fairest Lord Jesus wording and about 15 percent use Beautiful Saviour. Recent hymnals often print the tune as ST. ELIZABETH, a name taken from Franz Liszt's 1864 oratorio about Saint Elizabeth.