Dictionary of Hymnology

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Agnes, fair martyr

Hymnological record of Mary Dunlop Moultrie's nineteenth-century hymn for St. Agnes's Day, detailing its deathbed composition and subsequent adaptation for church collections.

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"Agnes, fair martyr" is a nineteenth-century commemorated hymn composed by Mary Dunlop Moultrie for the feast day of Saint Agnes.

The eighteen-stanza poem was written on the author's deathbed in 1866. It was first published in the Church Times on January 20, 1866, and was republished the following year in a volume edited by her brother, the Reverend Gerard Moultrie, titled Hymns and Lyrics for the Seasons and Saints' Days (1867, pp. 168–171). In that collection, the text appeared under the heading "The Martyrdom of St. Agnes" for her feast day on January 21.

In 1867, an eleven-stanza abridgment was selected for inclusion in Richard Frederick Littledale's The People's Hymnal (No. 235) for the festival of "S. Agnes, V. M." The selection was attributed simply under her initials, "M. D. M." To adapt the deathbed poem for corporate church use, several stanzas were rewritten for the collection, particularly the opening three stanzas.

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