FREDERICK

See also:

• WILLIAM
• WILLIAM (1143-1214)
• WILLIAM (1227-1256)
• WILLIAM (1J33-1584)
• WILLIAM (A.S. Wilhelm, O. Norse Vilhidlmr; O. H. Ger. Willahelm, Willahalm, M. H. Ger. Willehelm, Willehalm, Mod.Ger. Wilhelm; Du. Willem; O. Fr. Villalme, Mod. Fr. Guillaume; from " will," Goth. vilja, and " helm," Goth. hilms, Old Norse hidlmr, meaning
• WILLIAM (c. 1130-C. 1190)
• WILLIAM, 13TH

WILLIAM

See also:

• FABER
• FABER (or LEFEVRE), JOHANN (1478-1541)
• FABER, BASIL (1520-c. 1576)
• FABER, FABRI
• FREDERICK WILLIAM FABER (1814-1863)

FABER (1814-1863)  , British hymn writer and theologian, was born on the 28th of June 1814 at Calverley, Yorkshire, of which place his grandfather, Thomas Faber, was vicar . He attended the grammar school of Bishop Auckland for a short time, but a large portion of his boyhood was spent in Westmorland . He afterwards went to Harrow and to Balliol College, Oxford . In 1835 he obtained a scholar-ship at University College; and in 1836 he gained the Newdigate prize for a poem on " The Knights of St John," which elicited special praise from Keble . Among his college friends were Dean Stanley and Roundell Palmer, 1st earl of Selborne . In January 1837 he was elected fellow of University College . Meanwhile he had given up the Calvinistic views of his youth, and had become an enthusiastic follower of John Henry Newman . In 1841 a travelling tutorship took him to the continent; and on his return a book appeared called Sights and Thoughts in Foreign Churches and among Foreign Peoples (London, 1842), with a dedication to his friend the poet Wordsworth . He accepted the rectory of Elton in Huntingdonshire, but soon after went again to the continent, in order to study the methods of the Roman Catholic Church; and after a prolonged mental struggle he joined the Roman Catholic communion in November 1845 . He founded a religious community at Birmingham, called Wilfridians, which was ultimately merged in the oratory of St Philip Neri, with John Henry Newman as Superior . In 1849 a branch of the oratory—subsequently independent—was established in London, first in King William Street, and afterwards at Brompton, over which Faber presided till his death on the 26th of September 1863 . In spite of his weak health, an almost incredible amount of work was crowded into those years .

He published a number of theological

works, and edited the Oratorian Lives of the Saints . He was an eloquent preacher, and a man of great charm of character . It is mainly as a hymn-writer, however, that Faber is remembered . Among his best-known hymns are: " The Greatness of God," " The Will of God," " The Eternal Father," " The God of my Childhood, " " Jesus is God," " The Pilgrims of the Night," " The Land beyond the Sea," " Sweet Saviour, bless us ere we go," " I was wandering and weary," and " The Shadow of the Rock." The hymns are largely used in Protestant collections . •In addition to many pamphlets and translations, Faber published the following works: All for Jesus; The Precious Blood; Bethlehem; The Blessed Sacrament; The Creator and the Creature; Growth of Holiness; Spiritual Conferences; The Foot of the Cross (8 vols., London, 1853–186o) . See his Life and Letters, by Father J . E . Bowden (London, 1869), and A Brief Sketch of the Early Life of the late F . W . Faber, D.D., by his brother the Rev . F . A .

Faber (London, 1869) .