Phillips Brooks visited Bethlehem in 1865, an experience that later inspired “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”
Brooks was an Episcopal priest serving at Church of the Holy Trinity in Philadelphia when he traveled to the biblical town during the Christmas season of 1865. The visit made a lasting impression, but he did not write the carol immediately. Three years later, in 1868, he composed the text for the children of his Philadelphia church.
His organist, Lewis Redner, wrote the original American melody, commonly called “St. Louis.” The carol was later published in a Sunday-school hymnal, and its fourth stanza is omitted in many modern versions.
Listeners in Britain and Ireland may know the same words to a different tune, “Forest Green,” collected and arranged for the English Hymnal by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Thus, the carol’s text has one origin story but more than one familiar musical identity.