Josephus Mohr was born 1792 from an unwed seamstress mother and a mercenary soldier in Salzburg. His father abandoned them before he was even born. The vicar of Salzburg cathedral took pity, saw that he was educated, and he began to show a talent for music. He became a priest and wrote the lyrics to Silent Night. 2 years later Franz Gruber put the poem to music and performed it at Christmas midnight mass at the church of St Nicholas in Obendorf. The song spread like wildfire around the world and into many of the languages.

The song is also famous for it’s appearance in the impromptu Christmas Truce of 1914 in which soldiers from the German side started singing Christmas songs – including Silent Night – which had by that point been translated to dozens of languages. The allied side started singing along in their language. As the night went on, they lay down their arms, left their trenches, shook hands, shared drinks/food, and even took pictures together.

It was an unprecedented development in the history of war. All brought about by the birth of a small child in a barn in the middle east almost 2000 years ago.