In his day Frederick William Faber was widely known as a convert from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism, as a compelling preacher, as the celebrated superior of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in London (the Brompton Oratory), and as a prolific author of Catholic hymns. An effective spokesman for the Roman church, Faber for a considerable period outshone John Henry Newman, whose disciple he had originally been; but he survives today chiefly as a hymnodist whose work has found its way into hymnbooks of all denominations.

Born to an ecclesiastical family in the West Riding of Yorkshire, Faber was educated at Harrow and at Balliol College and University College, Oxford. During his first year at Oxford, 1833, he wrote "The Cherwell Water-lily," which was published with other poems in 1840.

As an Oxford undergraduate commencing his university career in 1833 Faber came under the spell of John Henry Newman and the...